Chinese Factory Workers Write to Steve Jobs

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Its more than just that.

Australia has been following the US for years as most western countries in allowing manufacturing to go over seas becasue they "cannot compeat" with their rivals in costings of making goods.

Anyone who has worked in manufracturing over the 20 years will know the biggest killer to any comparsion is:

1. OH&S

China has very little in the way of OH&S in the country or enforces it, like the western countries, and this one of the big ones for costing. If you use n-hexane in Aus and i dare say US, you would need ventilation of a set limit, masks, protective clothing before you even opened the bottle.

2. Labour Cost

This is the biggest one of all.
They are paying their workers about $1.25 hour give or take, I spent 18 years in manufacturing and my average wage was $25 an hour, the lowest wage at my plant was $18 for a non trained worker.
Before i even walk in the door, the cost of work cloths to be cleaned and bought was roughly $70 for the week for a 4 day production cycle (4 x 10 hour days).
And finally the insurance required to cover me encase of accident was like another $5 an hour if i remember correctly.

All of these items have been fought for by Unions so their members and family can enjoy a good life together.

So if you can really say all companies are doing it to compete and help other china your in a dream.

They do it to cut costs and increase profits to themselves, steve jobs and co do not give one thought to the workers of china or actually apple employee's if they can save a buck, they will show anyone the door.

The stock markets love it when they offshore and show a bigger profit the next year.

What will happen when china eventually catches up to the western worlds practices?
The factories will move to India, middle east or another Asian country like they are doing to twain.

Any country who lets manufacturing go overseas need to slap that company with a 400% tax on all of their products and stand tall and say, if you offshore, you will still pay your share of responsibility on this country
 
Considering Apple doesn't even care about it's customers...I seriously doubt they care about the assembly line workers who make their product.
 
reminder : China is NOT a democratic country. So if anything goes wrong it wont show up in newspapers/t.v. the very next second like in India where every shit going around the city is shown in the local news. The govt. here go so pissed off with the t.v. channels that they imposed bans on them.
Thats not the case with in China. if they say something is bad, just think that something much much worse already happened. They are really secretive. So secretive that they even ban Google and internet throughout the nation if they spot even an ant!!
 
This is not Apple's fault, or China's fault, or Wintek's fault. The blame lies with the consumer. People know about the atrocious work methods used in making electronics, but they don't care. They consume, they line up days before product releases and cry and scream when supply can't meet their demand. If you have a problem with the way these workers are treated then do your research and don't support companies which treat their employees or, or their business partners.
 
[citation][nom]ghostsoldier[/nom]Someone's probably already posted something like this, but they are free to quit if they don't like the job.[/citation]

I assume by your response that you may be young and live in a democratic society. Please read up on Communism. Learn what it is about. Educate yourself so that when you grow up, and are of age to vote, that you can vote into power those candidates that will keep your country as free as it can, and never fall into a communist regime. You have that responsibility. That is your duty as citizen of your country.

In a communist country, most jobs are assigned to you (by the communist party), and certainly, most jobs do not give you an option to quit. Did you know that individuals that do not comply with an order that is given by a government official are typically executed?

Begin your research on communism with searches of news articles about civilian protests held in China. A university student rally fighting for democracy comes to mind where the Chinese government responded by openning fire with machine guns on the students.

To All,
We know that recently, according to news articles previously published here on Tom's, that Jobs had secured delivery of tablet displays for its upcoming production requirements in 2011. There was speculation of shortages for the industry, but Apple had gauranteed their deliveries. I'm wondering how much correlation these stories may have. It's plausible that Wintec may have used the chemical to increase production output. If this is the case, I wonder how many people had to suffer the consequences of the chemical before it became prevalent enough that the company had to resort back to alcohol?

I'm all for making money ethically, and legally, but never at the cost of human lives. I wouldn't want this on my conscience, especially if it was a deliberate means employed just to make more displays.
 
If we stop putting our plants in China, they will go to taiwan, indonesia, india, and vietnam. After that, Africa. There's always a place where people will do more job for less pay.
 
[citation][nom]Belardo[/nom]Who cares?This is why Unions suck which prevents America from competing with China and other such countries! Those pesky worker rights, work hour limits, safety requirements, minimal pay all get in the way of progress.We also should go back to 1950s tax rates too![/citation]

And, yet, the EU with strong VATs and a highly-paid workforce continues to prosper above and beyond the ole U.S.A., even with subsidized healthcare and schooling.
 
[citation][nom]wiyosaya[/nom]And you? You sound like the one doing the whipping rather than being whipped. Perhaps you should try the other side for once in your life. Did your parents birth you with a silver spoon already in your mouth?I think you are spouting a lot of BS. The only reason we "cannot compete" is because we are sending all of our business to China rather than keeping it on our own turf. China would not be where it is unless Americans put it there. If we just stopped having stuff produced in China, China would fall flat on its face.And why are we sending all our business to China? In pursuit of the all mighty dollar bill - the Holy Grail of capitalism that is causing its downfall.Crawl back under a rock, troll, instead of hailing those who cause injury to others.[/citation]

We send work to China, because it's cheaper.

Example: Needed a compressor motor. New motor is made in China and Ohio. Contacted the company rep (who also happens to be the owner) about the price differences. Was told that the units made in Ohio are simply to satisfy the "Made in America" loyalists. The Chinese unit was $300...while the unit made in Ohio was $1200. Rep said, on average, it costs $150-$200 per Chinese unit, but $1000-$1100 for each unit made in Ohio to be manufactured. The manufacturing methods are identical...as are the final products and the material bills. The cost of the physical labor is 100% of the cost difference...$800-$900 in labor costs per unit. Last check, he was discontinuing production in Ohio because nobody wants to pay $1200 just for the "made in america" tag when they can get a completely identical product for 1/4 the cost.

The real reason we can't compete isn't because we're sending work to China....we're sending work to China because we can't compete. Factories here price themselves out of contention due to sheer greed...
 
[citation][nom]wiyosaya[/nom]And you? You sound like the one doing the whipping rather than being whipped. Perhaps you should try the other side for once in your life. Did your parents birth you with a silver spoon already in your mouth?I think you are spouting a lot of BS. The only reason we "cannot compete" is because we are sending all of our business to China rather than keeping it on our own turf. China would not be where it is unless Americans put it there. If we just stopped having stuff produced in China, China would fall flat on its face.And why are we sending all our business to China? In pursuit of the all mighty dollar bill - the Holy Grail of capitalism that is causing its downfall.Crawl back under a rock, troll, instead of hailing those who cause injury to others.[/citation]


apparently you can't notice sarcasm in a written form
 
Jobs doesn't care, and with all the suicides and deaths just proves it. IF he actually responds it'll be just to tell them that they are breathing wrong.
 
These countries are just the same as we were 100's of years ago, peeps worked for low wages in poor/unsafe condition when children crawled up chimneys to clean them and down mines for dusk darkness of morning till darkness of evening.

If Apple say ok we will make our products here in the USA (and all other companies do same those workers are then out of a job which pays them more (and a lot more of them are employed) then they can get working in a field.
 
[citation][nom]aaron88_7[/nom] Plumbing is pretty much one of the lowest paid jobs around so I'm curious what you think is a lot.[/citation]

I agreed with a lot of what you said... but this is absolutely false. Right now I work for a friend whom owns his own plumbing business. He does very well. Bought a home, bought his wife a brand new TL with the SH package, is thinking about buying an investment home- you get the idea. If you're a union plumber you make *prevailing wage*, which is upwards of 40 to 65 dollars an hour, depending on the location of the job.

To say plumbers are low-paid is just not true. I'd sure love 40 dollars an hour working a 40 hour week.
 
Being a process chemist in R&D we use n-hexane all the time. The use of the name hexyl hydride makes it sound worse. Before you rant about all the problems of apple (i hate jobs and his worshipers more than anyone) and using this material, at least check the MSDS for the chemical. Its affects are well documented and really only have a few things oriented with it during exposure. Mainly a feel of momentary nausia or dissorientation. There are virtually no long term side affects. Most of the time you will experience very minute conditions of this under normal operations with 55 gal drums, etc. However, as long as your wear proper PPE, like a full face respirator it will be fine.

My guess, is that these facilities in china look at safety as an after thought. They most likely do not have proper PPE or even guidelines for use of them because they are too expensive for a cheaply paid employee with no real rights. They most likely don't have even properly ventilated facilities and if they have a low air flow hepa system they probably will multiply the problem 100x.

If you want your iPad, iPhone or iCrap to cost what it does this will always be the case, regardless of the company, if they operate in countries with poor work standards. If you want to pay an extra $50 per device to assure quality, safety, etc. than buy from a company who manufactures all their parts in the US, japan, europe, canada, UK, etc. But most people won't. So stop being a hypocrite when you will buy electronics from india, china, etc.
 
[citation][nom]cookoy[/nom]Who is to be blamed? Apple or Wintek? The customer or the manufacturer?[/citation]
Both the customers and the manufacturer.
 
I used to work for Steve and have been in many meeting with him. I know first hand that he only cares about these things to the extent that they effect his business goals (and his personal image).

So this letter, because it is public, will be discussed. And options will be examined.

Obviously, Steve can afford to help. (Not to say that he will.) He is worth billions in the US, and many more billions hidden in his untaxed offshore companies. Those billions came from his overcharged customers and exploited employees. Robber barons are alive and well, in spite of Steve's public image as a "visionary".
 
I actually would blame on China or Chinese people themselves.

If China was like any of the European developed countries, I believe no one would out-source any thing to China. Every developing has to experience such period to be developed.

The only thing we can blame on is that China has way too many people (that we are too slow to become first-world country) which leads to bad educational system and China has insufficient farmable lands; We have to even import food overseas, and yes we have to pay for that and by what? only such cheap labor force is feasible. With our educational system, it is really unrealistic to think we can design iAnything as oppose to manufacture them. Plus Asians are generally not as creative as Caucasians.

The basic needs for living have cause what we do. Don't you think our government does not know what has happened in those factories? Or the government just wants its people die? We pretend we don't care is because we need those jobs. Yes, people are sick, people die. Think about the fact that such sacrifice is the only way to send those kids to school, keep their families not starve to death. In comes to greater good, such sacrifice is justified.

It is the sad truth; natural selection. By all means, survival skill is the only thing that keeps human alive. This is no such a thing as ideal, what we choose is just better.

So, please if you think you can blame such things on Americans, think of how you can open US soil to any one of us who want to come and have so called American Dreams. Stop putting evil immigration policies such like waiting for 10 years for the damn green card from H1B, I almost forget to mention in order to have companies filed for such visas, one has to prove no American can handle the job. I mean, really if you think you want fairness, don't just leave us those shitty jobs which Americans don't bother to do.

Other than that, let us just forget about the news at end of the day. Continue to buy cheap iAnythings. Nothing changes, not by me, not by you. When time comes, revolution will just automatically come in handy.
 
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