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Silicon Valley sweatshops
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mrgybe



Joined: 01 Jul 2008
Posts: 5180

PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 9:24 am    Post subject: Silicon Valley sweatshops Reply with quote

This was news to me until last night. Somehow that iPhone doesn't seem quite so cool now. If it's true, it becomes much clearer how there are so many super rich in Silicon Valley.......they should be ashamed.

"Apple is likely regretting its decision to outsource the manufacture of its iconic iPod media players to Tawainese subcontractor Foxconn, now that a report in the Mail on Sunday has revealed the Dickensian conditions under which its employees work. According to the paper, iPods are built primarily by women who typically put in 15-hour days and earn as little as $50 per month, about half of which is paid back to the company for housing and food. And that’s not the worst of it. “We have to work too hard and I am always tired,” said one Foxconn employee. “It’s like being in the army. They make us stand still for hours. If we move, we are punished by being made to stand still for longer. We have to work overtime if we are told to and can only go back to the dormitories when our boss gives us permission. If they ask for overtime we must do it. After working 15 hours until 11:30 p.m., we feel so tired.” Not the sort of dialogue you’d find in one of Apple’s new “Get a Mac” ads, is it?"

http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2006/06/designed_by_app.html

"Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) and HP (NYSE: HPQ) are all investigating the working conditions at a major Chinese supplier, following a rash of suicides at the plant, including one on Tuesday. There have reportedly been nine such suicides in addition to two failed attempts this year at Foxconn's Shenzhen factory, which employs 300,000 workers to manufacture laptop computers, motherboards, iPads and iPhones, among other products."
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/Suicides-at-FoxConn-Spur-Apple-Dell-HP-to-Look-Into-Working-Conditions-70078.html?wlc=1275574106
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jp5



Joined: 19 May 1998
Posts: 3394
Location: OnUr6

PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 9:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mr G, I'm surprised. I thought you were a corporate guy thru and thru! Surely you must know that off-shoring is the best way to maximize profits!!! Perhaps you should send Steve Jobs a personal letter admonishing him. As for me, I'd have to pry the iPhone out of my wifes cold, dead hands before she'd give that sucker up. No matter where it was made. Laughing Wink
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mac



Joined: 07 Mar 1999
Posts: 17736
Location: Berkeley, California

PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 10:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm sorry, I must have missed your constructive ideas about how to fix this problem. Could you please repeat them?
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boggsman1



Joined: 24 Jun 2002
Posts: 9110
Location: at a computer

PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 12:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mr. G I'm confused. Are you for or against the outsourcing of manufacturing by US corporations? If you are for it, than there is no argument , and the Silicon Valley slant is innacurate as all companies, WalMart, Nike, etc etc, all do it(exploit third world workers). If you are against it, thats fine as well, as a good argument for keeping manufacturing in the USA can be made. If you're looking for a reason to kick around SJ, thats fine too, he's resembling Bill Gates more and more every day, with the whole Adobe situation.
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mrgybe



Joined: 01 Jul 2008
Posts: 5180

PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 12:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"Foxconn employs some 300,000 workers at the giant plant. Laborers work, eat, sleep, shop and recreate within the walled-in facility."

See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/97vliz

When you get nearly 9 hours a day off, it's important to have all those recreation facilities. Any company would be proud to be associated with that. I do hope it's a "green" facility.
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boggsman1



Joined: 24 Jun 2002
Posts: 9110
Location: at a computer

PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 12:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mrgybe wrote:
"Foxconn employs some 300,000 workers at the giant plant. Laborers work, eat, sleep, shop and recreate within the walled-in facility."

See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/97vliz

When you get nearly 9 hours a day off, it's important to have all those recreation facilities. Any company would be proud to be associated with that. I do hope it's a "green" facility.

Not sure where you're headed Mr. G but you'll get no argument here. Third world manufacturing conditions are deplorable. Why do great US companies use them? PROFITS, GROWTH , COMPETITION. Capitalists should defend all three at all costs, are you a capitalist Mr. g?
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mrgybe



Joined: 01 Jul 2008
Posts: 5180

PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 12:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

boggsman1 wrote:
Mr. G I'm confused. Are you for or against the outsourcing of manufacturing by US corporations?


I am absolutely not against outsourcing if it makes good business sense. I have participated directly in initiatives to outsource transactional activity to Brazil, Thailand, Canada, and to China. In every one of those cases the health and safety standards were required to be identical to those of our the US operations (unless local law was more stringent). We had clear promotional opportunities in order to retain staff.........and the brightest and the best were rotated through other out-of-country ops to develop their management potential.

Even the dimmest bulb on this forum must be able to distinguish between ethical outsourcing and exploitation. It troubles me that workers in this operation are treated like cattle........and that ten have committed suicide this year alone. The line that "others are doing it" doesn't work for me. If it doesn't trouble you and others who have responded, that's your call. Just see if you can ask yourself, honestly, whether you would have yawned if Halliburton had been the outsourcer.
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MalibuGuru



Joined: 11 Nov 1993
Posts: 9288

PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 1:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very amazing to me that true conservatives want what's best for America, yet liberals deny this fact.

Encouraging big business to relocate to the U.S. is out of the question with Obama as president. in fact getting small business to buy in is also difficult.

Is it any wonder that big business is leaving when unions want $60 per hour (auto workers), and chinese are willing to make $60 per month?

Cut regulations, leave taxes alone, manage government better, and stop class warfare in the media. You'll see millions of jobs come back to America.

And oh yeah, NO MORE BAILOUTS.
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boggsman1



Joined: 24 Jun 2002
Posts: 9110
Location: at a computer

PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 1:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

MR G , I used the word "deplorable", It enrages me that US companies utilize the sweat shops, it also enrages me that US companies knowingly employ undocumented workers. Do you want me to call SJ evil, if so I will.
Bard, conservatives may think they want whats best for America, but its the thinking part that gets them in trouble.
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mrgybe



Joined: 01 Jul 2008
Posts: 5180

PostPosted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 5:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

boggsman1 wrote:
Do you want me to call SJ evil, if so I will.


I don't think that Jobs is evil.........any more than I think that corporate malfeasance is the exclusive domain of those on the right of the political spectrum. Sadly, an uniformed reader of the comments this forum might well have been led to that conclusion.
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