For women who assembled iPhones at a Foxconn plant in southern India, crowded dorms without flush toilets and food sometimes crawling with worms were problems to be endured for the paycheck.
But when tainted food sickened over 250 of the workers their anger boiled over, culminating in a rare protest that shut down a plant where 17,000 had been working.
Just in case you thought Apple (and other companies, of course) wouldn’t exploit poor people of colour in countries other than China. Good on these women for standing up for their rights, which is at least something they can do that their counterparts in totalitarian China cannot.
Not defending Apple on this, but a clarification: The factories are not directly run by Apple, but by companies they contract out to make the devices (Foxconn in this case).
Of course, the fact that Apple didn’t just drop Foxconn altogether over this speaks volumes about how little they actually care about it. They are as guilty as Foxconn themselves for what happened; with better oversight (and actual empathy) from Apple, this might not have happened and the workers might have had better conditions and hazard pay for the obviously grueling work they do.
Strange that a little company like Fairphone can do what Apple cannot…
I am pretty sure Apple could produce a phone with 4 year old specs at near flagship prices. LOL I hate to defend Apple but they make over 200 million phones a year while Fairphone is at a little under 100,000 units a year. You really think Apple could produce phones at that volume adhering to Fairphones environmental standards and ethnics without doubling the price? I am not sure it’s even possible to do at those volumes.
Then it speaks a lot about their true motivations on equity and ecology.
Keep in mind that with that kind of “volumes”, Apple could cut prices and get a better phone than what Fairphone offers. Don’t forget the indecent margin Apple makes on each and every iPhone/iPad sold. Don’t compare Apple and orange.
Sorry, significant cuts in their profits is not an option as the company has to answer to shareholders and customers are not going to want to pay anymore for their phones.
Ummmm You are comparing apples to oranges. I just pointed out Apple makes phones in high volumes while Fairphone sells niche phones in low volumes. LOL I am not even sure it’s possible to source the materials like Fairphone does (or move their manufacturing) on the volumes Apple does. You are not being realistic…
@MJ
They actually answer to the courts and regulators in the countries they operate… This idea that a business exists to maximise profit is a myth and not realisable in reality. All that glue holding civilisation together and allows these emotionally stunted psychopaths to operate by grace doesn’t happen by magic.
Any amateur hour buccaneering “wealth creator” libertarian legend in their own mind can set up shop in Somalia and see how long they last.
I rarely comment, but I’d hate this to become a political news source. Please stop with opinionated commentary on this type of thing. I’m not going to comment on your understanding on stages on economical development, so please just refrain from this type of post.
His place, his rules…
Say what you like about Thom, but he’s always been very, _VERY_ clear about what his social principles are. If you don’t like it, don’t frequent this site. That’s the polite answer.
Now, here’s how I really feel about your “I don’t want this site to be political” stance: please f__k right off.
I am a long time reader and rarely comment myself but… How about you refrain from ever commenting on OSnews again? Move along or create your own blog with the content you would prefer to read. Don’t ever tell someone else what to post about. WTF?
We are supposed to just ignore the working conditions of others?
Agreed Thom. Nowadays I feel positively great spending money with Microsoft compared to Apple. It’s weird how things have turned out where Apple is one of the most evil companies that now far eclipses Microsoft in maliciousness.
I also don’t think the fact this is a contractor means Apple avoids any culpability. The reason companies like Apple and cheap clothing manufacturers use contractors is so they can be shocked and surprised at the terrible labor conditions while knowingly benefiting from what they very well know is going on.
You know that a company like Apple can force its suppliers to follow some guidelines about labour and ecology ? Right ?
Most likely Apple management and share holders couldn’t care less. They can always donate a couple of M$ to some random cause and virtue signal about being moral.
And to be honest, I doubt that Apple users care much about the conditions of the employees building their brand new iPhone.
To be fair, them same can be said about 99.9999% of the world. Myself (in many ways) included (*).
* Unless you grow your own food, build everything you own, you have near zero control about the work condition of employees that built anything you buy /eat .
My next phone will be a Fairphone for a reason.
Voting with your wallet CAN have an influence.
I agree about the wallet part. I try to buy “stuff” from local stores as opposed to “mega-international-corp”, etc.
As for fairphone, it on my keep-and-eye-on list.
They aren’t “people of color”, they’re just people. Indians are, believe it or not, majority in India. It’s the Indian government who’s allowing companies, both foreign and local, to exploit their own people. Pushing the blame on Apple et al. is pathetic misrepresentation of the matter.
If a company like Intel can get in trouble (in China) for expecting their suppliers to not violate human rights (including not using prison labor in scumbag countries like USA); then it’s fair for Apple to get in trouble for failing to have similar expectations.
A few of points of difference.
1 – Apple regularly deals with this with their partners and actually tries to make a difference.
2 – Apple is not apologising to the Indian government over this
3 – Apple is not in conflict with the Indian government over taking the appropriate action here.
Lastly, I think people underestimate how much the “rights” they enjoy are a result of their economic prosperity and not the cause of them. Western countries got rich first, and the “rights” followed.
Sometimes I think that the working and middle class in western countries are just trying to make producing in poor countries less productive / lucrative in order to save their own jobs. In other words, protectionism masquerading as principle.
mkone,
That’s very interesting. And there is a degree of relativism at play. As much as outsourcing can be the bane of western workers (including myself), there’s no question it creates tons of jobs in the east. Many western workers are upset at loosing their jobs to Chinese workers calling it “unfair”, but there’s an implied aspect here that few want to talk about: the west is overpriced and not very competitive. That’s why companies continue to send so much of their critical business to low cost of living countries including China and India. I think there’s a lot of hypocrisy at play with western “protectionist” policies. People want to believe in capitalism except when they’re the losers, then they call for protection and government handouts, hmm.
I admire Reuters a lot. Their articles can be a little on the dry side but they do not shy away from having a social conscience. This was a founding principle of Reuters. I forget what the word is but German politicians have a word for this.
There are too many issues to write about here but these kind of abuses are terrible.
No surprise here at all. Having spent some time in India, this is not unexpected. Working conditions, compared to the West, are generally appalling. Unless you’re born into a family living higher up the hierarchical class system you can expect a life time of exploit. Obviously this needs to change, but how?