Are you a proud owner of an Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod or a Mac? Or are you considering buying one? Well you should know how and where your Apple products really come from. Mind you this is not another e-mail forward I’m posting about, it’s real and it’s pretty darn serious too.
To start with Apple outsources all it’s hardware manufacturing to a company in China. It’s more economical for Apple to design the product in America and have it manufactured in bulk at a factory in China and then get it imported back to America rather than manufacturing it’s hardware right inside America. Apple outsources all it’s hardware assembling to a company called Foxconn in China.
All you people reading this from your slick iDevices can call me a Mac-hater for questioning Apple’s ethics to outsourcing but I haven’t really begun. I’m a big supporter of outsourcing. Heck I’m an Indian! The problem with Apple doesn’t lie with outsourcing. The problem is thousands and thousands of miles away. China.
Foxconn assembles all Apple products such as Macs, iPhones, iPads, iPods etc. Foxconn’s Shenzhen factory recently witnessed an array of suicides by it’s employees. With seven confirmed deaths the matter caught media’s attention. In order to get to the bottom of the story China’s leading newspaper Southern Weekly sent an undercover reported at Foxconn to find out the truth about the recent news.
I won’t reiterate the entire report from the newspaper here but I’d like to put some points on the table. This is especially for all you Apple fanboys out there.
1. The reported found the employees at Foxconn were not so proud of the fact that they were assembling revolutionary gadgets for a company like Apple.
2. The employees led a monotonous life at the factory. They came, they worked hard and they went back. It was the same every day.
3. The employees at Foxconn are paid $900 Chinese Yuan which is like $130 (US).
4. The workers have to wear uniforms. I may be going too far with this but I don’t wanna wear uniforms to work if I’m Chinese and I’m working in China itself. It’s like every time I look at my colleague it’s my own mirror image. On a serious note the employees were not socially networking amongst their co-workers due to the uniform issue.
5. Employees have to work for up to 8 hours while standing. Now compare this with your leather cushioned chairs at home/office and you might wanna stand up to salute these workers. These Foxconn employees sometimes deliberately drop items to the floor so they can bend down to pick them up.
First things first – I am not pointing fingers at the Apple honchos for exploiting poor Chinese workers. What goes around at Foxconn with it’s 400,000 workers may have been hidden from them. But now it’s all in the open. Also Apple’s hunger for millions of devices to be shipped each month pays for Foxconn’s top bosses who in turn exploit more poor Chinese workers.
Foxconn needs to treat it’s employees well that is for sure. Since we’re talking about human rights issues based in China it doesn’t add up until the issue gets Apple’s attention. I feel all Apple product owners must be made aware of this report. It won’t make sense to burn down your Apple products and protest on the streets for these poor workers. No we’re done with Gandhis in this world.
What does make sense is that Foxconn should be taught simple lessons in employee management. I’m sure they can afford to pay their employees more than just $130 at the 10th of every month. I’m a potential customer to Apple and even if tomorrow they say they’ll raise all Apple products’ prices by $10-50 to pay up for their Foxconn margins I wouldn’t mind. Because when I pick up and hold my iProduct tomorrow, I don’t want to face the guilt and shame reflected back at me through the shiny display.
[Links] – Southern Weekly newspaper report
[Photo] – Southern Weekly
Article by Harry
Harry has written 461 awesome articles on HarryJerry.com.
About: ...an engineering student, a freelancer, a professional blogger, a loving lover, too shy, an Internet freak....and everything I shouldn't be.
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Tags: apple, china, factory, foxconn, ipad, iphone, ipod, mac, relevation
