Terry Gou is the chairman of Hon Hai Precision, the owners of Foxconn. He’s also an insensitive asshat. At the company year-end party at the Taipei Zoo he said: “I have a headache how to manage one million animals.” HILARIOUS!
Foxconn does have one million employees at their mega-factories/city/ghettos, where they manufacture 40 per cent of the gadgets people have in the world, including iPhones, iPads, Xboxes and Sony whatevers. In a recent New York Times report, those factories also cook “an average of three tons of pork and 13 tons of rice a day” for their “one million animals”.
His company has apologised in a press note and argued that Gou’s remarks were taken out of context by the media:
Gou is aware that the media reports are misleading and offensive and he apologises to anyone who feels offended. However, Gou did not deliberately slander the workers as some media described.
So wait, if he didn’t “slander” the workers, why does he apologise? He could just have denied it, right? And how can this phrase be taken out of context?
In any case, it’s good to know that these guys have such a high concept of the people working for them. I’m sure this attitude helps towards their well being. [AFP]
Sowhatmeh
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 6:49 AMAs if american / australian politician/artist/sports person/etc never spoke “out of context” and apologise
Sam
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 8:18 AMAgreed.
‘He’s also an insensitive asshat’. Grade A Journalism right there, or do ‘blogs’ have lesser standards?
wsDK_II
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 9:19 AMyes, blogs have lesser standards – is this your first time on Gizmodo?
most of the articles here are written akin to chatting to a stranger on a train. However they sometimes have news before anyone else, so i come here to read.
mostly i come here to apple bash though :)
Genea
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 7:44 AMWithout such people you wouldn’t have your various devices. Its interesting that the various national companies (ie Apple = US, Sony = Japan) choose to support their nation rather than send manufacturing OS.
Russ
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 9:59 AMi hope this is sarcasm
Genea
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 2:58 PMTypo, I meant “NOT to support their nation”.
Apple is an American company yet it choose Foxconn over its fellow Americans. Why, the same reason they went to Ireland when they got given tax breaks and then left when the tax breaks stopped: making an extra buck is more important that people ever will be.
Steve
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 10:56 PMYou’re embarrassingly naive (possibly trolling) if you don’t know why they do this. MONEY. No-one would want to move Apple’s own manufacturing to the US more than Apple themselves. The Foxconn suicide backlash + the exposed exploitation of Chinese workers + every Apple device package is proudly stamped with “Designed by Apple in California” is evidence enough that in an ideal world, their gear would be made on US soil.
But guess what? You cannot produce gadgets in that quantity and efficiency anywhere but China. A Chinese worker’s minimum wage is a fraction of an American’s, China has laxer environmental standards/worker rights and no unions. How many Americans are still willing to take on unskilled manual labour (eg as janitors or fruit-pickers)? How many would be willing to do that on minimum wage, like an illegal alien? None or very few. Now, compound all that with the very real danger that comes with working in a massive industrial complex with hundreds of thousands of other workers, with no safety standards.
Despite what you might think, not all tasks in a factory can be automated, and still require human hands. Hardly any tech companies have >10% profit margins on hardware (Apple’s premium pricing excludes them) to remain competitive. If Company A moves manufacturing to a developed country, as you suggest, how can they possibly compete with Company B who keeps manufacturing in China with all its benefits? How much do you think an iPhone would cost then?
monkeymind
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 10:32 AMSorry, but companies are the only ‘people’ that have no nationality.
Felicity
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 8:12 AMSurely, Apple, et al actually *love* this guy because he saves them so much money.
light487
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 8:30 AMYes, taken out of context.. he was at the Zoo for their end of year.. get over it.. it was a joke.
“In a recent New York Times report, those factories also cook “an average of three tons of pork and 13 tons of rice a day” for their “one million animals”.”
The NYT said this? or are you just paraphasing?..
This is a clumsy article.
Having said that, it’s obvious these people are just running a factory of underpaid workers, not just underpaid in terms of money but underpaid in human rights and working conditions etc.. Taking a joke out of context to incite hate maybe one way to point the finger but a better way would be to continue to point out the unreasonable treatment of the workers, putting constant pressure on the people who allow the situation to continue… not by taking cheap shots at people who couldn’t give a *beep* and would probably find it funny that you or anyone else took offense at their office party joke.
Jaezass
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 9:09 AMIt’s not often that I fully agree with your comment’s, but ye hit the nail on the head with this one dude! :)
sebastian
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 9:04 AMYou also gotta understand the slandering/hate/whatever-you-call-it aimed towards mainland Chinese from Hong Kongers and Taiwanese (among other groups that may be considered just “Chinese” in Western countries). This is due to a lot of reasons; they may be quite obvious to some.
Assuming this guy’s Taiwanese, he must feel pretty special to have a million mainland “animals” working their arse’s off under his command.
monica BALMELLI
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 9:18 AMIf you are outraged by Faxconn and Apple, learn more here:
http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-apple-stop-slavery-practices-at-foxconns-manufactories
vin
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 10:05 AMwhat i’m pissed about is that the australian government can halt the supply of beef to other countries due to a violation of animal rights… thereby effecting the economy, and kulling all incomes for beef farmers.
but human rights get no attention…
great perspective there. really, well done! *clap clap*
light487
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 11:02 AMWell you know that’s all a big show anyway, right.. they don’t actually give a crap about animal rights either.. it’s all spin to either hide something or to set up for something else.
James
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 11:12 AM“We may be human, but we’re still animals” – Steve Vai.
Never a truer word spoken, unless you’re Christian and think we’re better than everything else in the universe.
Foxconn Chief is dead on the money with that statement.
Ozoneocean
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 2:40 PMWhat he said was obviously factually true, but still socially unacceptable. There’s quite a large difference.