The human cost of an Ipad

[Wildcat]

10 workers have committed suicide already this year at the manufacturing plant for Apple's Ipad. It is not just Apple that uses the plant Dell, Nokia and Sony do too.

 

The treatment of workers abroad is a cost of the outsourcing that brings us cheaper goods. It doesn't cost a lot more for the factories to treat their employees reasonably and as consumers we should demand that they do so.

 

Yesterday was international iPad day as Apple's new gadget went on sale around much of the world, including Britain. But there has been something unusual about this latest product launch from the world's most valuable technology firm. For the spotlight has been yanked away from the product itself and on to the manner of its production.

 

The iPad might have been conceived by US brain power, but it is produced by Chinese hands. The iPad is manufactured at the Foxconn electronics plant in Shenzhen, China's southern industrial capital. And here there have been allegations of staff forced to work excessive hours, compulsory overtime and a host of other abuses by the firm's Taiwanese management. The factory witnessed its 10th suicide of the year this week. And yesterday, in a move that screamed desperation, Foxconn announced that the plant's 400,000 workers will receive a 20 per cent pay rise.

 

What lessons can be drawn from this? First, this is a significant embarrassment for Apple, which has always claimed to be scrupulous about conditions in its supplying factories. Second, this is not a specific problem for Apple. Sony, Dell and Nokia products are also manufactured at the same plant. Third, this is not a problem specific to Foxconn. There are reports from across China of Dickensian conditions in factories, of discrimination, long hours, low wages and inadequate training.

 

It is no mystery how we arrived at this. Tens of millions of migrants have left the Chinese countryside in the past decade to look for work in the booming industrial cities. It is hardly surprising that with so much labour on the market, so many international companies have outsourced their production to China. It should not be surprising either that workers are often treated badly. Beijing's autocratic political elite is terrified of the social unrest that would result if job creation dried up. They are therefore suspicious of anything – including unionisation and better working conditions – that might curb raw growth rates.

 

Yet this is not a simple story of the exploitation of vulnerable masses. Although the wages to factory workers are low, they are better than workers would get if they remained working the land. And there are some signs of reform. There is a minimum wage. The normally quiescent Chinese media are beginning to demand better conditions for workers. And scandals in recent years over tainted baby milk and toxic children's toys have concentrated official minds on the need to regulate.

 

The rise of China is a complex, paradoxical story. It has been a great economic liberation, but one tightly controlled by a one-party state. Optimism exists alongside desperation. China will, ultimately, find its own path. But China is not an island. Its economic model is still founded on the rock of manufactured exports. This gives Western consumers leverage. There is scope to demand, through pressure on firms like Apple, decent working conditions for Chinese workers.

 

It has been all too easy in recent years for those of us fortunate enough to live in the developed world to ignore the human cost of the production of our digital cameras, mobile phones and computers. Out of sight, out of mind has been the practice. This week, we have been forced to acknowledge the human cost. Let popular pressure for change now follow.

 

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-the-western-consumer-can-improve-conditions-for-the-chinese-worker-1986225.html

 

Another article:

http://taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2010/05/31/2003474306

 

Help protect the lives of young worker's and send a protest message here:

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=714

[Cynic]

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=589262

 

Doesn't seem to be a very popular topic for discussion. I find it strange this is usually described as an apple factory when all the manufacturers you mentioned, and Nintendo as well I believe, also use it.

 

To start with the suicides rate sounded fairly normal compared to the average in china but there does seem a bit more to it than that.

[Darth Vader]

I'd rather go without. Thanks, Apple - oh and thanks Wildcat.

[Guest]

It's not just Apple, it's pretty much the same for a lot consumer goods we buy today.

 

Apple just hit the headlines as they're popular.

[Darth Vader]

It's not just Apple, it's pretty much the same for a lot consumer goods we buy today.

 

Apple just hit the headlines as they're popular.

 

That doesn't make it any better.

[DaFoot]

So long as we demand things cheaper all the time this will continue in one form or another.

 

From imported veg to minerals used in jewellery. It has to be produced somewhere, in order that we can enjoy these things as cheap as we do someone else has to pay.

 

Unfortunately most people shop by price/how much they want a given thing with no thought as to where is came from

[idiot]

As if you don't already know, human life is cheap in China. Just like its substandard goods...

[Wildcat]

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=589262

 

Doesn't seem to be a very popular topic for discussion. I find it strange this is usually described as an apple factory when all the manufacturers you mentioned, and Nintendo as well I believe, also use it.

 

To start with the suicides rate sounded fairly normal compared to the average in china but there does seem a bit more to it than that.

 

Sorry, I didn't see your original thread.

 

I think what makes this case worthy or support is not so much the fact that it is exceptional for China, but the fact that with such a high profile launch and brand name that prides itself on corporate responsibility associated with the factory there is the possibility of effecting a positive change for the workers at the factory and a change that will hopefully have a helpful knock on effect for workers elsewhere in China.

[Cynic]

I think what makes this case worthy or support is not so much the fact that it is exceptional for China, but the fact that with such a high profile launch and brand name that prides itself on corporate responsibility associated with the factory there is the possibility of effecting a positive change for the workers at the factory and a change that will hopefully have a helpful knock on effect for workers elsewhere in China.

 

It is a shame that it takes the mention of a brand to make this into a story at all. It would be nice to think it could kick start something but I'm not convinced anything will happen apart from some relatively small gestures to make the story go away.

[GordonBennet]

10 workers have committed suicide already this year at the manufacturing plant for Apple's Ipad. It is not just Apple that uses the plant Dell, Nokia and Sony do too.

 

The treatment of workers abroad is a cost of the outsourcing that brings us cheaper goods. It doesn't cost a lot more for the factories to treat their employees reasonably and as consumers we should demand that they do so.

 

 

 

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-the-western-consumer-can-improve-conditions-for-the-chinese-worker-1986225.html

 

Another article:

http://taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2010/05/31/2003474306

 

Help protect the lives of young worker's and send a protest message here:

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=714

 

 

I trust that the computer you used to post this was made in a fair trade factory where all the workers are paid a decent wage, work short hours and get plenty of breaks. Because if you haven't checked up on where and how it was made, you'd be a hypocrite.

 

Let's face it; the gadgets we in the west use are only cheap because of the cheap labour costs involved by having them put together in third world factories where the workers work long hours for low pay. It's just the way of the world and will only stop when people are willing to pay a higher price for ethically-made gadgets, which will of course never happen.