http://www.dailytech.com/Report+Only+Escape+From+Hellish+Apple+iPhone+Factory+Was+Suicide/article18428.htm

Quote :

"Apple's parts supplier Foxconn faces more controversy Last time a reporter tried to penetrate Apple's veil of secrecy, security guards employed by their parts supplier, Foxconn, beat up the reporters involved. But questions had to be answered in the wake of the suicide/potential murder of a Foxconn employee which occurred after the employee lost an iPhone prototype. Chinese newspaper Southern Weekly was determined to find out the true story, and sent a reporter in undercover, posing as a new employee. Given the fact that Foxconn's Shenzen plant that builds Apple's iPads, iPods, and iPhones has 400,000 employees, that part wasn't too hard. What was hard, was for the reporter to endure the plant's reportedly hellish working conditions for 28 days. So far in the last four and a half months seven workers from the plant have committed suicide, and at least 9 have attempted suicide. According to reporter Liu Zhi Yi who infiltrated the plant, the likely reason why was that they felt taking their own life was the only option to escape the hellish working conditions of the plant. According to Liu, the plant makes employees work around the clock, only pausing briefly to eat or sleep. Most of the time the employees are standing, seldom able to sit down and rest their weary legs. This is perfectly legal, as employees are required to sign a special overtime document that override Chinese workplace laws and essentially allows the employer to demand whatever hours they want from you, without additional compensation. Foxconn pays the workers far too little for them to hope to buy one of the Apple products they assemble. It pays them only 900 Chinese Yuan a month —about $130 USD. Still the workers have dreams. They joke that their carts that they haul Apple materials on are "BMWs", dreaming of real BMWs. They buy lottery tickets and bet on horse races in hopes of miraculously being handed an escape from their purgatory. But for most, they will live out their lives slaving away to build Apple's products, constantly in danger, while earning only a pittance. So, according to the newspaper there's little surprise some employees fall into deep despair. Foxconn at the request of Apple and Chinese state officials has made some steps to decrease the suicide rates. It's hired counselors and given workers dummies to beat on to vent their rage. And it's even been so kind as to hire Buddhist monks to allow the souls of those who committed to suicide to escape purgatory."

5/19/2010 4:25:25 PM

Anyone who buys any Apple products completely supports and endorses this virtual slave labor

5/19/2010 4:26:58 PM

Yeah I read digg, too.

5/19/2010 4:27:06 PM

Golovko supports slave labor.

[Edited on May 19, 2010 at 4:28 PM. Reason : .]

5/19/2010 4:28:28 PM

[quote]Anyone who buys any Apple products completely supports and endorses this virtual slave labor[quote]

What if you just made an App for the iPhone and called it "Virtual Slave Labor."

5/19/2010 4:29:44 PM

God I fail at first posting.

5/19/2010 4:30:28 PM

This sucks, and while I own an iPhone and iPod I am NOT a fan of Apple's business practices and don't plan on buying further items from them.

While this is really bad what makes you think conditions aren't like this for a lot of the manufacturers in China? I doubt this is the only one where workers are treated so horribly.

5/19/2010 4:33:22 PM

lol I bet this will be the only Apple thread Golovko doesn't post in

5/19/2010 4:34:04 PM

it comes with a hamster...

5/19/2010 4:36:26 PM

I hope they put in their 2 weeks notice first.

5/19/2010 4:36:47 PM

what about poppy growers in afghanistan?

^so long as they were on break when they did it, the family will get their last check.

5/19/2010 4:37:00 PM

In other news: China has poor/hellish work conditions everywhere!

Quote :

"While this is really bad what makes you think conditions aren't like this for a lot of the manufacturers in China? I doubt this is the only one where workers are treated so horribly."

ding! ding! ding! We have a winner!


[Edited on May 19, 2010 at 4:39 PM. Reason : .]

5/19/2010 4:38:18 PM

XSMP broke the fuckin internet

5/19/2010 4:40:21 PM

foxconn makes stuff for others as well. personally I wish apple would just charge us $50-100 more per item and make the darn things over here. Pretty much all of asia is operating like this. of course, we did it here too back in the day, and in time Asia will catch up, look how far we've come in 100 years.

5/19/2010 4:41:13 PM

^this is Apple, we must hold them at a higher standard then everyone else. Because you know, they are the only company to profit from slave labor

5/19/2010 4:42:42 PM

Unless they are being forced to work then its not slave labor. If they continue to choose to work for such shitty wages thats their fault. We bring the work to them because they are willing to work so cheaply. Sure their other choice is to be even more dirt poor, but no one is forcing them to work in these places. Maybe if they all said fuck this its not worth it we would stop shipping jobs overseas and give some of these jobs back to the americans who buy their products. /rant

[Edited on May 19, 2010 at 4:53 PM. Reason : .]

5/19/2010 4:53:13 PM

But it IS slave labor because Apple is making them do it! (and Apple is in the link title)

5/19/2010 4:54:22 PM

Quote :

"Given the fact that Foxconn's Shenzen plant that builds Apple's iPads, iPods, and iPhones has 400,000 employees"

Holy fuck that must be a huge, huge facility.

5/19/2010 5:02:52 PM

China has a lot of slave labor at its disposal.

5/19/2010 5:28:59 PM

Chinas factories are just like the factory/mining towns in our past except on a massive scale. Think Carnegie and Burlington. It is terrible but until they reach a threshold or we demand produts from our own shore/ fair play it won't happen. They're in the predicament we were in when unions finally got started and helped US standsards increase. Of course it ironic since those same unions are also to blame for a good portion of our manufacturing jobs being shipped off.

5/19/2010 9:07:25 PM

lol

if it's THAT easy to get around the china labor "laws" then yea, everyone is doing it.

DUR

5/19/2010 9:12:36 PM

Well, I personally thank these persistent workers of China for my shiny iPod Touch. Without them I would have had to pay $Texas for this nifty contraption.

o/ China

5/19/2010 9:26:19 PM

Would you pay $50 more if it was made in Texas by well paid Mexicans? I would.

5/19/2010 9:47:35 PM

If there was an iPod on the shelf that said made in china and one next to it that said made in the USA but was 50 dollars more I would take the china one. And I can promise that apple has done the numbers that say most people would do the same.

5/19/2010 9:51:29 PM

^^ haha, I do. My new speakers were manufactured at the least in North America (they have a canadian, US, and Mexican plant.) They list at $250

And I've never purchased, and most likely will never purchase an Apple product for this argument. I don't like their business practices from their micro level of control over their devices to their crappy manufacturing conditions. These reports have been coming in for at least 5 years.

5/19/2010 9:57:39 PM

Quote :

"And I've never purchased, and most likely will never purchase an Apple product for this argument. I don't like their business practices from their micro level of control over their devices to their crappy manufacturing conditions. These reports have been coming in for at least 5 years."

You do realize that every single product you buy that doesn't say "Made in USA" (even then) is under these same conditions right? Just wanted to help you open your eyes a bit.

Take a look at 90% of your clothing...you, sir, support slave labor and don't even know it

5/19/2010 10:05:52 PM

you are a bad person

i hope you die soon

5/19/2010 10:06:37 PM

^^ I have no problem with most other countries, but I don't buy stuff from China.

To my knowledge I don't have anything that was created exclusively in China. Several things manufactured there but designed elsewhere, but I make a lot of effort to buy from elsewhere. Most clothes are from the Americas or Vietnam. Lots of tech from Korea and Japan.

I accept that I can't avoid it, but if everyone made a small effort hopefully some jobs would return at least to the continent.

Step One: Stop shopping @ Wal-Mart.

And why are you always trollin' my posts? Wtf?

5/19/2010 10:20:49 PM

Quote :

"given workers dummies to beat on to vent their rage."

I need one of these at work.

5/19/2010 10:39:59 PM

^^...you don't honestly believe Vietnam and Korea are that much better than China, do you?

[Edited on May 19, 2010 at 10:43 PM. Reason : x]

5/19/2010 10:43:35 PM

almost 80% of computer electronics come out of China, Korea, Malaysia, and Japan.

I just like to rag on apple

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is the largest foundry in the world, holding around 50% of the business.







[Edited on May 19, 2010 at 11:10 PM. Reason : .]

5/19/2010 11:08:07 PM

^^ Vietnam's not but I'd be surprised if Korea is as bad.

5/19/2010 11:09:32 PM

^ I'm assuming you mean South Korea?

5/19/2010 11:12:32 PM

Quote :

"Several things manufactured there but designed elsewhere"

You mean like "Designed in California, made in China" type products?

Quote :

"And why are you always trollin' my posts? Wtf?"

I'm guessing thats directed at billytalent?

Quote :

"I accept that I can't avoid it, but if everyone made a small effort hopefully some jobs would return at least to the continent."

Are you doing this because you want job manufacturing jobs to return to the States or because of poor work conditions for your fellow man in china?

[Edited on May 19, 2010 at 11:18 PM. Reason : .]

5/19/2010 11:17:16 PM

^^ Considering there's a trade embargo with North Korea, yes

5/19/2010 11:18:28 PM

5/19/2010 11:21:06 PM

Quote :

"Vietnam's not but I'd be surprised if Korea is as bad"

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/31/world/la-fg-korea-hankook31-2010mar31/2

not as bad, but bad enough. conditions in some US industries are bad too, slaughterhouses especially

5/20/2010 12:08:33 AM

Well and you wouldn't want to work in a lot of the chemical plants in the US either.

If we're going to follow this line we should all just join a hippie commune in the woods and make our own soap and shit

5/20/2010 12:16:10 AM

anyone else watched "The Commune"

5/20/2010 12:19:51 AM

i love to make soap

5/20/2010 12:39:00 AM

More like drop it...am i right? don't lie.

5/20/2010 12:54:12 AM

Quote :

"Anyone who buys any Apple products completely supports and endorses this virtual slave labor"

Anyone who buys any Apple product is likely a marxist to begin with

5/20/2010 1:24:38 AM

Bullshit, in Soviet Russia phone calls you.

5/20/2010 1:27:15 AM

Im not a fan of apple, but this is just ridiculous. It's pretty transparent that they just target apple, when I am sure the working conditions over there are like this for a bunch of other manufacturers.

Foxconn also makes the XBOX 360, the Kindle, etc...

The article could have easily have been about those companies as well.

5/20/2010 7:04:09 AM

The article shouldn't be about any of those companies. It should be about China, Labor Laws, and Foxconn. Not their clients

5/20/2010 11:22:37 AM

well you see Jobs was famous for this sort of job practice back in the early 80's; forcing employees to work crazy overtime and be a part of "team apple".

Jobs is a fucking nut job, when he finally dies maybe then Apple will wake the hell up in the computer industry.

5/20/2010 11:39:57 AM

Quote :

"Would you pay $50 more if it was made in Texas by well paid Mexicans? I would. "

i would too

5/20/2010 11:43:14 AM

Quote :

"well you see Jobs was famous for this sort of job practice back in the early 80's; forcing employees to work crazy overtime and be a part of "team apple"."

Sounds like my current job and my last job. Both of which I've enjoyed/enjoy more than any other full-time job.

Quote :

"Jobs is a fucking nut job, when he finally dies maybe then Apple will wake the hell up in the computer industry."

wake up and be the leading pioneers in a new era of proper work standards for its factory workers. You know Apple, always raising the bar for everyone else with their successful game changers. I agree with you, if anyone can pull this off, its Apple. Here's to Apple being the first to abandon slave labor abroad *drinks*

[Edited on May 20, 2010 at 11:49 AM. Reason : .]

5/20/2010 11:47:37 AM

Quote :

"It's pretty transparent that they just target apple, when I am sure the working conditions over there are like this for a bunch of other manufacturers."

Man, how dare someone publish one negative article about Apple. They are pretty much the best company ever and all articles referencing them should be positive and uplifting.

5/20/2010 11:49:04 AM

Quote :

"Man, how dare someone publish one negative article about Apple. They are pretty much the best company ever and all articles referencing them should be positive and uplifting."

well no, but the issue here isn't Apple. If you want to rip into Apple do so about their company.

5/20/2010 11:50:34 AM