Meet The Workers Who Make Your iPad

[lakhota]

Meet The Workers Who Make Your iPad: 100 Hours Of Overtime, No-Suicide Pacts, Standing For 14 Hours A Day

Back in March, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) astoundingly claimed that the iPad and iPhone are “built in the United States of America.” This news must have been a great surprise to the Chinese workers who work for Taiwanese-based manufacturing giant Foxconn, which is notorious for the poor conditions at its factories and the wave of suicides at its plants.

After much of the international media covered the abuses at Foxconn’s factories, the company, along with the major American corporations it supplies — like Apple and HP — announced that it would be reforming its practices.

Yet a new report from Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM), a Hong Kong-based advocacy and research group, finds that many of the practices that led more than a dozen workers committ suicide continue to live on. SACOM conducted a comprehensive study of practices at several Foxconn factories over the months of March and April and found that a number of shocking policies are in place. Here are some of the highlights of their study:

– Workers Are Being Asked To Work 80-100 Hours Of Overtime: Despite promises by Apple and Foxconn to limit overtime work to 36 hours a month, SACOM researchers found that in some factories, like in Chengdu, it is typical for workers to work 80-100 hours overtime instead. This is actually 2-3 times the legal limit of allowed overtime work.

– Workers Are Being Forced To Sign ‘No-Suicide’ Pacts: In the wake of a huge wave of suicides at Foxconn plants, the company began reforming its practices related to the suicides. Among these changes included installing anti-suicide nets to catch workers who attempted to leap out of company windows. Yet workers are also being forced to sign a non-suicide pact as a condition of employment. As part of the pact, the employees families have to promise “not sue the company, bring excessive demands, take drastic actions that would damage the company’s reputation or cause trouble that would hurt normal operations” in the case of a suicide.

– Employees Regularly Are Forced To Stand For 14 Hours A Day: SACOM found that workers in Chengdu “usually…have to stand for 14 hours a day.” “I don’t understand why we can’t sit. And we can’t bring our cell phone to the shop floor. Even the cell phone without camera is prohibited,” said one worker to the SACOM researchers.

– Employees Are Crammed Together In Dormitories With Squalid Living Conditions: In Chengdu, where almost all workers live in company-owned dormitories, the number of employees placed in a dormitory room range from 6 to 22. Employees’ living quarters are also under factory rules, and workers cannot even bring basic items such as hair dryers into their dorms. “Some of my roommates weep in the dormitory. I want to cry as well but my tears have not come out,” one 19 year-old employee told SACOM

Foxconn responded to the SACOM report with a statement given to the magazine PCWorld: “We have made tremendous progress over the past year as we work to lead our industry in meeting the needs of the new generation of workers in China and that has been confirmed by the many customer representatives, outside experts, and reporters who have visited our facilities and openly met with our employees and our management team.”

thinkprogress.org/2011/05/10/workers-who-make-ipad/

[lakhota]

The union busters love the sweat shops.

[cme1201]

The union busters love the sweat shops.

Can you show me evidence of sweat shops in the united states caused by union busters?

Who runs apple? Steve Jobs, who does Steve Jobs give money to democrats ergo Democrats love sweat shops.

see, really not that hard spouting off any accusation that you want based on slivers of facts.


Hall of Fame ► Billionaires






Steve Jobs , 56 (bio)
Apple Computer ceo; Pixar chairman, ceo
NEWSMEAT Power Rank: 812





$1,000 Republican

$209,000 Democrat

$19,000 special interest

total: $229,000

Jobs made donations to Democrats 209thousand times more than he made to republicans, he off-shored production of the iPad and will do the same to the iPad2, why does Steve Jobs hate the American workforce?





Election Picks: 4 wins, 3 losses


www.newsmeat.com/billionaire_political_donations/Steve_Jobs.php

[ugonow]

Can you show me evidence of sweat shops in the united states caused by union busters?

The Mariana Islands? articles.cnn.com/2005-05-09/politics/real.delay_1_delay-staff-wage-saipan?_s=PM:POLITICS "...Moved by the sworn testimony of U.S. officials and human-rights advocates that the 91 percent of the workforce who were immigrants -- from China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh -- were being paid barely half the U.S. minimum hourly wage and were forced to live behind barbed wire in squalid shacks minus plumbing, work 12 hours a day, often seven days a week, without any of the legal protections U.S. workers are guaranteed, Murkowski wrote a bill to extend the protection of U.S. labor and minimum-wage laws to the workers in the U.S. territory of the Northern Marianas.

So compelling was the case for change the Alaska Republican marshaled that in early 2000, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Murkowski worker reform bill.

But one man primarily stopped the U.S. House from even considering that worker-reform bill: then-House Republican Whip Tom DeLay.

According to law firm records recently made public, lobbyist Jack Abramoff, paid millions to stop reform and keep the status quo, met personally at least two dozen times with DeLay on the subject in one two-year period. The DeLay staff was often in daily contact with Abramoff.

DeLay traveled with his family and staff over New Year's of 1997 on an Abramoff scholarship endowed by his client, the government of the territory, to the Marianas, where golf and snorkeling were enjoyed.

DeLay fully approved of the working and living conditions. The Texan's salute to the owners and Abramoff's government clients was recorded by ABC-TV News: "You are a shining light for what is happening to the Republican Party, and you represent everything that is good about what we are trying to do in America and leading the world in the free-market system"

Later, DeLay would tell The Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin that the low-wage, anti-union conditions of the Marianas constituted "a perfect petri dish of capitalism. It's like my Galapagos Island." "

[cme1201]

May 11, 2011 7:26:06 GMT -5 ugonow said:

Can you show me evidence of sweat shops in the united states caused by union busters?

The Mariana Islands? articles.cnn.com/2005-05-09/politics/real.delay_1_delay-staff-wage-saipan?_s=PM:POLITICS "...Moved by the sworn testimony of U.S. officials and human-rights advocates that the 91 percent of the workforce who were immigrants -- from China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh -- were being paid barely half the U.S. minimum hourly wage and were forced to live behind barbed wire in squalid shacks minus plumbing, work 12 hours a day, often seven days a week, without any of the legal protections U.S. workers are guaranteed, Murkowski wrote a bill to extend the protection of U.S. labor and minimum-wage laws to the workers in the U.S. territory of the Northern Marianas.

So compelling was the case for change the Alaska Republican marshaled that in early 2000, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Murkowski worker reform bill.

But one man primarily stopped the U.S. House from even considering that worker-reform bill: then-House Republican Whip Tom DeLay.

According to law firm records recently made public, lobbyist Jack Abramoff, paid millions to stop reform and keep the status quo, met personally at least two dozen times with DeLay on the subject in one two-year period. The DeLay staff was often in daily contact with Abramoff.

DeLay traveled with his family and staff over New Year's of 1997 on an Abramoff scholarship endowed by his client, the government of the territory, to the Marianas, where golf and snorkeling were enjoyed.

DeLay fully approved of the working and living conditions. The Texan's salute to the owners and Abramoff's government clients was recorded by ABC-TV News: "You are a shining light for what is happening to the Republican Party, and you represent everything that is good about what we are trying to do in America and leading the world in the free-market system"

Later, DeLay would tell The Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin that the low-wage, anti-union conditions of the Marianas constituted "a perfect petri dish of capitalism. It's like my Galapagos Island." "

Nice digging, can we have some thing more relevant than an article from 2005?

You can blame Delay all you want, it is the CMNI that has dictated wages and using "cheap" Chinese labor.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saipan
Foreign contract labor abuse and exemptions from U.S. federal regulations
Entrance of a garment factory on Saipan, 2006.Excerpted from "Immigration and the CNMI: A report of the US Commission on Immigration Reform", January 7, 1998:

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) immigration system is antithetical to the principals that are at the core of the US immigration policy. Over time, the CNMI has developed an immigration system dominated by the entry of foreign temporary contract workers. These now outnumber US citizens but have few rights within the CNMI and are subject to serious labor and human rights abuses. In contrast to US immigration policy, which admits immigrants for permanent residence and eventual citizenship, the CNMI admits aliens largely as temporary contract workers who are ineligible to gain either US citizenship or civil and social rights within the commonwealth. Only a few countries and no democratic society have immigration policies similar to the CNMI. The closest equivalent is Kuwait. The end result of the CNMI policy is to have a minority population governing and severely limiting the rights of the majority population who are alien in every sense of the word.


Saipan, doesn't seem like such a nice place these days. Lot's has changed since 2005 (you know 6 years later from when your story was published)

So when are you guys going to turn the heat up, not at John McCain for not knowing where these products are made, but, on Steve Jobs and Apple to close down these "sweat-shops", I haven't seen any pickets or demonstartions or really any story directly related to calling out Jobs, just bashing of the different side.

[ugonow]

]

Nice digging, can we have some thing more relevant than an article from 2005?

I answered the question asked.Can you show me evidence of sweat shops in the united states caused by union busters?

[jkapp]

May 11, 2011 8:55:55 GMT -5 ugonow said:

]

Nice digging, can we have some thing more relevant than an article from 2005?

I answered the question asked.Can you show me evidence of sweat shops in the united states caused by union busters?

No, actually you didn't...the question was show evidence of union-busters wanting sweatshops - what you showed was one republican who fought against one reform bill he didn't like.

If we go by that criteria as a condemnation of a group then Democrats must prefer illegal immigrants to legal citizens, they must want to bankrupt the country by continually fighting against entitlement reform, and they really do hate corporations.

[busymom]

Um, I think unions were originally formed BECAUSE of sweatshop conditions.

[ugonow]

Well if you need plural,there was Delay and Abromoff,who could be considered union busters. sheesh......

[ty]

How do you think Apple made all these billions in such a few years. They are doing what a lot of other American businesses have been doing for a very long time. Make their products in cheap labor camps of China and sell them for huge profits here in the USA. Is it a crime? No! Is it wrong? Morally, yes imo, but why beat down on Apple when all others are doing the same thing. HP, Compaq, and even Microsoft have their chips and items built in China.

Xbox 360: Made in China


by James Ransom-Wiley on Aug 17th 2005 1:00PM

No surprises here. Both Flextronics and Wistron, veteran manufacturers of the first Xbox, will be churning out Xbox 360s, along with newcomer Celestica. All three companies have plants in the Pearl River Delta region of Southern China.

All your cell-phones are made in China or some part of Asia. I guess the other corporations in America are tired of seeing the iPhone and iPad dominate the market place and they are trying to tear Apple Inc down.

[ugonow]

No, actually you didn't...the question was show evidence of union-busters wanting sweatshops

No that wasn't the question.I quoted the question properly. " Can you show me evidence of sweat shops in the united states caused by union busters?"

[cme1201]

When arguing with a wall the wall will always win, because it's a wall and unwilling or unable to change.

Delay nor Abramoff were union busters, as there was no Union in the islands at the time you make your assertion.

The CMNI as I showed in the link I provided was not required to follow our rules Until Nov. 2009 when we took over Immigration control of the territory.

So can you show me any more examples, preferably ones where the sweatshops blatantly disregard our rule set? And by our I mean American rules where companies Must follow our regulations and rules governing employment and working conditions and hours.

Again I ask, when will we hear the cry out about Apple and Steve Jobs being into forced labor?

[fairlycrazy23]

The truth is probably that even though these working conditions appear horrible to our standards, they are likely much better than the alternatives available to these workers.

We need to make America more business friendly so that maybe we can bring some of these jobs back here where our working standards are much higher, although if this did happen it would probably force these sweat shop workers into even worse working conditions. And there is much that can be done to make the US more business friendly while still maintaining good working conditions.

[ugonow]

Union busters is a loose term.Most people consider Walker a union buster, but he fdid not bust a union. Kochs are considered union busters,although many of their concerns are unionized.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I'm glad I don't have an Ipad.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

May 11, 2011 4:30:31 GMT -5 @lakhota said:

The union busters love the sweat shops.

The vast majority of jobs in America are not in sweat shops, and yet they are also not union. Could it be that TYRANNY is the problem in China?

And it doesn't surprise me in the least that one of the sandals and candles crowd is behind this.

[skweet]

So what? The same picture could be taken of the folks making your clothes, some foods, pen and pencil, your brand computer, components to your car/bus/bike/other transportation, coffee cup, The "made in America" stickers affixed to products and you-name-it. Yeah people are willing to work for less than we give our unemployed for subsistance. The prefer these conditions to starving. This isn't news. This is one of the things that makes having the American lifestyle so great. This is what makes our consumption so cheap. Would I risk Ipads going up in price by 5X over complaining about this? Heck no.

[lakhota]

Can you show me evidence of sweat shops in the united states caused by union busters?

The first step toward sweat shops is to destroy organized labor.

[shelby]

"The truth is probably that even though these working conditions appear horrible to our standards, they are likely much better than the alternatives available to these workers."

Oh OK then perfectly acceptable...

[Mad Dawg Wiccan]

May 11, 2011 18:25:29 GMT -5 @lakhota said:

Can you show me evidence of sweat shops in the united states caused by union busters?

The first step toward sweat shops is to destroy organized labor.

Considering how small a percentage of the workforce is unionized, if that were true this country would be already filled with sweat shops.

[lakhota]

Considering how small a percentage of the workforce is unionized, if that were true this country would be already filled with sweat shops.

You apparently fail to recognize the historical impact of unions. Their existence has a positive impact even on workers who are not unionized. If Republicans are able to completely destroy unions, as they have been vigorously trying to do for decades, there will be nothing to stop them from completely turning America into a minimum wage country. The next step would be sweat shops...

Republicans have even threatened to defund the National Labor Relations Board.

Republicans Threaten to Defund the National Labor Relations Board

Imagine if Republicans in Congress threatened to defund the Supreme Court because they didn’t like one of its decisions. Well, that’s almost what's happening right now, as Republicans in Congress threaten to defund the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a quasi-judicial independent body tasked with prosecuting and enforcing labor law.

www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/05/06-2

[fairlycrazy23]

May 11, 2011 18:56:55 GMT -5 @lakhota said:

Considering how small a percentage of the workforce is unionized, if that were true this country would be already filled with sweat shops.

You apparently fail to recognize the historical impact of unions. Their existence has a positive impact even on workers who are not unionized. If Republicans are able to completely destroy unions, as they have been vigorously trying to do for decades, there will be nothing to stop them from completely turning America into a minimum wage country. The next step would be sweat shops...

Republicans have even threatened to defund the National Labor Relations Board.

Republicans Threaten to Defund the National Labor Relations Board

Imagine if Republicans in Congress threatened to defund the Supreme Court because they didn’t like one of its decisions. Well, that’s almost what's happening right now, as Republicans in Congress threaten to defund the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a quasi-judicial independent body tasked with prosecuting and enforcing labor law.

www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/05/06-2

NLRB is hardly the SCOTUS.

[lakhota]

NLRB is hardly the SCOTUS.

So, what does that mean? Do you think the NLRB is irrelevant?

[Mad Dawg Wiccan]

<<You apparently fail to recognize the historical impact of unions.>>


I understand it very well. It seems that you can't understand that what was once a Union "perk" is now labor law for all and in most cases unions are not needed or wanted.

[marshabar1]

China and human rights. Not good. Steve Jobs and so many more. Greedy.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

May 11, 2011 18:25:29 GMT -5 @lakhota said:

Can you show me evidence of sweat shops in the united states caused by union busters?

The first step toward sweat shops is to destroy organized labor.

You have a point. We would all be better off if we lived someplace like Detroit.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

May 11, 2011 19:26:21 GMT -5 @lakhota said:

NLRB is hardly the SCOTUS.

So, what does that mean? Do you think the NLRB is irrelevant?

No, it means that the NLRB is not one of the three co-equal branches of government.