Foxconn Undercover Report on Working Conditions

[CTPAHHIK]

Why did AsianJetlag got voted down? He posted most meaningful comment. While $132 is nothing compared to developed world, in most eastern european that would be considered a lot.
You have a place to live, transportation to work and stable salary without any education whatsoever. Compare that to Russia, where nurse's salary is $80 a month (someone with a college degree), which does not include living and transportation expenses.
All things considered it could be much worse.

 

[Kelavarus]

[citation][nom]dwave[/nom]The conservatives don't say " well, who's going to pick your strawberries for $4/hr" the liberals do. I am conservative and I say get the illegals out of here.[/citation]

So you're going to pick my strawberries? Or keep the prices down when we've no longer got a workforce that stays around for such low wages?

 

[Guest]

all i hear you lot complain about is blah blah blah they should be happy to get 2 pence blah blah blah. You dont think foxconn is making a killing from their slave labor?, i dont think it's about the pay but the disparity of pay, these people are being exploited (because they should be happy to just earn 2 pence) so that people like foxconn and Apple can make obscene amount of profit, im pretty sure apple sourcing from foxconn made their products cheaper right......

 

[fisshy]

This is sad... This is happening all over the world, but the only place they could uncover is Foxconn. $50 says GB, ASUS, MSI and EVGA are also doing this

 

[cscott_it]

Well, cheap labor isn't going anywhere. Free market rules dictate that when you have an overabundance of something that you can get from almost anywhere, it isn't worth much. To be fair, that's the way it should be.

In this case it would be people, or more specifically labor. Unskilled labor isn't going to appreciate in value unless something major happens on this overpopulated rock we call home.

Does that make it any better? No, not really, and I'll echo what I posted earlier about the insane profit margin on cost to produce vs. price of product. You can factor in as much R&D as you want, but I think you are just lying to yourself at this point.
Do I like it? Not particularly, but it's not changing.

However, and people need to realize this, this is more of a moral debate than anything else. There is no right or wrong answer, because morality is abstract and utterly subjective. If you think otherwise, you are closed minded.

 

[mianmian]

A sad news: the 10th suicide in Foxconn just happened, May 21st, local time.

 

[kyeana]

[citation][nom]dwave[/nom]The conservatives don't say " well, who's going to pick your strawberries for $4/hr" the liberals do. I am conservative and I say get the illegals out of here.[/citation]

[citation][nom]bad_code[/nom]cheap-laborConservative's point about everything else is good and I think even the conservatives did want them to stay in our country. The Department of Labor wants them and so do other institutions which lobby for keeping them in using our bail out money. IBM also uses foxconn. Its all about cheap labor and more profit. Not lower prices. Just more profit. All the skills are leaving our country too. Not just the jobs. That's both liberal and conservatives. But conservatives give these business tax breaks for shipping jobs over seas. Oh yeah, your tax dollars are paying to get rid of you job. GO REPUBLICANS!!!!![/citation]

Leave the political trolling off this forum.

 

[dgingeri]

I remember days like this when I was working retail here in Denver. I was making 5.20/hr, but taxes took about 1/3 of that, so my weekly paychecks were $175/week for 50 hours. My rent and electricity were $400/month at the time, and I was living with 3 other people. (I think they were bilking me, but I couldn't tell at the time.) They'd take any food I brought home, so I wound up eating at Wendy's a lot, where their value menu allowed me to get a full meal for $2.50 at the time. I could only eat twice a day, and that was a cheezeburger, small fries, and water. gas to get to work cost me $100/month, and insurance for another $100/ month. That left me with about $20 a month in spare cash, which was frequently used to buy new pants, as my pants would get torn up just from working. If I went over that $20/month in extra expenses, it would cost me meals.

I lived like that for 4 months before I found out one roommate was taking our electricity bill money and using it to buy pot. our electricity got turned off, and none of us had money to get it turned back on. The phone got turned off as well shortly after that. After 6 months, I gave up on those guys and moved to Chicago to live in my parents' basement. As ashamed as I was at being unable to provide for myself at 23, living in my parents' basement was better.

Its not quite as bad as it is there, but it was close. living on a couch in a roach and rat infested 1 bedroom apartment, not able to get food on a regular basis, 10+ hours of overtime the only way to keep going. no lights or phone much of the time. Yeah, it's rough, but survivable. I know there are people here who still live like that around here. Most of them are Mexicans, either legal or illegal, working in food service, landscaping, or retail. I know I'm lucky to have the job I have right now.

I won't go back to that again. I'd rather pour bleach and ammonia in my toilet and lay down in the bathtub for a nap before going back to that life.

 

[stridervm]

$132!? That's pretty big! But then, to a tech company, that's just standard........ In our country, the per day minimum is just 5$..... But then if you have $2 you can eat for a day.....

But it seems working conditions on Foxconn isn't that good.... So I guess this is an example of people willing to sacrifice a lot only for money.....

Sadly, this is a way of life for a lot of developing countries, if the big/foreign companies don't use them the local companies will use (abuse) them, the government could help this problem.... But since most politicians also need money in the end.... Probably nothing will change....

PS. I'm from a third world country. So bear with me..... =/

 

[Guest]

Slave labor. They're paid cheap because they live under a tyranny of bureaucratic communism. The Communist party leaders don't care....they get paid bribes by the companies and live high off the hog. The companies don't care because they have the politicians in their back pockets. See...there really is no difference between communist and capitalist societies. In one system you know your a slave (communism) and in the other you don't (capitalism). All the while the oligarchs laugh as they suck you dry.

 

[Guest]

well, picking strawberries is a very easy task. I would say very easy task for robots, just put some technology on the fields and don't cry that it will be pretty expensive. I don't think so, I guess now days any student in the engineering field are able to make some kind of a robotic picking machine... yep

 

[pollom]

[citation][nom]Azimuth01[/nom]People say that these conditions are unbearable and horrible, yet these same people run out and purchase the cheapest TV they can find then brag about the deal they got. If people really believe that things need to change, stop buying their goods with a smile.[/citation]

The real problem is foxconn produces expensive stuff like apple products.
This report is an example of this old video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8

 

[pollom]

I pay less to my workers in my company, I pay $918 dollars per month and is good pay, some factory’s near to here only pays $68.55 and public transport cost $1/1.5 per day depends how far they leaves.
Sorry about my terrible English

 

[Guest]

I am a manager in a Chinese factory I pay less every year I even let my workers to sleep under their workbenches at night some of them live in villages. Else, they want rise but I cannot afford any pay rise. Some of them live my company for bigger money but have no luck with it. What I do, I feed them free lunch at noon so they feel better about work and more productive. 2-3 $ a day it is normal out here especially when your workers have few years of school. Basically like slaves...

 

[bad_code]

[citation][nom]kyeana[/nom]Leave the political trolling off this forum.[/citation]

Ok we'll stick to things you understand like PS3s and video games and Wii.

 

[bad_code]

[citation][nom]Xo Xo Broken Investor[/nom]I am a manager in a Chinese factory I pay less every year I even let my workers to sleep under their workbenches at night some of them live in villages. Else, they want rise but I cannot afford any pay rise. Some of them live my company for bigger money but have no luck with it. What I do, I feed them free lunch at noon so they feel better about work and more productive. 2-3 $ a day it is normal out here especially when your workers have few years of school. Basically like slaves...[/citation]
That's really sad. I've work with some of those people (china and taiwan). It's a VERY different culture. I hope one day I can go there and understand more about how they do business. It's very difficult working with them.

 

[dgingeri]

[citation][nom]bad_code[/nom]That's really sad. I've work with some of those people (china and taiwan). It's a VERY different culture. I hope one day I can go there and understand more about how they do business. It's very difficult working with them.[/citation]

For one thing, they believe in aristocracy. They believe that some should be held above others, and that humanity is better for it. Most willingly accept their place and don't complain. That part is not unlike Europe during the middle ages. Some principles of Islam are the same way. Freedom is held as a bad thing by much of the world, viewing it as chaos.

I happen to disagree, and am very thankful for the Freemasons who created this country. I despise aristocracy, and anyone who promotes it.

That difference in how we think is precisely why we get so much friction with the rest of the world.

 

[BulkZerker]

[citation][nom]bad_code[/nom]Ok we'll stick to things you understand like PS3s and video games and Wii.[/citation]


Yes please, because every post you submit makes a random Chinese citizen wonder about workers rights, and subsequently he's asked to jump off the side of the dorm roof so it looks like suicide.

 

[Crashman]

Whenever immigration reform is discussed in America, the conservatives say "well, who's going to pick your strawberries for $4/hr, the prices of fruits and vegetables will skyrocket".

Liberals say "who's going to pick your strawberries for $4 an hour" when pointing the finger at conservatives. Conservatives follow one of two camps, those who "don't say anything" in an effort to support farmers, and those who do say "get them out of here".

And it's not $4 an hour, it's around $8-12 an hour. That's right, illegals get paid more than most American low-income workers, to do crappy work that most low-income Americans can't handle. I know this FIRST HAND because I've done that work. I've picked fruit, right alongside the migrant workers. I've spent 12-hour days in asparagus fields, bent over a picker platform with the hot sun blistering my skin right through the shirt, with nothing more than a 15 minute lunch and a 5-minute water break every two hours. I've suffered heat stroke working in conditions that many people believe only exist in foreign countries. I've spent four days in someone's basement recovering from heat stroke because I didn't know how dangerous my symptoms really were. And when I tried improve my lot with a job framing houses, I was told "Americans need not apply". So I remained, for a time, unemployed.

Watch someone who's never worked a job harder than McDonalds give me a -1 for having stronger work ethic.

Now for the hard truth: Many Americans WILL do those jobs. Many Americans WILL accept the "low" pay, because it's still more than the federal minimum. The problem for FARMERS is that there aren't ENOUGH Americans willing to do it. And the problem for framers is...liability. Illegals don't report dangerous conditions or file against their employers after being injured.

 

[Crashman]

Leave the political trolling off this forum.

Nice how you called dwave's response a troll post without calling out the original author that he was responding to.

 

[mdillenbeck]

I don't believe there is an easy solution to these problems of industrialization.

It is fair to say that these are sweatshops, they exploit workers and treat them just above slaves.

It is fair to say "getting rid of the illegals" would not benefit our country. Ask anyone in the restaurant or hotel industry who they would rather higher, an illegal who will work hard for their low pay and try to earn pay increases or a native born US citizen who thinks they are entitled to high pay before they start putting out hard work (yes, I am generalizing). There is a reason the "unseen workforce" of the US (those who cook for us, clean up after us, and pick our food) are not native born citizens. Think about this next time you see food prices spiking, and ask without labor exploitation how much would my delicious strawberries cost. With out the near-slave to slave labor conditions in Florida, how much would my tomatoes in the middle of winter cost.

It is fair to say that we in the western world are one of the major driving forces with our hunger for "cheap" items - electronics, clothing, etc. (Which, by the way, are not cheap to those who make them - many who don't understand just how much one article they make sells for over here.)

It is also fair to say that compared to the alternative lifestyles this factory work is better. Do you really think being a subsistence farmer or street beggar/homeless is the same or better than working in a sweatshop? Don't forget there are more issues than just labor - there are issues such as treatment of women (many women flee to these factories to gain independence from patriarchal domination).

I think most in the west turn a blind eye to what is going on because there is no easy solution. Its like the Iraqi invasion - if we stay we are damned as vile invaders, but if we leave we are damned for destabilizing and abandoning the region. Essentially, there is no easy or quick solution to the massive global inequity.

 

[Guest]

This is not the free market and has nothing to do with conservative or liberal ideals. It also has nothing to do with Mexico's labor force (which does quite well for itself despite American steriotypes).

This is how communism works. How it has always worked. How it will always work.

The only political aspect is whether or not you think it is ok that the people that you voted for for the last 19 years have put our democracy in debt to communist China. That 19 years includes Clinton (D), Bush (R), and Obama (D), with both parties in congress. Be bipartisan in your ridicule.

 

[bad_code]

[citation][nom]dgingeri[/nom]For one thing, they believe in aristocracy. They believe that some should be held above others, and that humanity is better for it. Most willingly accept their place and don't complain. That part is not unlike Europe during the middle ages. Some principles of Islam are the same way. Freedom is held as a bad thing by much of the world, viewing it as chaos.I happen to disagree, and am very thankful for the Freemasons who created this country. I despise aristocracy, and anyone who promotes it. That difference in how we think is precisely why we get so much friction with the rest of the world.[/citation]

Stop! your hurting their brains. What the thumbs down go!!!! Yahooo!

 

[bad_code]

let the thumbs down go! Hey do this one too!!!!

 

[dgingeri]

[citation][nom]Crashman[/nom]Liberals say "who's going to pick your strawberries for $4 an hour" when pointing the finger at conservatives. Conservatives follow one of two camps, those who "don't say anything" in an effort to support farmers, and those who do say "get them out of here".And it's not $4 an hour, it's around $8-12 an hour. That's right, illegals get paid more than most American low-income workers, to do crappy work that most low-income Americans can't handle. I know this FIRST HAND because I've done that work. I've picked fruit, right alongside the migrant workers. I've spent 12-hour days in asparagus fields, bent over a picker platform with the hot sun blistering my skin right through the shirt, with nothing more than a 15 minute lunch and a 5-minute water break every two hours. I've suffered heat stroke working in conditions that many people believe only exist in foreign countries. I've spent four days in someone's basement recovering from heat stroke because I didn't know how dangerous my symptoms really were. And when I tried improve my lot with a job framing houses, I was told "Americans need not apply". So I remained, for a time, unemployed. Watch someone who's never worked a job harder than McDonalds give me a -1 for having stronger work ethic.Now for the hard truth: Many Americans WILL do those jobs. Many Americans WILL accept the "low" pay, because it's still more than the federal minimum. The problem for FARMERS is that there aren't ENOUGH Americans willing to do it. And the problem for framers is...liability. Illegals don't report dangerous conditions or file against their employers after being injured.[/citation]

My brother-in-law frequently employs likely illegal immigrants in his restaurants as cooks or busboys. (One had to "go home to get my license" and came back 2 hours later with a Colorado license, wearing the restaurant shirt in the photo that he was given to start the day.) They usually get $12/hr for being cooks or $9/hr for cleaning tables and doing dishes. That's more than I ever made working retail. No, illegal immigrants aren't making $4 an hour in most places. Many get minimum wage or better.

That's not saying they're not living on the edge of poverty. many are. However, they live that way to save up money to take back to Mexico and live like kings for the rest of their lives.

It's funny. the liberals pushing to allow illegal aliens to stay are costing the welfare recipients they also support jobs to get out from under welfare. They're keeping the unemployed unemployed, pushing free money to stay in office.

It's all backwards.