Bill Maher interviewed Mike Daisey last week on Real Time, adding to the scourge of recent negative publicity surrounding the conditions at Apple supplier Foxconn. Daisey is the actor who wrote and performed the one-man show The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, a musing that faces the labour issue head-on. He actually went to China and talked to workers outside the infamous Foxconn factory in Shenzhen.
“Ms Chen”, as CNN calls her, works in a Foxconn plant installing iPad screens for virtually every waking hour of her life. Despite this, she never actually saw an iPad until CNN whisked her away. Her reaction will surprise you.
The ongoing issues that Apple faces regarding workplace conditions in its suppliers’ Chinese factories has left an ugly streak on the company’s bright and sparkly facade. Why not use all that power of innovation and design to tackle the core issue? Last night’s Conan featured an Apple commercial that ‘revolutionises the safety net’. Zing!
Joel Johnson, after he visited a Foxconn factory for Wired: To be soaked in materialism, to directly and indirectly champion it, has also brought guilt.
Despite the explosions, suicides, reported abuse and poisonous gas, Foxconn is apparently a very popular place to work.
In Adam Lashinsky’s book, Inside Apple, he examines how brutally insane and awful it is to work at Apple. Turns out having plainclothes spies and murky job descriptions isn’t enough, because Apple sometimes makes its new employees work on fake products until they prove themselves trustworthy.
The New York Times teamed up with a Chinese magazine to see how the Chinese feel about Foxconn, Apple, and the how their factory workers are treated. The results might not surprise you, but they will remind you that there’s more cost to your iPad than what’s on the price tag.
You probably remember the Foxconn explosion from last May that killed four people and left 18 others seriously injured. Charles Duhigg and David Barboza of the New York Times have a massive profile on the human side of a totally avoidable dust explosion in a plant frantically rushing to keep up with demand for iPads, and all the negligence that went into it.
The answer is pretty obvious, right? It’s cheaper labour! But is that the only reason why Apple (and other companies) outsource its workforce to China as opposed to keeping them in America? No. There’s more. The New York Times has an excellent report on why Apple ignores America when it comes to making the iPhone, and how that’s better for Apple.
Her name is Lana Sator and she sneaked into one of NPO Energomash factories outside of Moscow. Her photos are amazing, like sets straight out of the next Alien movie.
