New Photos And Video About Working Conditions At Foxconn (Enjoy Your iPad!)

[The Straight Story]

New Photos And Video About Working Conditions At Foxconn (Enjoy Your iPad!)

French site La Vie has produced some new photos and a video about working conditions at Foxconn, the massive company in China that assembles your favorite gadgets.

There's nothing truly horrifying about them. In fact, they'll probably remind you of your first job--or the jobs held by tens of millions of Americans who are supposed to have it so good (long hours, mind-numbing work, mean bosses, tiny apartments, crappy pay, and generally depressing conditions). And apparently things have improved since all those suicides and lousy press last year. (Some workers can sit down now!)

But, still, it's a nice reminder of some of the folks you should be grateful to as you fire up your new iPad.

Via French journalist Jordan Pouille, here's a teaser video. We imagine the nice-looking girl who answered a couple of the reporter's questions as she walked to work will now be fired or beaten. (No free lunch).



http://www.businessinsider.com/foxconn-photos-2010-12

[OhioChick]

1. Do they still have their "suicide nets" up?

Truly sickening.

On edit to add link with picture:

http://www.dailytech.com/Foxconn+Installs+AntiSuicide+Nets+at+Its+Facilities/article18877.htm

[Kurovski]

2. igot no ipads or iphones.

just sayin'.

If only American workers would learn to eat bitterness, they could have these jobs here in the USA.

[Elwood P Dowd]

3. But you have plenty of other stuff made under similar conditions.

The keyboard you typed that on was probably made in the same or similar factory in China. Almost all mainstream consumer electronics is made in factories like this one in Asia. Change our insane trade policies started in the 1980s by Reagan, embraced by Clinton, advanced by Bush, and now approved by Obama, and this shit will come to a screeching halt.

[Kurovski]

8. Is it that Apple is the worst, or that Apple has been targeted?

Agreed that policies will have to include far more human rights where work is concerned. I don't see overseas jobs returning to the US in my lifetime.

IMO it was extremely important that the auto industry was given assistance.

[gmoney]

12. Apple is actually putting pressure on FoxConn, but they make stuff for everyone

Funny... on the right hand column, Business Insider sure seems to be cashing in on the popularity of the iPhone and other apple products... not to mention their iPhone app! Yay!

[WiffenPoof]

4. To Be Fair...

No one should ever have to work under these conditions....EVER!

I have been buying Apple products since 1984. It was only with my last purchase that I realized that Apple had out sourced much of the labor to other counties....mostly China. This so greatly disappointed me that I wrote to Apple and complained.

Keep in mind that Apple held out a very long time before succumbing to the temptation. There was a time when Apple products went from design to final product right here in the USA. This does not excuse their current labor policies.

However, if you want to direct your anger at a single company that owes its entire wealth to outsourcing, you should look to Walmart. No one benefits greater from cheap labor than does Walmart.

_PLA

[Elwood P Dowd]

5. If Apple were making their stuff here in the US, the Apple haters on this board would be complaining

about the exorbitant prices. The cheapest Apple might be $995.00 rather than $695.00. It really doesn't make much difference what Apple does, the haters will still come here and trash them even though Steve Jobs is a Democrat and close friends with Al Gore and Bill Clinton. Most of the Apple haters on DU actually prefer the republican brands like Dell and HP.

[KansasVoter]

6. And Jobs is an arrogant asshole. And his followers still love him.

[WiffenPoof]

11. Sure, he has a huge ego...

but most successful visionaries do.

[DainBramaged]

13. People who do not bow to the Apple are not haters

Broad-brushing those of us who aren't true believers is disgusting.

[demodonkey]

7. Check out where they make electronic voting machines... it will make you sick.

Google Dan Rather "Trouble With Touchscreens" -- watch the first part (a little over 20 minutes.)

It is/was on HD.net

[Codeine]

9. And your non-Apple stuff was made in the same conditions.

Why are we singling out iPads? :shrug:

[Brickbat]

10. If it says "Made in China", I assume that it's made under conditions similar to these. All of it.

Some other countries, too. It's not like the iPad is made here and the "Made in China" coffeemaker is made at the NICE factory down the road, where workers get breaks and overtime pay and a living wage and the toxic sludge that comes out of the side of the building isn't actually toxic.

[Quantess]

14. Aren't ALL gadgets made in China?

The thing that gets me is, are we supposed to be surprised that Apple products are made in China? Everything else is made there. Why should Apple gadgets be any different?

[Kurovski]

15. That's why I'm wondering about why the focus is on Apple. (nt)

Is it to create the impression that everything else is fine or better?

It's like throwing Maddof into prison while 3,796 other criminals roam Wall Street unencumbered.

[Quantess]

16. No, actualy, I think people assume Apple is better.

Because Apple products are good quality and more expensive, people want to believe they are manufactured in Minnesota, or something.
Maybe that's why the focus is on Apple, because people don't automatically think "Made in China" when they think of an iPad.

[DainBramaged]

17. The quality is NO better than PCs are, they use the SAME components