FLA, Apple and Foxconn shake on new deal for Chinese workers The Fair Labor Association is claiming to have secure assurances from Apple and its supplier Foxconn that they will make sweeping changes to workers’ pay and conditions at the latter’s Chinese plants in line with the FLA’s latest report, but critics have argued they don’t go far enough. As Apple CEO Tim Cook wraps up his …
No it will not.
You forget - what Foxconn giveth, Foxconn takes away. The dorm and food fees will be raised to compensate. That is the 18th-19th century labour model where the labor force is nominally free but you own the place they leave, the place they eat, the water they drink and they pay for all of that.
The total cost of that to the owner is _GUARANTEED_ to never ever rise faster than inflation.
I was wondering how long it'd be before someone would mention other shit companies acting shit as an excuse for the largest in the world doing so.
Congrats Hardcastle I expected at least another 5 posts before yours. The apologists are out in force, and as uneducated as ever. Don't hesitate to remind me about other companies and M$ [The $ because of money etcetera]
Profit is everything for BOTH Apple and Foxconn.
If Apple took a responsible stance they'd manufacture their stuff in the west where it would do some good to western economies and conditions.
This isn't meant as a troll; I'm just saying that China is deeply embedded in its 19th century ways and if you contract them to do your stuff, you are buying into their way of things, rewarding it, perpetuating it.
Western attempts to manage Chinese workers' conditions are going to make zero difference in reality; the manufacturers will continue laughing all the way to the bank at the expense of their workforce. The people at Apple know this very well and they're effectively just trying to engineer an appearance of corporate responsibility.
Its naive to think you can just move the factories west. Not only because the US has shown itself fairly incompetent when it comes to manufacturing (US auto anyone?), but also because there's a whole pipeline in China/Asia that makes it worthwhile to manufacture there. Moving one part west would cost far far more than just making better work conditions.
To your point, it is possible to get out of the 19th century, but you're right its hard. I own a small business and work with (very small) humane manufacturing in China, but they own the factory and make the rules. Apple is in a unique position to do the same on a much larger scale. Besides, wouldn't owning the factories be a very Apple thing to do?
Yes, my comment was meant to be simplistic and I'm not under the impression that they could just write the cheque out to someone else and it'd all happen in the west.
But the bit about quality is part of my point, as much as it is about peoples' jobs: If someone like Apple demands quality, then they can make it happen. American manufacturing has scraped right through the bottom of the barrel historically, but with customers prepared to pay for quality (instead of a $1000 car) and with Apple, as you say, owning the factories instead of writing cheques off-shore, they could do some good.
But a bit like the US price of petrol, the price-tag of an ipad doesn't necessarily reflect what it has cost. (or will cost when all things are taken into consideration.) I don't think I'd be prepared to pay £2500 for an ipad, even if it was made reponsibly in the west.
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