Apple Addresses Labor Violations At Chinese Factories

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I'm not sure why anyone even reports on this stuff anymore. Apple is repeatedly in news for this stuff but, other than people squawking about it, nothing ever gets done. :(

The report found that both factories fell short of local requirements for indoor air quality testing, and that 80 percent of workers interviewed in Shanghai claimed to have been charged a hiring fee by a broker or agent. Moreover, workers were not paid due wages for sick leave, and during the busiest periods of the year, facilities regularly exceeded legal limits on working hours.
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Wouldn't it be nice if Apple told China to go screw themselves and brought all their manufacturing to the U.S.?
 
Imagine the reaction if it was MS that repeatedly found itself embroiled in Chinese labor controversies?

Replace the words "Apple" and "iPhone" with MS and Xbox and the Internets would be aflame with anger.
 
Steve said:
Wouldn't it be nice if Apple told China to go screw themselves and brought all their manufacturing to the U.S.?
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As has been said in multiple articles, they can't do it because we don't have the workforce in place with the flexibility and speed that is expected to churn out any of these devices. Of course you know that but it's fun for you to pick on Apple instead of Dell or Microsoft or Amazon or heaven forbid Google.

crusty_juggler said:
Imagine the reaction if it was MS that repeatedly found itself embroiled in Chinese labor controversies?

Replace the words "Apple" and "iPhone" with MS and Xbox and the Internets would be aflame with anger.
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You could do that, or Samsung and Galaxy or Google and Glass or LG and G3, etc. since they are all getting components from the same/similar factories with the same/similar conditions.
 
threeclaws said:
As has been said in multiple articles, they can't do it because we don't have the workforce in place with the flexibility and speed that is expected to churn out any of these devices. Of course you know that but it's fun for you to pick on Apple instead of Dell or Microsoft or Amazon or heaven forbid Google.
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Flexibility, there's the key word. That's marketing speak for SLAVE LABOR!



threeclaws said:
You could do that, or Samsung and Galaxy or Google and Glass or LG and G3, etc. since they are all getting components from the same/similar factories with the same/similar conditions.
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Agreed. You could throw in clothing manufacturers and factories in India, diamonds in South Africa, etc... Any company that didn't do it would be all over the front pages bragging about it. See any?

The govt. does have the power to stop it. Simply ban imports. You know, like they do to protect a company's IP. A country's population though? They don't get the same protection.
 
maxius said:
usa should ban imports of products that do not meet labor standards
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I doubt we would have much coming into the US then.

Hopefully more companies bring stuff back to the US, but will it end up making things way too overpriced?
 
maxius said:
usa should ban imports of products that do not meet labor standards
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Dude...judging what many people write on this forum alone, the US itself doe not meet labour hours standards in many companies...so lets fix that first and then worry about China.

As long as overtime practices are a norm in 1st world countries, there will be issues like this all the time.
 
Steve said:
I'm not sure why anyone even reports on this stuff anymore. Apple is repeatedly in news for this stuff but, other than people squawking about it, nothing ever gets done. :(
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It's not like Apple is the only one with this problem. They are the highest profile company, but I'd be shocked if Dell, HP, MS and every other company that has components and products made in China doesn't have the same problems.

Steve said:
Wouldn't it be nice if Apple told China to go screw themselves and brought all their manufacturing to the U.S.?
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They could, but either profits would drop or prices would rise, a lot. I'm not sure what wages are now, but using foxconn figures from 2012, they made less than $3.00/hour (which factored in, as I recall, the maximum legal amount of overtime (20 hours).

I don't think the minimum wage for menial jobs was that low in the U.S. in the last 30+ years. It'd be nice, but even if Apple could do it, most companies could not. Most PC companies operate on razor then margins. Things will change when China (and/or the Chinese citizens) force change. Odds are, however, when that happens, we'll move production elsewhere, just like we've done with clothing for most of my life.
 
nilepez said:
It's not like Apple is the only one with this problem. They are the highest profile company, but I'd be shocked if Dell, HP, MS and every other company that has components and products made in China doesn't have the same problems.



They could, but either profits would drop or prices would rise, a lot. I'm not sure what wages are now, but using foxconn figures from 2012, they made less than $3.00/hour (which factored in, as I recall, the maximum legal amount of overtime (20 hours).

I don't think the minimum wage for menial jobs was that low in the U.S. in the last 30+ years.
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The government could provide labor cheap enough if they'd just tap into our endless supply of prison inmates. But somehow those types of programs get flack for being cruel and unusual or something. It'd help alleviate the financial burden of housing inmates as well as provide them with skills and/or money (or restitution to victims).
 
There is some element of consumer responsibility here as well, e.g. do you buy something that is $1 that is made in China or pay $10 for the same thing that is made in U.S.?
 
Hagrid said:
I doubt we would have much coming into the US then.

Hopefully more companies bring stuff back to the US, but will it end up making things way too overpriced?
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The big lie. Yes prices would go up, but so would wages, at least for people who actually do something. There are people who do nothing [of consequence] at all levels of society. They're the losers if this stuff comes home.
 
Don't just point the finger at Apple, point it at everyone who does manufacturing in China. Everyone does manufacturing in China, even military suppliers.
 
niconx said:
Don't just point the finger at Apple, point it at everyone who does manufacturing in China. Everyone does manufacturing in China, even military suppliers.
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This.

And since when did Apple have ownership in these Chinese companies that would make them liable for the work force there? If Chinese workers aren't happy then they need to deal with that. It's not Apple's job.
 
Well I think Apple is typically a bigger offender then their competitors, even when dealing the same product, due to their design requirements. An Iphone is more difficult to manufacture than a G3, hence the use of more toxic chemicals and strenuous working environments to meet demand. Plus apple likes to hit a homerun with each release manufacturing millions of these devices to meet a delivery date so the employees are overworked to hit their deadlines. Then of course comes the fact that apple wants to make double their money back at a minimum on each device sold so they look for the cheapest labor possible. All of these motives combined are what makes Apple worse than any other company in this sector.
 
You know there's no way China is giing to be able to keep up the cheap labor costs due to excessive population over the next 40 years right?
Population control limits of one child per family caused many parents to kill their girls so they could try agsin for boys, and now there's like 50 guys to every single girl.
The workforce will age then there will be barely enough people left to do anything over there, then every country that is reliant on China for cheap goods that allowed its own manufacturing facilites to go to ruin is going to be totally screwed.
 
Plus Apple's business motto is form over function, which means people want their devices because they are "neat" rather than because they need them. So there is a bigger moral dilemma when purchasing a device that is seen as nothing more than a luxury.
 
One would think, with all of the billions in liquidity alone, that Apple would actually make the work environments safe.
But no, they screw more people and make more money.

Seriously, wtf are they going to do with all of that money anyways?
 
We the USofA brought this onto ourselves. I don't blame Apple at all.

We had massive manufacturing growth in the 50s and 60s and we squandered it.

People got high paying jobs at factories for doing brain-dead work and they got comfortable and lazy. Why should anyone be paid $50K a year to put the cover on a smartphone? That work requires no training and no skill.

When the good times were rolling we didn't bother to think ahead in terms of education and technologies of the future. Now we keep talking about how companies can't find the skills they need, and I 100% believe that. We're the richest country in the world, and close to 50% of our population only has a "Basic or below" reading profficiency: http://nces.ed.gov/naal/kf_demographics.asp
 
Child labor and environmental violations give Apple the competitive cost advantage and higher profits so I don't see them giving up the practice any time soon although in the media they will give the false appearance that they're cracking down on it.
 
mastaBlasta said:
We the USofA brought this onto ourselves. I don't blame Apple at all.

We had massive manufacturing growth in the 50s and 60s and we squandered it.

People got high paying jobs at factories for doing brain-dead work and they got comfortable and lazy. Why should anyone be paid $50K a year to put the cover on a smartphone? That work requires no training and no skill.

When the good times were rolling we didn't bother to think ahead in terms of education and technologies of the future. Now we keep talking about how companies can't find the skills they need, and I 100% believe that. We're the richest country in the world, and close to 50% of our population only has a "Basic or below" reading profficiency: http://nces.ed.gov/naal/kf_demographics.asp
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This particular scenario has nothing to do with "squandering". The cost of unskilled labor is vastly lower in Asian markets. There is no way to compete locally unless you can convince people to be paid < $5000 annually.
 
jimmyb said:
This particular scenario has nothing to do with "squandering". The cost of unskilled labor is vastly lower in Asian markets. There is no way to compete locally unless you can convince people to be paid < $5000 annually.
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You can have all the unskilled labor you've ever dreamed about when you displace entire villages in the middle of nowhere to build empty cities no one can afford to live in.
 
SGA76 said:
You can have all the unskilled labor you've ever dreamed about when you displace entire villages in the middle of nowhere to build empty cities no one can afford to live in.
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OK... is this a non sequitur?
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_evictions_in_China

43 percent of villages surveyed across China report being the victims of land grabs,[2] and from the mid-1990s to mid-2000s, an estimated 40 million Chinese peasants were affected by land requisitions.[7] Since 2005, surveys have indicated a steady increase in the number of forced evictions in China, with local government appropriating the land of approximately 4 million rural Chinese citizens annually.[2]

Forced evictions with inadequate compensation occur frequently in both urban and rural contexts, with even fewer legal protections for rural citizens. In most instances, the land is then sold to private developers at an average cost of 40 times higher per acre than the government paid to the villagers.[2]
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Farmers get displaced and have little to no education, there's you cheap unskilled labor.
 
Spidey329 said:
The government could provide labor cheap enough if they'd just tap into our endless supply of prison inmates. But somehow those types of programs get flack for being cruel and unusual or something. It'd help alleviate the financial burden of housing inmates as well as provide them with skills and/or money (or restitution to victims).
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Slavery 3.0? I don't see any issues with for-profit prisons and them being able to source their labor...just expand the war on drugs and all our labor problems are solved!

jimmyb said:
This particular scenario has nothing to do with "squandering". The cost of unskilled labor is vastly lower in Asian markets. There is no way to compete locally unless you can convince people to be paid < $5000 annually.
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Exactly. Need to get back to trickle-up economics, the Ford model; your employees need to be able to afford what they're making. We're doing the opposite; Walmart employees are some of the biggest Medicare recipients.
 
Spidey329 said:
The government could provide labor cheap enough if they'd just tap into our endless supply of prison inmates. But somehow those types of programs get flack for being cruel and unusual or something. It'd help alleviate the financial burden of housing inmates as well as provide them with skills and/or money (or restitution to victims).
Click to expand...

Or we could put an end to the for profit prison system and end the war on drugs that anyone with a tenth of a brain new was a failure 30 years ago (which is just when it was really getting ramped up).

Regardless, using prison labor to make products for Apple is the very thing that people have complained about occurring in China. But hey, I've always thought the problem with the USA is that it's not enough like China :rolleyes:
 
mastaBlasta said:
We the USofA brought this onto ourselves. I don't blame Apple at all.

We had massive manufacturing growth in the 50s and 60s and we squandered it.
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Have you ever considered that after WWII, the economies of Germany, France, Japan, China and many others were in ruins, and the US did not have any loss of infrastructure?

That time period was anomaly because there was no serious competition to US manufacturers.
 
fyi Apple is testing for chemicals now very rigorously and are proud of it. That was in the news last week, if they can test for chemicals in plants cant they see the shitty working conditions? What disturbs me are the nazi holocaust camp slogans all over their factory campuses similar to "work will make you happy".
 
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