Apple-Approved Fair Labor Inspections Begin At Foxconn

redletterdave writes "Apple announced on Monday that the Fair Labor Association has begun inspecting Foxconn's Chinese factories, upon Apple's request. Apple said that Auret van Heerden, the president of the FLA, is leading a group of labor rights experts in the first round of inspections at the sprawling plant in Shenzhen, China, more informally known as 'Foxconn City.' The FLA's independent assessment — completely supplementary to Apple's own auditing practices — will involve interviewing thousands of Foxconn employees about the working and living conditions, including working hours, compensation, managerial issues, and health and safety conditions. Foxconn has 'pledged full cooperation with the FLA,' and will reportedly allow unrestricted access to all of their operations. The investigative team will report their findings in early March on the FLA's website. Apple's other suppliers, including Quanta and Pegatron, will be inspected later this spring. By the time summer rolls around, the FLA hopes to have covered 90 percent of facilities where Apple products are built and assembled."

I think I'm getting tired of all news Apple

[bogaboga]

Just last month, it was news about its best ever quarter.

Then just today, news of its stock hitting north of $500.

Again today, some site reporting that Apple's iPad3 will hit us in March.

When Apple finally fades, these pundits will be the ones saying something to the effect: -

..."They could not sustain that 'explosive' growth", or

..."We knew Android was a force to be reckoned with" or

..."With the demise of Steve Jobs Apple then lacked a visionary"...and so much other nonsense...

I say this because Apple has had a number of failed [oobject.com] products [maindevice.com] in the past.

I am just tired of all news Apple. Am I alone?

Re:corporate responsibility

[Uberbah]

Of course, that same western factory worker's pay, benefits, and conditions is why it's so expensive to make anything here. Western standard of living and OSHA is why all the jobs are going overseas, because nobody here is willing to take a pay cut to keep their job.

Germany puts the lie to that corporatist bullshit:

How Germany Builds Twice as Many Cars as the U.S. While Paying Its Workers Twice as Much

In 2010, Germany produced more than 5.5 million automobiles; the U.S produced 2.7 million. At the same time, the average auto worker in Germany made $67.14 per hour in salary in benefits; the average one in the U.S. made $33.77 per hour. Yet Germanyâ(TM)s big three car companiesâ"BMW, Daimler (Mercedes-Benz), and Volkswagenâ"are very profitable.

And that's not from some dirty fucking hippie rag like Mother Jones, that's from Forbes. [forbes.com]

The problem isn't that American workers aren't competitive, the problem is executive greed.

But we all knew that already. Cheap shipping, cheap third world labor and international communications were all available in the 50's, 60's, and 70's. But we didn't see the gutting of America's manufacturing base until unions were busted, marginal tax rates (91% under Eisenhower) were slashed to less than 30%, and corporatist "free trade" laws were passed that puts Americans in competition with third world labor without giving Americans third world price tags on goods, housing or services.