Foxconn Workers On Strike Over iPhone 5 Production 184
itwbennett writes "That army of robotic assembly line workers we mentioned yesterday apparently can't get started soon enough. As many as 3,000-4,000 workers are on strike at Foxconn's Zhengzhou factory, upset at stricter quality control requirements with the iPhone 5 and having to work through a national holiday this week. 'According to workers, multiple iPhone 5 production lines from various factory buildings were in a state of paralysis for the entire day,' China Labor Watch said. Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo are both blocking searches in Chinese for 'Foxconn strikes.'"
Why strike now? (Score:5, Interesting)
Couldnt they go on strike the day(s) of the holiday, just return the next day and start working?
this bring them up to US mid 19th century (Score:5, Interesting)
China has their army and Police -US companies had Police and Pinkertons....the workers still prevailed in the end, although much has been lost recently...
Hopefully it will not be bloody, but they deserve better than they are getting even if it means we might be paying slightly more for the next plastic POS we buy.
I'm just sayin'
Re:big surprise (Score:5, Interesting)
They'll be even more unhappy once they realize that robots can do their jobs even cheaper than they can. You know it's bad when even mainstream media is picking this up. A few months ago I was watching one of those Nightline/Dateline/Whateverline evening news shows that was talking specifically about Foxconn. At the end they showed the up-and-coming robot that does the work of the Chinese workers and in half the time of a human for half the cost. The reporter asked something along the lines of "what is going to happen when businesses realize they can assemble the gadgets in the U.S. and not pay to ship them across the ocean?"
1st Anniversary of Steve Jobs' Death (Score:5, Interesting)
Neat coincidence, no?
Re:big surprise (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:surprising really (Score:2, Interesting)
Strikes and unions just don't make sense for unskilled labor. And just because it's electronics doesn't make it skilled - if you're doing something that could be replaced with a robotic arm, it's not "skilled", skilled refers to mental skills, not physical.
The factory cities are mostly staffed by people who by and large ARE the educated work force of China. Most of the miniature assembly work is semi technical and does require training. Also you are very sadly mistaken about how important the labour movement was to the low paid work force that made North America great! Sounds like you have been drinking far too much Republican coolaid and your sensibilities are really out of whack with what is really going on.
As long as we are led to believe that our so called "intellectual property" is more valuable than real work, the whole consumer driven economy of the so called "skilled West" is going to crash. The Mennonites have it right and knew long ago that we are headed for a disaster with a social system based solely upon unrestrained consumerism and greed. Justified by a perverse Darwinian survival of the richest economic philosophy. That is exactly why some still refuse electricity and cars, including some of my close relatives. We are dooming ourselves as a society with our stupidity and greed, the only bright lights happen when the rich start to give back some of the ridiculous amounts they have hoarded in a gesture of penance before they die. I am not saying the answer is communism like the Chinese, what I am saying is that great employers realise the true value of their employees all the way down to the ones sweeping the floor.
When good employers are being forced by a companies like Walmart to pay less wages or off shore to survive it only goes to prove that our economic system is broken and will only crash down on our heads as very soon we will not be able to pay off our debts and our income to debt ratio will become unsustainable.
Re:Good for them! (Score:1, Interesting)
You may be too young to remember the events of Tiananmen Square of 23 years ago. I wasn't. And although I cannot find the picture now, the image of a headless body with bloody tank tread tracks leading away from where the head should have been is something that deeply affected my young self and I remember it quite vividly. (If you're posting from china and can still see this post, I suggest using a foreign proxy for your search about what I'm talking about.)