Some Critics Suggest Apple Boycott Over Chinese Working Conditions 744
Hugh Pickens writes "The Guardian reports that Apple's image is taking a dive after revelations in the NY Times about working conditions in the factories of some of its network of Chinese suppliers and the dreaded word 'boycott' has started to appear in media coverage of Apple's activities. 'Should consumers boycott Apple?' asked a column in the Los Angeles Times as it recounted details of the bad PR fallout amid detailed allegations that workers at Foxconn suffered in conditions that resembled a modern version of bonded labor, working obscenely long shifts in unhealthy conditions with few of the labor rights that workers in the west would take for granted." Read on, below.
Pickens continues: "But Apple has come out fighting, which is no surprise given the remarkable success that the company has seen in recent years with its reputation for 'cool' among hip urban professionals and a generally positive corporate image. In a lengthy email sent to Apple staff, chief executive Tim Cook met the allegations head-on. 'We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain. Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern,' Cook said. He went on to slam critics of the company. 'Any suggestion that we don't care is patently false and offensive to us ... accusations like these are contrary to our values.' So will we see some kind of movement to boycott Apple products, akin to the campaign several years ago to pressure Nike to improve working conditions in its factories asks Sam Gustin in Time Magazine? "You can either manufacture in comfortable, worker-friendly factories, or you can reinvent the product every year, and make it better and faster and cheaper, which requires factories that seem harsh by American standards," an anonymous current Apple executive told the Times. "And right now, customers care more about a new iPhone than working conditions in China.""
Re:Good luck getting the protestors to support tha (Score:5, Informative)
If the sheer number of Apple devices at any given Occupy protest are any indication, it would seem the professional protestors who usually lead this kind of thing are going to bend over backwards to give Apple a free pass on just about anything. Christ, there were Occupy protestors CRYING the day Steve Jobs died--even as they rallied against our corporate overlords (with no sense of the irony at all). So unless you can sell them on the idea that Tim Cook has somehow corrupted their beloved Apple in the last few months, I would say your chances are pretty much nil.
And this isn't meant as flamebait. Seriously, go to an Occupy protest sometime and just look at the sheer number of Mac's, iPhones, and iPads you'll see. It's fucking creepy. They've been for shit at organizing on any other point, but they've apparently almost all agreed on at least *one* thing.
I am surprised that the Apple community does not go after Apple about wages like other did about the Nike plants outside the USA. Some recent article about Steve Jobs quoted an Apple executive saying paying US wages in mainland China (instead of $17/day) would only increase the price of an iPad by $70.
Re:It would be a good start (Score:1, Informative)
Next, boycott anyone who can't guarantee their workers receive a decent standard of living...
So you're saying go back to only using what you can harvest/make yourself.
Re:They all do it. why just apple? (Score:3, Informative)
NPR This American Life Coverage (Score:2, Informative)
Before the NYT article (and CBS Sunday Morning yesterday), NPR's This American Life helped break the story. It's a good listen: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory
An interesting point made at the end of the NPR program is that, although working conditions are bad, the availability of these jobs is *still* a step up from working a subsistence living in the rice paddies. In particular, these jobs have given reasonable salaries to, and hence empowered, women.
Let's be clear about this (Score:3, Informative)
The Chinese sweatshop Apple employs for the iEverythings is Foxconn. Other stuff Foxconn works on/componies Foxconn works for:
If you're not buying from a company that uses Foxconn, you're not buying tech.
NY Times FUD (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Wrong answer... (Score:5, Informative)
Some recent article about Steve Jobs quoted an Apple executive saying paying US wages in mainland China (instead of $17/day) would only increase the price of an iPad by $70.
And if you were going to pay US wages you could always, I don't know, build the damn thing in America?
I'm not exactly a Buy American nazi, but if the flagship products of greenwashing high-end manufacturers can't be built here, then what can?
Maybe not. The Chinese allow business to setup differently than we do here in America:
See this recent NYT article. [nytimes.com]
No you cannot (Score:5, Informative)
The article even mentioned Obama personally asking Steve Jobs what it would take to get manufacturing back to US, and the answer was it was no longer possible.
--Coder
Re:Good luck getting the protestors to support tha (Score:5, Informative)
You didn't? I'm shocked.
If you had, you would have realised that the other tech companies often pay these manufacturers more money to be spent on improving work conditions, whereas Apple chooses to squeeze them for every dirty brown penny, which inevitably leads to cuts in worker pay and conditions.
If you'd read the article you would also know that whilst Apple has a very pretty code of conduct for their suppliers, it is common for them to simply ignore infractions of that code of conduct, with fewer than 15 suppliers terminated for non-compliance since 2007, even though there are scores of the most serious breaches of that code of conduct recorded every year.
Apple does a lot of talking about worker safety, but they don't do a whole lot of walking.
Re:A long list of reasons (Score:5, Informative)
Walled Gardens. This keeps getting touted as a negative. Are you fucking kidding? I LOVE Apple's walled garden!
I'm a Flash developer fed up with Chinese sites tearing our games off our site and hosting them for free.
Where else can I go to make a game by myself, sell it, and not have a cracked version appear on pirate bay shortly after?
Re:It would be a good start (Score:5, Informative)
If not to buy Apple, what’s the substitute – Samsung? Don’t you know that Samsung’s products are from its OEM factory in Tianjin? Samsung workers’ income and benefits are even worse than those at Foxconn. If not to buy iPad – (do you think) I will buy Android Pad? Have you ever been to the OEM factories for Lenovo and ASUS? Quanta, Compaq factories of other companies are all worse than those for Apple. Not to buy iPod – (do you think) I will buy Aigo, Meizu? Do you know that Aigo’s Shenzhen factory will not pay their workers until the 19th of the second month? If you were to quit, fine, I’m sorry, your salary will be withdrawn. Foxconn never dares to do such things. First, their profit margin is higher than peers as they manufacture for Apple. Second, at least those foreign devils will regularly audit factories. Domestic brands will never care if workers live or die. I am not speaking for Foxconn. I am just speaking as an insider of this industry, and telling you some disturbing truth. — Anonymous.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/chinese-readers-on-the-ieconomy/ [nytimes.com]
Re:Good luck getting the protestors to support tha (Score:5, Informative)
The Economist ran an article about China's balance of trade last week which included a breakdown of the value (price) of an iPad. Just over 50% was costs, the rest was profit, of which 30% to Apple (the rest to others in the supply chain). Chinese labour costs were minimal at 2%. They could perhaps reduce their profits to redistribute wealth from their execs/shareholders to the workers.
http://www.economist.com/node/21543174 [economist.com]
Chance for Apple haters to push agenda. (Score:2, Informative)
Seriously boycott Apple for poor working conditions in China?
What next? boycotting Apple for using metals, because they were mined, causing pollution? While pretending this wasn't the same for every manufacturer on earth.
Remember the Foxconn workers threatening mass suicide. They were Xbox 360 workers:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45969515/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/t/xbox-workers-china-threatened-mass-suicide/ [msn.com]
Or how about the Android products made by Foxconn, like the new Amazon Tablet:
http://phandroid.com/2011/07/14/amazon-chooses-foxconn-to-manufacturer-their-10-1-inch-android-tablet/ [phandroid.com]
Would any of those pushing an Apple boycott add Amazon/Android/Microsoft products to the list?
It isn't even just tech products, in fact the lower down the price/technology scale, the worse the conditions likely are.
Where were your jeans made? Go watch China Blue:
http://video.pbs.org/video/1488092077/ [pbs.org]
Re:Good luck getting the protestors to support tha (Score:4, Informative)
Except it's really China's manufacturing practices. Foxconn makes parts and subsystems (as well as finished goods) for thousands of companies. Calls to boycotting Apple, in that context, are absurd, and in some ways suggest and even less informed (by way of thinking you know something now, but only knowing part of the story) position.
It's not absurd at all. Apple is, by far, the most visible customer of Foxconn and therefore the best place to start pressuring them. Boycotting Foxconn directly is impractical because no one knows which products have Foxconn parts and/or assemblies and Foxconn isn't a household word. Apple on the other hand, is a household word and everyone would understand what is involved in an Apple boycott.
Re:Good luck getting the protestors to support tha (Score:4, Informative)
You should listen to the This American Life program Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory [thisamericanlife.org]?
That's the surprising thing about these huge factories. There is no automation. Full of workers, and totally quiet - no machines. Why pay for automation when you can get super cheap labor to put the damn things together by hand?