Report: Apple Does Not Care Enough About Workers in China

Die, Apple just die already.

Apple used to be the darlings of the press. I wonder why the change now?

Besides, doesn't 99% of all electronics get made in China?

The onus is not on Apple. If the conditions are that bad (and I'm not implying they aren't; they appear to be atrocious) then a rational work force should refuse to work under those conditions. This is the main reason labor unions formed during the Industrial Revolution (even if not why they exist today). If unions or similar labor organizations are "illegal," then a political solution is required, over which Apple has no control unless you believe their responsibilities include sedition and supporting some kind of revolutionary movement.

Hey, they aren't Union...so who cares??? (That's /sarc for those that don't "get it".)

Something like the "Fair Trade" label needs applying to all the goods we buy, we need to know where everything comes from and the pay/conditions of the workers involved.

So this is a surprise????

The only thing, apparently, crApple cares about is transferring the money in its customer's bank accounts to the crApple bank account - even if doing so costs the lives of the people it employs usurps.

The only thing worse than this, IMHO, is the fact that crApple customers do not recognize that they enable dysfunctional crApple to continue with practices such as this by buying crApple products - mostly in the name of keeping up with the Jones' or doing stuff because it is said to be easier to do on a crApple.

I believe their responsibility includes not making use of such forms of labor, as irrational a viewpoint as that seems to be. You can require certain work conditions to be met as part of your contract with another company. If they do not meet those requirements, they do not get your work and are guilty of breach of contract. Foxconn would no longer exist if the big OEM corporations stopped using them until they gave workers fair pay and rights.

The problem is also the consumers. Most people just don't care about workers in those conditions as long as they are in another part of the world. Out of sight, out of mind. If the consumers stopped purchasing goods made from this labor, it also wouldn't be used anymore. The problem is also our government, for not implementing extreme tariffs and sanctions against countries with such enormous human rights problems. Instead our government is busy starting wars and catering to the corporations that paid for them to get into office.

Just another Apple iLie.

Total Crap. crApple enables this by contracting with manufacturers who are known to be abusive of employees.

As Fez777 says, IF crApple employed something similar to Fair Trade practices, this would be much less of a concern. There are companies out there that do this successfully.

Apple care only about themselves.

Apple in the hands of Jobs would plow over any man, woman, or child to move toward innovation. It's to early to tell what Cook will do with these leftover lingering problems. We live in a culture that is ignorant to the plights of others and as long as we get what we want for cheap that's all that matters. For something to harm Apples "spotless image" it's going to take something massive that changes the way we get out products. People complain about Apple having slave labor while writing on an ipad or iphone. If you really want to see this change, stop being a hypocrite and do a little research on where your products are being made.

It's not Apple's problem, but rather the Chinese Gov't. The labor is there regardless if Apple saturates it. The hours and pay may be crap, but the alternative of no employment is much worse for the Chinese. Apple is being competitive in a competitive world. China continues to keep there currency under valued all while taking from the people to support under funded building project such as their knock off Manhattan.There's this emotional cause regarding "Blood Diamonds" that is to protect the best interests of native people, though there underlying benefit is to control, regulate and fix the gemstone market via.

@rawful - So happy you get it!!!!

More Total Crap.Governments cannot solve the problem unless their people understand what is acceptable human behavior in the first place, and the Chinese government has absolutely no idea what is acceptable human behavior.

"a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn't it? "

Are you willing to pay a premium for the product. In the food industry this form of branding gains little traction and due to baseless labeling (ex. BST free labeling) that has caught on. In tough economic times people buy based on price, not on the benefits of the niche.

Apple do have a responsability since they're directly supporting Foxconn in the way they treat their employees by buying from them. Since Apple has the long end of the stick, they could help the workers. Here's a simple and plausible scenario :

Apple : Hey Foxconn, we have the best-selling phone in the world. You want to build it for us? Start treating your workers right, else we'll move production to some other third-world country.
Foxconn : Okay, but we'll need to increase salaries by 10%.
Apple : No problem. We'll label the phone as "Fair trade" and price them 20% more.

If anyone here cares then don't buy Apple products or services, that is the least you can show your support, but if we did this to every products we buy then I would guess we would die of hunger and live in a tent.

Tell me your secret to positive upvotes, please; I never have such luck with your statements.
/agreed

Apple made 13 billion in 1 quarter of the year. If they took 1 billion out of that converted it into yuan and paid the 230 thousand workers at Foxconn it would more than double their yearly salary. They currently make 24 thousand yuan a year, that 1 billion would pay each worker an extra 27 thousand yuan a year. It is literally a drop in the bucket for a company like Apple to do something like this and if they did it would make everybody a lot happier.

Apple (nor any other company manufacturing there or even us buying their products) really care about the folks being exploited in China. How many of us will throw away our modern commodities or stop buying them to make a stand (or a point) that we don't want Chinese people being the 21th century slaves?

Are we really that good morally to pay 200usd+ for something that makes Chinese people leave like any other folk in a 1st rate country? Hardly it will make 10% of all the people reading here.

Apple is not the only one to point fingers here. WE ALL ARE AT FAULT HERE!

This is not a heads up for Apple alone; it's for everybody to understand what's going on within the Chinese mentality here.

Read this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/ [...] wanted=all

That will give you all a better understanding of the Chinese.

Cheers!

Exactly, they wouldn't even have to raise the price. I am sure they would anyways, because that is the type of company Apple is (which is why they won't make Foxconn improve conditions in the first place).

Seriously though, this trade system ONLY benefits the corporations. It is not a benefit to America that we get cheap electronics, because now we have no jobs and our economy is crashing. It is not a benefit to Chinese workers to make us these cheap electronics, because their job has horrific work conditions and they don't even get paid enough to live off of what they go through, much less even afford to buy the freaking things that they are building.

We NEED to stop buying things made in third-world countries. It does not help their economy or living conditions and it kills ours. They are just being taken advantage of by corporations, just like we are. What would help the Chinese people is to set up a government that guarantees human rights, just as we used to have, and to build local economies, just like we used to have (you know, when we were prospering instead of slowly choking to death).

REPORT: Apple, Intel, AMD-ATI, Microsoft, Google, LG, Nvidia and every other American-based Tech company that outsources manufacturing jobs to China don't care about workers in China.

It's cheaper not to care than it is to care. If anyone of them cared, they'd contract factories in the US to make their products.

Well, at least Apple bothered to release a report on the working conditions in their supplier's factories. That is more than any other American tech company has done.

It is on Apple. It's their facility, they should be making sure their employees have good working conditions. A political solution won't happen because of the government there, & most likely the employees are afraid to even attempt any type of refusal to work.

Hell Guard - Work faster you moron, just like how employees built your Apple products.
Jobs - I'm trying. By the way, this is the nicest, biggest mansion I ever got to build in heaven.

Hell Guard - Don't get used to it. You're going back down to hell after you're done building this.
Jobs - I know. I know. If I may ask, who's going to own this mansion in heaven?

Hell Guard - The guy you hated while you were alive. Starts with "Bill."

The NYTimes article focuses on Apple, but the truth is that a lot of major tech companies use Foxconn, and that pretty much every piece of technology the western world buys or uses on a regular basis was assembled in similar factories. TV's, bluray players, PS3, XBox360, the phone in our pocket, the computer we use every day, the monitor we're reading this article on and the keyboard we're using to comment with. Apple having one of the most successful quarters in history makes for a good way to bring the spotlight on a very real problem with the technology industry and how the western world consumes it. Rather than targeting one part (Apple) we should push for much larger changes in policy and accountability in all aspects.

The overall problem is very multi-faceted and our country's economic culture and resulting practices perpetuate this type of business model. No matter how many billions a company reports in terms of quarterly profits, it's never enough to support the incessant expectation of the markets for further growth. This results in a drive for yet further increases in efficiency and productivity at the expense of said company's workforce. Whether it's in regards to the tech sector or otherwise, consumer movements demanding the restoration of ethical business practices, the organization of labor, and true financial market reforms represent the backbone of any credible solution. America and the rest of the world have embraced supply-side economics for entirely too long at the expense of the health of the overall marketplace.

Fixed that for ya!

i will be downvoted to -20 for this view i know it, but read most of this before the down vote.

in school, i watched a video about ge, and how they use to make nuke parts, and how that was bad. i tod the teacher i had stock in them, and i didn't care if they worshiped satan (i live in a fairly religious area, non practiceing and most are likely agnostic, but if ever asked, christian all around) killed infants, drank their blood and had an orgy in the entrails, so long as their stock went up i didnt care. she tried to have me suspended for that point of view, but it just went to detention. i said that so you know where im comeing from when i say the rest.

in other 3ed world countries, sweat shops are honestly the best work you can get, and child labor, while sad, is really their only way to live. when asked a girl child laborer, she said it was either the sweat shop or prostitution. i always say that we should place out first world values on an impoverishment third world country.

now foxxicon, i hear their government contracts people pretty much against their will to work there. if thats true, than i have a major problem with that.

but if its peoples choice... i couldnt care less what the working conditions are, because again, they are a more or less impoverished third world country, at least as non major city living standards go. if they chose to work there, than that must be their only other option for them.

i can even understand the suicides, because if all i had to look forward to in life was working for jack inside a building than sleep... id be the first to toss myself off the building. and like i said, this only applies if its their choice.

We are spoiled and reliant on our tech gadgets, but there are little things we can do to protest this. For starters, I use my old products for as long as I can, only buying a new replacement when I absolutely have to. Furthermore, I try to stick to the 2nd-hand market, or rebuild//refurbish a device - it both saves a device from going to the landfill, and even keeps somebody from buying that brand-new toy.

The last "new" laptop I bought was 8 years ago. I still use a Palm T|X I bought about 6 years ago and with some repairs still works just fine. My desktop computers are all self-built, only replacing//upgrading parts when the old part dies.