Apple Faced With Protesters in Taipei

No, Apple isn’t being targeted directly, rather the group of protesters currently making noise at Apple is trying to get at Wintek, one of Apple’s suppliers.

.....misleading title very stupid and cheap trick.

Those "labor activists" in Taiwan aren't workers at all. They don't work one day and perform as professional protesters since their were in college. I've been with these people when I was young and naive and since then I have extremely low regard to these people. They'd rather the companies to fail and everybody's dirt poor, instead of seeing companies to survive in bad times and seeking other method to protect labor rights. Most Taiwanese, I'd say 99% and above, would like to see Taiwanese companies to survive instead of going bankrupt.

So....we're talking about unfair labor practices in China? That's like singling out a piece of grass because it's green.

Foreign companies in China are constantly targeted by labor inspectors from central, provincial or even county level bureaucracy. Current Chinese labor law is regarded quite protective even by Chinese standard. However, most labor abuses in China actually comes from government-owned enterprises or Chinese companies who have good connections. People simply don't stand a chance against People's Armed Police doing their cracking down on "riots."

Jane McEntegart never fails to find any news something against apple, thanks again for the unbiased news I come here for.

Yes and No.

For the people got laid off by Wintek, yes.

But the protest took place in Taiwan which is under a totally different government system and totally different sets of laws.

Apple, you either love them or love to hate them.
I am the latter.

oops sorry mistype...

The people got laid off in China may fit mavroxur's point.

But the people got laid off in Taiwan and the protestors are under a totally different government system and a set of totally different laws.

Things in Taiwan are supposed to be much closer to the States than China... business is business... who knows...

I'm sorry if you feel 'tricked' but that wasn't my intention. Really.

That's the big difference between US and Taiwan. Unlike UAW, people in Taiwan are WILLING to work unpaid overtime and hope the company to get better in future. They are welling to take cut in salaries as long as they have a JOB. Even i'm not living in Taiwan now, lot of my friends are doing the same thing there.

Willing or forced? The article would seem to suggest the latter.

willing to work unpaid overtime or forced to work unpaid overtime or else you are "layed off" due to not making orders on time we had to cut a few people

Willing or not, work overtime without payment is illegal, and employers can take serious risk if they allow so. Many now work late because they WANT overtime payment. Some take stock option and want the company profitable. Others want to climb higher in the hierarchy. Some stay late simply because he doesn't want to see his nagging wife. Some want to retire at their 40s and enjoy the rest of their lives on their savings. Also, generally, willing to stay late is regarded as good work ethics. The work ethics, mentality and methodology are simply different between NE Asian and While people. Don't judge other people from your own perspective.

Agreed.



I don't see what that ^ tangent has to do with being forced to work unpaid overtime. This isn't an article on people wanting to move up the corporate ladder, it's about unfair labor practices.

But hey, I'm just a white guy from the U.S. What do I know?

Not suprising. Apple loves to use slave labor suppliers. One of their other suppliers Foxconn has had many of the same issues.

I have a Tom's Hardware News RSS feed that I use to frequently check the articles. It gets increasingly annoying to click on these articles that have nothing to do with their nice juicy titles. In this situation I read the title and thought to myself "this title is probably misleading" sure enough the first paragraph denounces the articles title, so I said screw it skipped the rest of the article and scrolled down to see if any commentators noticed the same, sure enough the first comment reflects my feelings. So I know I'm not alone in this.

I used to come to toms for hardware information and the GPU/CPU charts then I got into checking the news. It's becoming harder to do that with articles like this. It's clear that toms knows it's audience but I think that's becoming problematic. It seems like news articles are spun to reflect views that they know the readers will agree with or want to see rather then just posting straight and to the point news. The title of this article should of been "Wintek faced with protestors in TaiPei", I'll concede the article probably wouldn't get half as many hits that way based on Toms audience, however half of us who did click on it wouldn't have felt cheated after reading the first paragraph.

Plenty of other news tech sites out there, rather then find a new one I'm selfish and just hope that Toms turns around.

This site is one of the best about not producing misleading titles to get hit counts. So give it a rest, at least at this article which honestly doesnt do it at all unless you really strain for it.

Lay off is not unfair labor practice. According to Taiwanese law, employers need to pay certain amount of money. For a white guy from the US, you probably don't know that Taiwan is actually more socialist than the US and China at the moment: college education is cheap, universal health care and now nationalized pension fund (which will bankrupt ROC government in about 10 years).

Man, here I thought I was talking about:



Glad you could set this white boy right.

I've been on overtime without payment as illegal practice in Taiwan many times already. They could sue the company if they have proof. Apparently, they don't have it. News reports in Taiwan is focused on laid off workers, not unsubstantial allegations.

WinTek is targeted simply because its situation now looks good under this bear market rally. This is essentially a blackmail action by certain fringe labor activist organization in Taiwan.

So if Apple's suppliers are using underpaid workers, why are Apple computers so expensive?

"So if Apple's suppliers are using underpaid workers, why are Apple computers so expensive?"

Because thay are greedy and just because they can!

"So if Apple's suppliers are using underpaid workers, why are Apple computers so expensive?"

Because thay are greedy and just because they can!

There's a fundamental difference people don't realize between the US and Taiwan. There are no unions to b!tch about everything, people are motivated to finish work by themselves. Just look at the difference in infrastructure. Workers in Taiwan get their projects done. It doesn't take 3 years to expand a major highway, its done in a few months.

they (Taiwan) doesnt have our inefficient "red tape" to deal with, its not that we Americans wont work or finish our jobs

Here in the US we must file for 4000 permits to get anything done, so thats the only reason, and well OHSA, that it takes longer for us to upgrade our infrastructure

I was actually in Taipei for the past week and heard nothing on this from the local media.

I usually am just a reader, but I'm sorry, I just had to comment that the title of this article is poor. I have no great love for Apple and I know the majority of people here are anti-apple, but this title really comes across slanted.

Out of curosity, I looked up Wintek, and they are one of the biggest suppliers of LCD's, touch panels and mobile phone panels worldwide. A couple other companies they provide parts for are Nokia and HTC; so, it would not just be Apple facing protesters.

Read the article will ya.... Apple is the company being targeted by the protesters at this moment. They are probably pleading the case that these issues will affect apple if they don't take some sort of action on their behalf. If Apple doesn't respond, they will probably then move on to other companies that these issues will affect. Its most likely the stature of Apple that made them the first target, being the 2nd giant in the industry. If Microsoft bought anything these workers made, it would be MS getting pleaded with.

Its just common sense to notify the biggest entity that the situation affects to reinforce the severity of your argument. But then again, maybe we should call it "Rare Sense" instead.