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Critics say the problems could be due to the pressures many of China's migrant workers face. They are young people from the country who have never been away from home, working long hours, and feeling alone and vulnerable."They wake up, they have breakfast, they go to work, they work a solid shift, they come back to their dormitories and they sleep ... it's a very dehumanizing place, and the workers are little more than machines there," said Geoffrey Crothall of the China Labor Bulletin, a non-profit group that tries to protect workers' rights across China.Despite all of the questions about what's happening inside Foxconn, outside there is no shortage of young people lining up and hoping for a job that pays around $300 a month. Foxconn is also promising to raise wages by about 20 percent; relatively good pay compared to other factories.Liu admits there are problems, such as not having enough recreational facilities on campus (five swimming pools and 400 computers) for its staff of more than 300,000. There also have been complaints that assembly line managers have been abusive toward staff if they miss deadlines or make mistakes."It's forbidden for managers to scold workers but some of our managers do not meet the standards. They're insensitive to the workers' feelings," Liu said. "It's crucial that we improve our management style and establish a%...
10 Comments
notarobotIf you're going to out one company for being in business with Foxconn, why not out them all? Own a game console? Your Xbox, PS3, and Wii were all made here. Like to read? This is where your Kindle came from.
Foxconn isn't just producing ithings and iphones, they assemble 40% of the world's electronics. Here's a list of SOME of Foxconn's clients (from wikipedia):
Acer Inc. (Taiwan)
Amazon.com (United States)
Apple Inc. (United States)
ASRock (Taiwan)
Asus (Taiwan)
Barnes & Noble (United States)
Cisco (United States)
Dell (United States)
EVGA Corporation (United States)
Hewlett-Packard (United States)
Intel (United States)
IBM (United States)
Lenovo (China)
Logitech (Switzerland)
Microsoft (United States)
MSI (Taiwan)
Motorola (United States)
Netgear (United States)
Nintendo (Japan)
Nokia (Finland)
Panasonic (Japan)
Philips (Netherlands)
Sharp (Japan)
Sony Ericsson (Japan/Sweden)
Toshiba (Japan)
Vizio (United States)
longdeAlso, why stop at Foxconn? And China? I have visited such factories in China and in other countries that do high volume electronics assembly, and the conditions are much the same. The only reason the suicides are highlighted here is because of the fame of the Apple brand. I guess the people stuck making razr phones are SOL.
budzosI'm pretty sure FOXCONN employs more than 100,000 people. Compare 20 or so suicides in a year out of 100,000 people to the normal rate in China. I'm pretty sure it's around the national rate (of about 22 suicides per 100,000 people per year).
bobknight33I like to look at the positive side of this.
Suicide for one is a job opportunity for another.
longdeThe site in question employs more than 300k; it's like a small city. And it's one out of dozens of sites around the world that Foxconn runs (its biggest by far, though). But that bolsters your point.
I actually made a similar assertion to some friends last year. But I think we have to compare apples to apples. What is the suicide rate among people in the western provinces where alot of these workers come from? What's the rate among city dwellers in the urban centers where they reside? China's population is so massive and diverse, it's almost meaningless to use a nationalized figure.>> ^budzos:
I'm pretty sure FOXCONN employs more than 100,000 people. Compare 20 or so suicides in a year out of 100,000 people to the normal rate in China. I'm pretty sure it's below the national rate (of about 35 suicides per 100,000 people per year).
Enzoblue>> ^bobknight33:
I like to look at the positive side of this.
Suicide for one is a job opportunity for another.
The sarcasm option is on your bottom left there bro, please use it.
budzos>> ^Enzoblue:
>> ^bobknight33:
I like to look at the positive side of this.
Suicide for one is a job opportunity for another.
The sarcasm option is on your bottom left there bro, please use it.
Because sarcasm is extra funny when you make sure everyone knows when you're being sarcastic.
deathcowYou didn't think that Apple Magic came from the electronics or software did you?
NetRunnerI sure am glad that Republicans want to strip away all our labor laws so we'll be able to "compete" with China.
I didn't like being able to go home after work, or get paid anyways.
oOPonyOojokingly says...Good article here about the Apple side of things. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?_r=2&pagewanted=3
Oh yeah, just testing the sarcasm button.
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