Chinese iPad Factory Staff Forced To Sign 'No Suicide' Pledge

[ElNono]

You are NOT allowed to commit suicide: Workers in Chinese iPad factories forced to sign pledges
(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1382396/Workers-Chinese-Apple-factories-forced-sign-pledges-commit-suicide.html)

Factories making sought-after Apple iPads and iPhones in China are forcing staff to sign pledges not to commit suicide, an investigation has revealed.

At least 14 workers at Foxconn factories in China have killed themselves in the last 16 months as a result of horrendous working conditions.

Many more are believed to have either survived attempts or been stopped before trying at the Apple supplier's plants in Chengdu or Shenzen.

After a spate of suicides last year, managers at the factories ordered new staff to sign pledges that they would not attempt to kill themselves, according to researchers.

And they were made to promise that if they did, their families would only seek the legal minimum in damages.

An investigation of the 500,000 workers by the Centre for Research on Multinational Companies and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom) found appalling conditions in the factories.

They claimed that:

- Excessive overtime was rife, despite a legal limit of 36 hours a month. One payslip showed a worker did 98 hours of overtime in one month, the Observer reported.
- During peak periods of demand for the iPad, workers were made to take only one day off in 13.
- Badly performing workers were humiliated in front of colleagues.
- Workers are banned from talking and are made to stand up for their 12-hour shifts.

The 'anti-suicide pledge' was brought in after sociologists wrote an open letter to the media calling for an end to restrictive working practices.

But the investigation revealed many of the workers still lived in dismal conditions, with some only going home to see family once a year.

One worker told the newspaper: 'Sometimes my roommates cry when they arrive in the dormitory after a long day.'

She said they were made to work illegally long hours for a basic daily wage, as little as £5.20, and that workers were housed in dormitories of up to 24 people a room.

In Chengdu, working between 60 and 80 hours overtime a month was normal, with many breaching Apple's own code of conduct with the length of their shifts.

And the investigation found that employees claimed they were not allowed to speak to each other.

Foxconn admits that it breaks overtime laws, but claims all the overtime is voluntary.

Some officials within the company even accused workers of committing suicide to secure large compensation payments for their families.

Anti-suicide nets were put up around the dormitory buildings on the advice of psychologists.

Foxconn said it had faced 'some very challenging months for everyone associated with the Foxconn family and the loss of a number of colleagues to tragic suicides'.

Spokesman Louis Woo, responding to allegations that staff were humiliated, said: 'It is not something we endorse or encourage. However, I would not exclude that this might happen given the diverse and large population of our workforce.

'But we are working to change it.'

He added that employees were 'encouraged not to engage in conversations that may distract them from the attention needed to ensure accuracy and their own safety'.

Sacom said the company initially responded to the spate of suicides by bringing in monks to exorcise evil spirits.

Leontien Aarnoudse, a Sacom official, told The People: 'They work excessive overtime for a salary they can hardly live on and are inhumanely treated.

'Conditions are harsh and they don't have a social life. Their life is just working in a factory and that is it.'

Demand for iPads and iPhones has soared, resulting in tough targets for workers in Apple factories.

Apple's supplier code of conduct demands that employees are treated with respect and dignity, but its own audit reports suggest suppliers in China may not meet up to these standards.

The global high-tech product manufacturer made profits of $6billion in the first quarter of 2011.

[greyforest]

Surely after this news all the legions of hippie, humanitarian Apple customers will abandon the company with disgust.

[LnGrrrR]

But if we lower corporation taxes enough, Apple will bring all those jobs back to the US! Therefore, lowering corp tax isn't just good for the economy, it's the only MORAL decision!

[JoeChalupa]

So people are dying to work there?

[DarrinS]

Liberal billionaires love to outsource.

[DarrinS]

Surely after this news all the legions of hippie, humanitarian Apple customers will abandon the company with disgust.

lol

[DarrinS]

blood ipods

[JohnnyMarzetti]

Liberal billionaires love to outsource.

Conservative billionaires do the same so STFU.

[TeyshaBlue]

Conservative billionaires do the same so STFU.

lol @ irony fail.

[MannyIsGod]

Liberal billionaires love to outsource.

Who outsourced the jobs that build Ipads if they were never in the US to begin with? You're on a roll lately.

[TeyshaBlue]

*shrugs* Could've just built them in the states to begin with.

[hater]

^ and they'd be $7,000 per ipad

[TeyshaBlue]

^ and they'd be $7,000 per ipad

A valid point....and one we just don't hear around here when a billionaire conservative outsources.

Delicious sauce is delicious.

[z0sa]

Pathetic.

[TeyshaBlue]

And fuck Foxconn. What collection of shitbags.

[LnGrrrR]

A valid point....and one we just don't hear around here when a billionaire conservative outsources.

Delicious sauce is delicious.

Not sure if that's a valid point if they're making 6 billion dollars profit... but I guess assuming that the people at the top might take a paycut is a bit fantastical.

[DarrinS]

Who outsourced the jobs that build Ipads if they were never in the US to begin with? You're on a roll lately.



*shrugs* Could've just built them in the states to begin with.

[baseline bum]

I'm glad I don't buy any of Apple's overpriced bullshit.

[MannyIsGod]

Teysha, Darrin appreciates your attempt to toss him a life line but the fact remains a job can't be outsourced if it was never here to begin with.

[z0sa]

I'm glad I don't buy any of Apple's overpriced bullshit.

Exactly what I was thinking.

Then I look down at my sweat-shop made shoes and die a little inside. Sometimes I hate being a "privileged American."

[TeyshaBlue]

Teysha, Darrin appreciates your attempt to toss him a life line but the fact remains a job can't be outsourced if it was never here to begin with.

outsourced = nonsourced.

[ElNono]

To be frank, Foxconn makes a lot of stuff, not just Apple stuff... Almost every PC in the market has one or two Foxconn-made component...

If you're looking for who's at fault, look no further than Foxconn... and the Chinese government for letting that continue to happen...

[TeyshaBlue]

To be frank, Foxconn makes a lot of stuff, not just Apple stuff... Almost every PC in the market has one or two Foxconn-made component...

If you're looking for who's at fault, look no further than Foxconn... and the Chinese government for letting that continue to happen...

word.:tu

[MannyIsGod]

outsourced = nonsourced.

Nope. There's a huge difference in a job thats never been here and one that left. No one says we outsourced all the jobs in Europe or any other place for that matter.

[TeyshaBlue]

Outsourced = lost jobs
Non sourced = no jobs.

Yeah, I can see a big difference here.

[MannyIsGod]

I see a big difference in a value that is negative as opposed to one that is null. Have the farming jobs in Africa been outsourced? Is the plumber working in London an outsourced job? I guess being the prime minister of the UK is also an outsourced job.

[MannyIsGod]

You really can't see the difference in not getting a job and losing a job, Teysha?

[TeyshaBlue]

You really can't see the difference in not getting a job and losing a job, Teysha?

I've been in both postions, Manny. About zero difference. End result of either = robbing liquor stores for mortgage money.

[TeyshaBlue]

I see a big difference in a value that is negative as opposed to one that is null. Have the farming jobs in Africa been outsourced? Is the plumber working in London an outsourced job? I guess being the prime minister of the UK is also an outsourced job.

If the farm products are coming back to the US and undercutting and eliminating US farms, then yup. You've outsourced.
We don't make foreign calls for plumbing problems. Straw non sequitur.

I just applied for the prime minister of the UK. I'll let you know how it pans out.:lol

[MannyIsGod]

Drowning and Being shot in the head aren't the same even if they both mean you're dead.

[TeyshaBlue]

Drowning and Being shot in the head aren't the same even if they both mean you're dead.

Both = methods of death.

[MannyIsGod]

If the farm products are coming back to the US and undercutting and eliminating US farms, then yup. You've outsourced.
We don't make foreign calls for plumbing problems. Straw non sequitur.

I just applied for the prime minister of the UK. I'll let you know how it pans out.:lol

You're interpreting the word outsourced way beyond what it means, IMO.

[MannyIsGod]

Both = methods of death.

And yet they are different. You wouldn't say that someone who drowned was shot in the head.

[TeyshaBlue]

And yet they are different. You wouldn't say that someone who drowned was shot in the head.

Nope. I'd say they were both dead.

Joe Six Pack wandering the 8-10% unemployment plains will likely see little difference if his job were outsourced or just flat non existent.

[TeyshaBlue]

You're interpreting the word outsourced way beyond what it means, IMO.

American call center jobs outsourced to India. American call centers closed.

That's exactly what it means. Anytime a job is displaced and then replaced, you've outsourced the job.

[MannyIsGod]

No - you've outsourced it if the job was only ever going to be here in the first place or then Joe Six Pack is going to walk around pissed off that people anywhere else are working at all while he's not. You don't inherently have a right to say that any job not in the United States was outsourced. I guess I missed the American Ipad parts factory.

[DarrinS]

Does Manny know what outsourced means?

[TeyshaBlue]

No - you've outsourced it if the job was only ever going to be here in the first place or then Joe Six Pack is going to walk around pissed off that people anywhere else are working at all while he's not. You don't inherently have a right to say that any job not in the United States was outsourced. I guess I missed the American Ipad parts factory.

Dude. Both have a net effect of no jobs. Is that so hard to grok?

[DarrinS]

We just outsourced some IT work in lieu of hiring someone.

[TeyshaBlue]

I guess I missed the American Ipad parts factory.

We have every bit of expertise and facilities to do this in America. Apple chose not to.

[MannyIsGod]

Thats not the point Teysha. We have the capabilities to do virtually every job done elsewhere here in America and many companies world wide chose not to. That doesn't mean every job that isn't bought to America that we have the means to do is an outsourced job.

[clambake]

if the product was never manufactured here, then the opportunity "here" for said job doesn't exist.

[TeyshaBlue]

Thats not the point Teysha. We have the capabilities to do virtually every job done elsewhere here in America and many companies world wide chose not to. That doesn't mean every job that isn't bought to America that we have the means to do is an outsourced job.

It's an American company, Manny. Therein lies the difference. It's almost by default a local opportunity that Apple chose to pass on. End result? No jobs.

[TeyshaBlue]

if the product was never manufactured here, then the opportunity "here" for said job doesn't exist.

Apple: "Let's build iPads. Where shall we build them? Here or in fucking China for .50 a day?"

The opportunity is always here. It's always studiously ignored when the Chinese Morlock labor force is a choice.

[TeyshaBlue]

if the product was never manufactured here, then the opportunity "here" for said job doesn't exist.

btw...these types of products used to be manufactured here. They aren't any longer. I guess those jobs weren't outsourced.

[clambake]

it made the product a success.

sales would have failed, miserably.

[MannyIsGod]

Apple is about as American as any other Multinational Corp. I've never once disputed that a job located elsewhere or a job outsourced means means a zero gain in jobs here. There difference is of course that one means a loss of a job and the other does not necessarily mean that.

You're using outsourced to label any job that is not in the United States. Just because a job isn't here - even if that job is offered by an American company - does not mean it was outsourced.

[TeyshaBlue]

Google David MacNeil.

[TeyshaBlue]

Google David MacNeil.

http://www.weathertech.com/UserFiles/file/Note_from_David_MacNeil.pdf

[MannyIsGod]

btw...these types of products used to be manufactured here. They aren't any longer. I guess those jobs weren't outsourced.

Ipad components were never manufactured here. If they had been, the job would have been outsourced.

[TeyshaBlue]

There difference is of course that one means a loss of a job and the other does not necessarily mean that.


Ok, Manny. I'm game. What does the other mean?

[MannyIsGod]

The exporting of American
jobs is a trend that must be stopped and reversed

From your PDF. When was it ever an American job, Teysha?

[MannyIsGod]

Ok, Manny. I'm game. What does the other mean?

I've already said what it means. One is a null value, zero. Neither a job lost nor a job gained. In order to lose a job you had to have it at one point. One is a negative.

To use an analogy, when Darrin makes money I can't sit back and say I lost that money.

[TeyshaBlue]

I've already said what it means. One is a null value, zero. Neither a job lost nor a job gained. In order to lose a job you had to have it at one point. One is a negative.

To use an analogy, when Darrin makes money I can't sit back and say I lost that money.

Your analogy has too many actors. To an unemployed person, which is the net result of both sets Null and Negative, there is no distinction.

[TeyshaBlue]

From your PDF. When was it ever an American job, Teysha?

Ask Black and Decker.

[MannyIsGod]

Your analogy has too many actors. To an unemployed person, which is the net result of both sets Null and Negative, there is no distinction.

Oh, well I suppose an unemployed person is looking at this in an objective way and not emotionally. As I posted before, the mother of a dead child who drowned probably doesn't care that the child wasn't shot in the head but it doesn't change the fact that the child was - in fact - not shot in the head.

I'm not arguing that the child isn't dead, Teysha, I'm arguing that it wasn't shot in the head.

[TeyshaBlue]

Enough with the dead kids already. Jeeze.:ihit

The job is gone. The job doesn't exist.

Net difference to the only population that matters in this particular discussion, ie the American workforce = zippo.

[MannyIsGod]

So do Americans get carte blanche on claiming every tech job overseas is outsourced?

[TeyshaBlue]

So do Americans get carte blanche on claiming every tech job overseas is outsourced?

I'd much prefer to look at individual scenarios rather than issue a blanket statement.

There are certainly cases to be made in the A/V industry.

[DarrinS]

Outsourced doesn't even mean the job is in another country.

[Winehole23]

In a wide-ranging interview (http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-03-28/news/48662822_1_soybean-oil-ceo-revenues/2) with the India-based Economic Times, Cargill CEO David MacLennan talks about how the globe-spanning agribusiness giant managed to turn the 2008 economic crisis into a "record year of profits"—a remarkable performance, given that that year's food-price spikes pushed 115 million people into hunger, as the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization estimated (http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ISFP/SR_Web.pdf). And then MacLennan drops this nugget on his company's poultry operations in China (http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/29/cargill-china-idINL4E8JT3YY20120829):



So we are building a facility in Shuzou, Nanjing, which will have 45 farms and it's a chicken facility that will process 1.2 million chicken every week. That's 60 million chicken a year. We have a hatchery, where we hatch the eggs and one-day old chicks, DOCs, get transported to the farms. The employees live on the farm. They can't leave because then you increase the risk of disease. So you grow the chicken for 44 days. The chicken goes to the plants, get processed, might be for KFC and McDonald's, might be for retail. They can count on us because they know where every one of their chicken came from. It came from us because we're fully integrated as opposed to other companies. [Emphasis added.]


I should note that US meat giant Tyson, too, is rolling out fully integrated and vast chicken facilities in China (http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303559504579197662165181956). But wait, back up: like employees at Foxconn, the company that manufactures Apple products, Cargill's poultry workers will live on-site. But rather than reside amid the production of iPhones and whatnot—apparently, not the most pleasant place to call home (http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jun/14/business/la-fi-tn-foxconn-worker-20120614)—Cargill's workers will live amid the growth and slaughter of 1.2 million chickens per week—and all the blood, guts, and vast stores of chickenshit that implies.


MacLennan doesn't mention whether the live-in requirement the company imposes on its Chinese workers also applies in its poultry operations in other developing countries. But he does boast that the company runs "very big" chicken operations n Nicaragua and Costa Rica, adding that it plans to "develop fully-integrated poultry breeding, hatching, growth and processing" in other countries around the world.


I am reaching out to Cargill to hear more about this innovative chicken factory/worker-housing mashup in China. Kind of gives new meaning to the industry habit of calling its large livestock-raising facilities "confinements."

http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/04/cargills-chicken-factories-china-workers-live-farm-and-cant-leave

[Winehole23]

jneecRKa0MA


“Because I believe the cause of all [this] is that I exposed Hengyang Foxconn’s illegal activities, I believe I am not guilty,” he said.


In a letter to Bezos – who is worth an estimated £137bn – Tang urged him to ensure that workers’ rights were protected. “Although the price was too high for me, I think the price I paid will all be worth it if only this situation can be brought to your attention and benefit the employees of all Amazon suppliers,” he wrote. “Finally, as your faithful admirer, as a former employee of your company’s client, as a victim, as a son, husband, father, I would like to ask the following of you. Please ask Hengyang Foxconn to face up to its own problems, apologise to me, and come forward and communicate with the local court to assist me in the appeal of my case, so that the court can finally revoke my guilty verdict.”


China Labor Watch director Li Qiang also wrote to Bezos urging him to intervene on behalf of Tang. “CLW believes that Amazon has the responsibility to call for China to free this innocent volunteer, who provided the evidence of labour violations in an Amazon supplier factory, and thank him for helping improving workers’ conditions. All he did was report violations of workers’ rights in an Amazon supplier factory. He did not commit any illegal acts.


“It is unacceptable and unfair that Tang Mingfang is serving jail time for trying to help Amazon improve the labour conditions in its supplier factory.”


He said Bezos had not responded to his letter and Amazon had not offered any support for Tang.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jan/30/alexa-factory-whistleblower-i-was-tortured-and-jailed-now-amazon-should-apologise