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Businessweek article on Foxconn/Hon Hai: "The Man Who Makes Your iPhone"

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by cwerdna, Sep 11, 2010.

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  1. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    As someone who's in the technology industry and used to work on Mac software, I've read bits here and there about Foxconn and know they produce a TON of stuff for lots of companies, not just Apple and not just iPhones. The magnifying glass was definitely on them after a bunch of worker suicides.

    The Man Who Makes Your iPhone - BusinessWeek
    The article was a decent read.
     
    #1 cwerdna, Sep 11, 2010
  2. a_gray_prius

    a_gray_prius Rare Non-Old-Blowhard Priuschat Member

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    #2 a_gray_prius, Sep 11, 2010
    1 person likes this.
  3. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    #3 cwerdna, Nov 12, 2011
  4. xs650

    xs650 Senior Member

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    I wouldn't want to work at Foxconn and I'm not defending their labor practices, but this suicide thing has been blown all out of proportion.

    If you compare Foxconns rate to US college campuses, US cities the size of the main Foxconn campus (300,000 people) or large US universities, their suicide rate is relatively low.

    Media gets its facts wrong - working at Foxconn significantly cuts suicide risk | ZDNet

    Don't Mean To Be Rude, But Suicide Rate At Apple's iPad-Maker Foxconn Is Lower Than All 50 U.S. States - Business Insider
     
    #4 xs650, Nov 12, 2011
  5. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    Yep, I posted those same stats about China's suicide rate vs. that at Foxconn in a Foxconn related thread in another forum.
     
    #5 cwerdna, Nov 12, 2011
  6. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    #6 cwerdna, Feb 16, 2012
  7. a_gray_prius

    a_gray_prius Rare Non-Old-Blowhard Priuschat Member

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    #7 a_gray_prius, Feb 16, 2012
  8. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    Most of what we buy, regardless of label, is made by Foxconn or companies that are essentially indistinguishable from it. It comes down to Americans' unwillingness to pay the price of their own labor.
     
    #8 daniel, Feb 16, 2012
  9. eagle33199

    eagle33199 Platinum Member

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    http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/15/us-china-apple-idUSTRE81E1FQ20120215

    Sure, conditions should be improved... but its better than sitting in a sweat shop churning out that shirt you're wearing right now!
     
    #9 eagle33199, Feb 17, 2012
  10. stevemcelroy

    stevemcelroy Active Member

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    This was featured on This American Life a few weeks ago. One of the things that really struck me was when they were talking about how the factory floor was almost completely quiet. The workers were not allowed to talk, but there was almost no machinery - the wording was something like "in a country where the cost of labor is almost nothing, just about everything is done by hand". As someone who runs a small manufacturing company that has really stuck with me and it still boggles my mind.

     
    #10 stevemcelroy, Feb 17, 2012
  11. a_gray_prius

    a_gray_prius Rare Non-Old-Blowhard Priuschat Member

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    Funny story: Someone I know made the shirt I'm wearing right now. I guess you could consider her sewing room a sweatshop though.

    What do you make? I'm genuinely interested.
     
    #11 a_gray_prius, Feb 17, 2012
  12. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    One of my favorite podcasts.

    A long time ago, in Spain, cigars were rolled by hand. It was boring, tedious work. So the factory employed (or perhaps the workers themselves hired) a person to read to the workers, to make the long hours more endurable. The result was that all those hours upon hours, days, weeks, and years of reading educated the workers. The cigar workers, educated in this way, became revolutionaries.

    Nowadays factory owners are much more savvy, and none of them wants to educate his workers. So they impose silence instead.

    Admittedly, rolling cigars requires no concentration at all. Perhaps the workers at Foxconn need to concentrate on their work. But I doubt it.
     
    #12 daniel, Feb 17, 2012
  13. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    I'm guessing that you referring to http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory. I listened to the podcast via one of my iDevices (eps were synced to it via iTunes).

    On this note: I will be recording http://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/18...ghtline-access-to-foxconn-factories-in-china/.
     
    #13 cwerdna, Feb 19, 2012
  14. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    #14 cwerdna, Feb 23, 2012
  15. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    The Nightline piece I mentioned above was decent and at least somewhat insightful. I'd never seen as much of Foxconn's lines until that episode.

    Here's another article on this subject: http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/what-cameras-inside-foxconn-found/?partner=yahoofinance, keeping in mind that Pogue is an Apple fanboy...
    Although it's terrible people are committing suicide, as we stated earlier, the suicide rate is lower than the rest of China.

    But seriously, watch the Nightline piece and put yourself into the shoes of workers who come from the country and are dirt poor there. They come to a huge city (which is totally alien to them) where they don't know anyone/many people for a job that pays more. They're working at least 12+ hours/day (hearing figures of 7 days of 15-hours/day), doing the same thing over and over, hearing a fembot voice and saying "Ok" thousands of times. To quote from http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/m...has-triggered-the-suicide-cluster-at-foxconn/ from >1.5 years ago:
    There was a preview of the Nightline piece at http://abcnews.go.com/International/trip-ifactory-nightline-unprecedented-glimpse-inside-apples-chinese/story?id=15748745#.T0dhnIcgc9p which has some bits not shown in the actual ep.

    IMHO, both are worth watching if you've posted here in this thread or have an opinion about Apple's (and MANY other companies use of Foxconn) and manufacturing in China.
     
    #15 cwerdna, Feb 24, 2012
  16. a_gray_prius

    a_gray_prius Rare Non-Old-Blowhard Priuschat Member

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    Oh look, Foxconn just hired Burson-Marsteller...

    Exclusive: Foxconn hires Burson-Marsteller to hit out at underage worker claims - Other clients: Bhopal, Blackwater | TechEye

     
    #16 a_gray_prius, Feb 29, 2012
  17. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    #17 cwerdna, Mar 16, 2012
  18. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    Oops. :(
     
    #18 daniel, Mar 16, 2012
  19. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    #19 cwerdna, Mar 16, 2012
  20. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    #20 cwerdna, Apr 13, 2012
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