“In the last decade, Apple has become one of the mightiest, richest and most successful companies in the world, in part by mastering global manufacturing. Apple and its high-technology peers — as well as dozens of other American industries — have achieved a pace of innovation nearly unmatched in modern history,” Charles Duhigg and David Barboza report for The New York Times. “However, the workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labor in harsh conditions, according to employees inside those plants, worker advocates and documents published by companies themselves. Problems are as varied as onerous work environments and serious — sometimes deadly — safety problems.”
“Employees work excessive overtime, in some cases seven days a week, and live in crowded dorms. Some say they stand so long that their legs swell until they can hardly walk. Under-age workers have helped build Apple’s products, and the company’s suppliers have improperly disposed of hazardous waste and falsified records, according to company reports and advocacy groups that, within China, are often considered reliable, independent monitors,” Duhigg and Barboza report. “More troubling, the groups say, is some suppliers’ disregard for workers’ health. Two years ago, 137 workers at an Apple supplier in eastern China were injured after they were ordered to use a poisonous chemical to clean iPhone screens. Within seven months last year, two explosions at iPad factories, including in Chengdu, killed four people and injured 77. Before those blasts, Apple had been alerted to hazardous conditions inside the Chengdu plant, according to a Chinese group that published that warning.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: In the the full article, “Apple” was deployed 105 times (105 times!), “iPad” 12 times, “iPhone” nine times, and “iPod” once. That’s 139 Apple-related mentions in an article detailing conditions at Chinese, not Apple, companies that, oh by the way, also happen to assemble products for Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lenovo, Motorola, Nokia, Sony, Toshiba and many, many, many other companies around the world. No, one short paragraph mentioning other companies by name once, doesn’t provide “balance.”
Singling out Apple and glossing over every other company doesn’t make you smart hit-whores, guys. It makes you slanted, biased, yellow journalists. But, of course, you do work for The New York Times, so that was to be expected.
The next time you transparent fools wonder why your circulation and employee numbers continue to plummet, just re-read this Take.
Apple insists that all of their suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect, and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes. Apple’s actions, from thorough site audits to industry-leading training programs, demonstrate this commitment.
Read more about supplier responsibility at Apple here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “The Scarbro” for the heads up.]
Hey, China, thanks for building our 21st century railroad!!!
(Will you take a check…?)
Are you talking about the Chinese high speed train that fell off the viaduct last year?
No. I am speaking allegorically.
Also the #1 story on HuffingtonPost.com where people read the headlines and skip the article. Advertisers are thrilled.
31 cents an hour is built into the ipad
apple sucks as a company
Says who? And what would those many thousands of Foxconn employees be doing, if it weren’t for Apple. Working in a filed for nothing, building X-boxes, working in the coal mines.
Why not do a hit job on the sweat shops in LA and NY or the poultry processing plants, or even college sports where the athletes slave for food a dorm room and $10,000 a year worth of tuition and risk life ending or debilitating injuries.
I expect the dorm occupiers qat Foxconn get free room and board on top of there better that average wage for Chines based manufacturers.
Ohhh, I imagine Apple needs them more than they need Apple. Apple’s only ONE of their customers, so if it weren’t for Apple, it’d be Microsoft, HP, etc.
However, to turn out as many units as that plant does… well, there’s nowhere ELSE in the world to do it. SO, Apple either uses what the other companies use, or they don’t get their products made.
Those lazy Chinese slaves would probably be just laying around all day if Apple didn’t provide them something to occupy their time!
Good APPL, bad slave!
It’s all about Tim Cook’s bottom line, more money for AAPL’s cash hoard.
They’re not slaves, they get paid. They get paid more then most people in China doing this sort of work.
Manufacturing goods is a dangerous business as you’re working with heavy machinery. There will always be injuries and such. To Apple’s credit, they’ve actually been working hard to improve the conditions there.
It’s not Apple’s responsibility to see how their suppliers work, but they do it anyway. I’m glad they do, but some may say Apple has no right to stick their noses in suppliers’ business. Does any other company do this? They need to make it more public, like Apple.
http://www.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/
These Chinese workers would be bending their backs in rice fields, making 31c a day, if it wasn’t for Apple and other companies.
I don’t care if Apple’s name is mention a million times! They have to be better than the rest. This just goes to prove that no one got rich by being honest, nice and caring.
Apple has to do better and strive to be the best. I guess the editors of this site don’t mind buying the electronic equivalent of blood diamonds.
Ok, tell me where Apple could have their products made that’s NOT a horrible factory in China. Show me one example of another place that’s able to meet the HUGE demand plus is NOT Foxconn, and then you have a point.
If all the companies are having their devices made at the same plant, and only ONE company is trying to make things better… well, not likely to have much of an impact. Plus, Foxconn knows… if you don’t use them, you don’t get the volumes you need… so suck it!
They are better than the rest.
Those two authors from NYT attacked exclusively Apple for years.
In this article, they piled up some real facts of Foxconn’s fallacies with a lot of hearsay from grudged former employees and contractors.
Somehow in the articles by these two authors other companies like HP, Intel, Dell, Samsung etc are rousy even though they never make these extensive audits as Apple does, nor they ever visited their subcontractors. Obviously, the fact that these companies love to give their comments to these authors completely makes complete indulgence to these companies.
Apple is minority in both Foxconn’s and, the more so, overall Chinese manufacturing process, yet this is the only company these NYT writers trip on.
MDN, ‘yellow’ journalism…. Really? Do you know that history? The Times, for all their faults, was never part of that label. That said, I totally agree about the fitful and too-oft mention of Apple in that article, especially as the rest of the world is involved, and Apple did the deed of sticking their necks out for at least some oversight.
Yellow journalism: A type of journalism that uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. By extension, the term “yellow journalism” is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion.
By that definition MDN itself uses yellow journalism through “exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism”. Granted it’s not an original-source news site, but it doesn’t cast itself as “Mac Daily OPINION” either.
Granted that the article is skewed, focusing almost exclusively on Apple, but it is responsible for a large share of Foxconn’s output. That several other large tech companies also use Foxconn doesn’t change the dismal conditions and pay – it just means that Apple is far from the only company making incredible profits off of arguably exploited labor, it does nothing to justify this widespread corporate lack of scruples. Sadly, Foxconn employees probably have relatively better conditions than many workers in China, if only because of the attention the media has given to Foxconn because of its ties to Apple. But many consumers, myself included, are complicit in this since we buy and use many products that were made by people working at Foxconn and countless other places where labor and life is “cheaper” than in the U.S.
You do not understand what’s going on in China. The Foxxcon workers are the highest paid laborers in the best working conditions in the whole country. The workers are supporting their parents and a grandparent or two along with themselves with the wages and benefits they earn.
There is a long waiting list for the jobs in the Foxxcon factories.
As for the suicides, the suicide rate in American Universities and Colleges, with similarly aged people enrolled, is 2 to 3 times higher than at the Foxxcon factories.
You are blaming Apple for the best thing that has ever happened to the workers there.
“Foxconn employees probably have relatively better conditions than many workers in China if only because of the attention the media has given to Foxconn because of its ties to Apple” – to quote myself – so i’m not sure what your point is, unless your argument is that it is okay to condone poor working conditions because Foxconn’s conditions are relatively less horrible than many – i made no mention of suicide, so i’m not sure where that came from – also you missed me pointing out that consumers, and stockholders, like myself, and perhaps even you, are complicit in this global reality of exploited labor.
Sometimes it helps to read and understand what you are commenting on before you actually make a comment. = )
i confess that you, altegeo, clearly do understand what’s going on in China, while i’m obviously clueless . . . to help me and others rebut Apple haters’ claims about Foxconn labor, perhaps you can reveal your sources proving that, to quote you, “Foxxcon workers are the highest paid laborers in the best working conditions in the whole country” i’d be curious from whence you pulled that alleged fact, certainly not out of thin air, nor, i hope, your butt, so just cite where you’re getting your info on Foxconn – i’m sure Apple and the other big tech companies like MicroSoft, (foxconn makes x boxes and tons of stuff for plenty of other companies besides Apple), would appreciate the proof of what you claim – then they can send it to those clueless fools at the NYtimes – then you’ll probably get MS and Apple sending you free gadgets for life – you can finally get that Zune you’ve always wanted
And, the Chinese are buying up iPhones and iPads too.
POTUS: Steve, I want those iPhone jobs back in the United States.
Steve: Not going to happen. Regulations in the U.S. do not allow us to move fast enought to bring a product to market quickly and in cost.
Liberal Press: Apple must die.
Simple.
How much more would an iPhone built in the USA cost?
Doesn’t matter as the capability to make ENOUGH iPhones doesn’t exist in the USA.
They are building plants all the time. There are empty factories all around and people who would love to have such a job. Pay them a fair wage – whatever that might be. How much would a USA-built iPhone cost? Apple can certainly stand to pare their margins, and I suspect many would be willing to pay more for their Apple products since the alternative is so crappy. Buy USA, put our citizens back to work, and take our sense of pride back.
You’re wrong. Here’s why:
“China provides engineers at a scale the United States can not match. Apple’s executives had estimated that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones. The company’s analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to find that many qualified engineers in the United States. In China, it took 15 days.”
Foxxcon workers make around $400.00 a month plus free room and board.
Apple needs about 400,000 to 500,000 well educated workers that will work for those wages. They can find them in China and India.
Give us a call when you find them in the USA.
Until then, STFU.
I think you missed my point. Of course people in the USA would not work for such meager wages, and suppose that fair pay would exceed minimum wage by a substantial margin – let’s say double the minimum wage. I’ll ask my question again (forgive me for not being willing to STFU): how much would a USA-made iPhone then cost? Would it double the price?
I’m sure Apple has looked at these figures and calculated that it’s in their best business interests to have their products made in China or Brazil where labor is cheap. However, those overseas costs are rising, and at some point making things here might be a viable option. I for one would rather pay $200 more to have an iPhone that says ‘Made in the USA.’
If you found 150 million people willing to “do the right thing”, “buy American”, and pay $2000 for an iPhone, there isn’t enough American Manufacturing capacity OR American employees that could make it happen.
That’s why it doesn’t matter… because it can’t happen even in the rosiest of scenarios.
Bezoar,
If the price of the iPhone was only doubled (in order for you to have an iPhone that says ‘Made in the USA’), you would have to pay extra $850. Current price of an iPhone is $650 (base model, unsubsidised). Consumer pays $200, carrier pays $450, and then recovers it from the monthly subscription over two years. With the price of $1300, and the carrier subsidy still $450, you’d have to pay those $850 upfront in order to get that subsidised phone.
Even if US did have the engineering and assembly workforce, plus the ability to deliver them in two weeks, the amount of money needed to cover the salaries and benefits would push iPhone’s retail price well above $2000 (about 3 – 4 times the current retail price).
Does that answer your question?
Predrag,
I apologize for not replying under you message, but I don’t see a ‘reply’ button there.
Yes, that is basically the kind of answer I’m looking for, though doubling the price is merely a starting place for a guess. What if manufacturing iPhones in the USA only added $200 the overhead. It might be way low. My question was only to stimulate discussion because I think it is a valid question, even if it is not a practical business move. Thank you for your contribution.
Your theory is incorrect. Check out Brazil!!! Foxconn just built a plant there. There’s little hi tech going on in Brazil, and their cost of labor (socialist regime) is high.
Why does it make sense to open a plant in Brazil?????
Because they have ridiculously high import tariffs. It is really hard to do business in Brazil with all of the absurd government and banking rules, so trust me, Foxconn didn’t go there because Brazil is cheap or more flexible. Brazil doesn’t qualify on either count.
Free Trade Anyone??
Bemoaning about the morality of Chinese labor isn’t going to change it. People already know that slavery is wrong, but they will keep manufacturing in China because there is a massive financial incentive to do so.
Economics determine world events, not morality. The only way Chinese manufacturing will decline is if it becomes more expensive to use Chinese labor, and less expensive to manufacture domestically.
I used to think it was that simple, just move the jobs back to the US using tariff’s to make Chinese work more expensive, but, alas, it’s not. The US manufacturing infrastructure has been gutted, the education system doesn’t turn out enough qualified applicants so it is now, and, likely, forever impossible for the United States of America to marshall the forces required to even produce 1/3 of what Foxconn produces daily.
It’s a resource problem more than anything else and, having a LOT of said resources (that have been at least capably educated) makes the economic and morality points moot. Now, once there is an ALTERNATIVE to Foxconn, then it’s an economic or moral decision. Right now, there’s just no other choice…
… unless we take over China… hmmmm. Nah, not gonna happen.
I don’t have a think tank to investigate the full consequences of putting tariffs on China, but I think if really was that simple, tariffs would have already been placed long ago.
I’m just saying the situation is never going to change, unless the economics change first. Tariffs on China seem like the most obvious way to change the economics of Chinese manufacturing, but they certainly are not the only option. Like you said, it won’t do much if there is no alternative to Foxconn. Tax cuts for American manufacturers, renovating American factories, reforms to public education, and perhaps shifting military personal and spending away from foreign conflict and in to domestic infrastructure could all be viable options too.
Perhaps you are right about there being some need to stress the morals. Far too many people are complacent with twenty first century slavery. Many might be unaware that slavery in on the rise world wide, or that it is happening inside the United States. Some even seem to think slavery is okay, as long as they aren’t the slave. A cultural shift regarding slavery seems desperately needed.
But, trying to change how others view the world morally is extremely difficult, imprecise, doesn’t guarantee results, and can easily backfire. Economics, with its hard mathematical facts and proven historical significance, I think is the more pragmatic solution for drastic sociopolitical change.
How the Fuck is low paying jobs in a low cost environment slave labor? If the cost of living in China is way lower than the wages and benefits they receive, then they aren’t slaves.
American Labor thinks that anything below $60,000 a year, wages and benefits, is slave labor. WTF.
From what I understand, it can work by promising workers wages so they agree to work for you, then coming up with various fees such as for water and shelter and other things, deducting fees straight from salaries so that workers are actually paid nothing and forced into debt, mercilessly beating workers who attempt escape or complain, and threatening to kill the families of workers who try to escape or contact authorities. I’m not exactly sure what slavery is like in China, but that’s how they do it in Florida.
Yes but thats not what’s happening at Foxconn. Employees there make more then just about anyone else in China doing the same kind of labor. They often support their entire family on such an income. They’re not slaves and the working conditions there are better then most similar jobs in China. Apple has been a big reason conditions are so nice at Foxconn.
More attempts by the vested big business bullies ( oil, Microsoft, Murdoch etc..) to derail and slow down the Apple train.
All invested in their companies can’t stomach Apple’s success for fear that they’ll loose their promised returns – yes you read that right. Big investment firms get paid big bucks to put their clients into MSFT and the old business companies. They all but promise a gravy train for the good old boys investor’s. They got the Koch money working for them and Apple is NOT in that club…
Quite amazing, the NYT somehow can get all this inside info from factories in China, but can’t get certain people’s academic records out of Harvard?
So true.
And the communist overlords in China are their version of our Democrats. The NYT must be confused…
I am sick of these “slave” workers articles. For every Foxconn employee working, there are thousands who would give BLN to take their place. The facilities in Foxconn would be 5 star compared to their own village. Reminds me of another stupid article which complained that Indonesian workers working for Nike could not afford the shoes they make. Fact is, even if u give them a free Nike they would immediately sell it for the money n instead wear rubber slippers. Such “rights” are meaningless in a developing country. What is worse than being exploited is not having the opportunity to be exploited. I think Ghandi said that.
I love ’em. Helps to make those Apple Retail employees (that are making good money for a retail job) seem small and petty by comparison 🙂
When given a choice between starvation or slavery, many people choose to become slaves. I’m disturbed that this somehow justifies twenty first century slavery in your twisted little mind.
I guess I’m not racist enough to comprehend why people in “developing countries” shouldn’t be entitled to life options besides slavery and starvation.
These jobs are huge opportunities for them. As has been stated before, Foxconn employees make more then others in China doing the same work. It is a boon for them.
Apple is also a global company selling to more than just the US. Suppose the US did impose a tariff…then people in the US wouldn’t buy at the higher prices and Apple would not sell as much in the US (and neither would Samsung, Dell, Etc.)
The point about not having qualified workers hits home. There are factories in the small time where I live that would love to expand their operation, but can’t get enough qualified workers because the unemployed here are either lazy or can’t pass a drug test.
What is your evidence that the “unemployed are either lazy or can’t pass a drug test?” All of them? Any? Statistics, first-hand experience? Since you’re so privy to the private life details of so many, why not become a pollster?
I love Apple, but things need to change. From the article, quoting a former Apple Exec:
“You can set all the rules you want, but they’re meaningless if you don’t give suppliers enough profit to treat workers well”
Human life is worth more than insanely great profits.
As bad as it is at Foxconn, living in the rural “sticks” on a subsistence diet with no healthcare, no way up in your area and a very short lifespan lets everyone in the sticks why it is so BLEAK.
About 2 million people a month are leaving the sticks to go to various cities in China. That is a voluntary migration, that the government can NOT stop. China must encourage business startups and large scale manufacturing or there will be a revolution and their leaders have openly mentioned this.
Readers here ought to be reminded what happened in the U.S. only 150 years ago in the decades following the Civil War when industrialization started. The U.S. had its turn at heavy manual labor with sometimes dangerous conditions in that period.
Dangerous and life threatening conditions persisted up through the 1950s in the U.S. Ever have a guy in the family work on a “green chain” in a lumber mill. Failure to watch the boards coming out could mean one got thrown right through you. The U.S. needed jobs for all the returning soldiers or college to keep them busy.
China is working to improve conditions as I see from contacts inside of plastic mold making & molding facilities in my work. You can’t do top notch work consistently with mid-upper skilled workers without good conditions. You can’t keep the expertise of fast handwork in lesser skilled work without getting better conditions.
China is improving, probably about as fast as it can.
It’s a shame that the once respected NYT has reverted to hit whoring. Shame on them.
For years government and private think-tanks with Wall Street had been encouraging industries to cut cost the easy way and take advantage of outsourcing their manufacturing to low-cost countries. Cut-throat competition was good for the consumer society in the US as the consumers can stretch out the value of their dollars and enjoy a high level of living by buying their products at low prices provided from cheap labor of third-world countries.
The government did nothing to ensure that US industries are competitive but blindly go along with the recommendations of Wall Street and think-tanks that the prodigious appetite of the consumer society in the US can serve as an engine of growth and support for the world’s economy, and that the US should concentrate on services and abandon manufacturing to developing countries. US society will consume and the rest of the world will labor to meet this demand. So in order to compete, industry after industry took heed of Wall Street’s wisdom to outsource their manufacturing in order to save labor cost to the extent that all support industries were hollowed out and decimated.
At that time there were no sanctimonious talk of slave labor. Everything was fine as long as long as the US consumers could consume cheaply but as soon as these “slave” countries become fierce competitors, many US companies who thought that they were smart found out that they couldn’t compete. Jobs lost through outsourcing never come back to the US. With the recession biting hard, there were bitter recriminations that successful companies like Apple were the cause of America’s problems.
Oh how forgetful people’s memories are. All you greedy consumers, blame your own government and Wall Street for the mess and stop your sanctimonious posturing. Remember the saying: “Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad”.
To hell with China. They just got through building their first aircraft carrier (spotted in a satellite photo) using the billions of dollars Americans send them by buying cheap stuff at Wal-Mart.
It used to be, men would save up their money and buy a half-inch electric hand drill made by Rockwell or Milwaukee and keep it their entire life. Now they go to Wal-Mart, buy some piece of crap drill made in China, and keep on buying replacement drills made in China after the things break in three years.
Instead of keeping valued things made in America and Germany and Italy, we’ve whored ourselves out to China by becoming serial consumers of disposable goods.
Agreed. Im willing to pay a little more for Apple iPhone to be made here. It only cost $65 more to make it here! Yes really! Bring back tarriffs and incentives to offset the cost and reduce your margin slightly and still be profitable in the US. An int’l labor union is needed, or we will see the more of the same in China and start to see the same horrid work conditions here. If you read the NYT article and think its ok how they treat workers then u are a horrible human being. Imagine your daughter working in those slave conditions. Apple be a leader, set a new labor standard or tarnish your name further!
” It only cost $65 more to make it here”
You miss the bigger picture that the factories and quantity of people required to make iPhones doesn’t exist in the US. What you MEANT to say was:
“I’d wait 20 years for the US manufacturing infrastructure and education system to create conditions where iPhones in the millions can be created here!”
Kids today, don’t know how to use Google… Back in MY day…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism
Now git off’n my lawn!!
Apple manufacturing will never return to the U.S because the US. government won’t allow serial building explosions — until Gingrich is president.
thanks for one of the few intentionally funny remarks in this thread!
I have sympathy with the Chinese workers who are being treated poorly. We had a similar problem in the US in the late 1800’s in our meat packing industry (Read Upton Sinclair’s Classic “The Jungle”). But eventually the workers rebelled, unionized, and drastically changed their situation.
That’s what has to happen in China and other countries that have these labor abuses: its up to their own people to change things from within.
Big difference? Those companies didn’t have a choice. There wasn’t an infinitely deep pool to pull from, and you lost money retraining. China has lots of folks ready to take those jobs because most of them are unskilled labor.
So, similar situation, but the resource dynamic is way too different.
Setting aside the BS from the NY Times and the BS from FuxNews loving MDN:
The obvious common denominator here is not Apple or any of the other sourcing companies, It is:
1) CHINA: A criminal nation. Obviously the citizens of China are going to be treated as units only good as the money they can make the criminal government. Therefore, the citizens themselves are inspired to become criminals if only to retaliate against their own diseased government.
APPLE: GET THE HELL OUT OF CHINA ALREADY, DAMMIT! Willful sucking up to crime only makes you criminal as well.
2) The Slave Wage Labor Movement: Of course those who are paid less-than subsistence wages are treated as stupid little peon units that can either put up and shut up or go die somewhere. This phenomenon is both history wide and world wide. The fact that it has become nearly universal once again heralds in the arrival of our next DARK AGE. If you think the 1% are screwing you over now, you haven’t seen anything yet.
Go study the last DARK AGE if you want to get scared.
Apple could be out of China tomorrow, all they’d have to do is stop making products. Easy!
‘course they’d cease to exist as a company, but at least Apple would no longer be tied to Foxconn.
If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times.
WTF does this have to do with apple? It’s the 3rd party sub contractors that have the plants and staff in china, brazil etc.
Go bug the hell out of Foxconn and samsung to move THEIR plants to the USA.
And come on every one knows “Made in the USA” means its overpriced crap that isn’t right from day 1 and will be completely useless within 3 days. The rest of the world would expect any product carrying that stamp to be a quarter of the quality and twice the price.
To think that they have an app for the IOS environment!