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Pablo Empanada
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Chinese Citizens Comment on Foxconn, Apple, and Being From the Birthplace of the World’s Electronics

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.

We hear a lot about how Americans feel about the situation in China's Foxconn factories. The employees work long hours for little money so we can have relatively cheap electronic devices. The New York Times' iEconomy series delves deeper into the subject and their second article in the series was posted on China's Caixim business magazine. The magazine asked its readers to comment on the situation. Here are a few choice comments:

1) It is a pity that, we know that for Apple fans, such a story won't stop their enthusiasm. Just like people are still buying Nike and Adidas shoes, knowing that shoe manufacturing is highly environmentally hazardous; 2) if a government cannot guarantee the welfare of its own 120 million disadvantaged population and even suppresses their appeals, then how could we require an overseas company to protect the labor rights in a Chinese factory? -Jionglegejiong

If the story is simply blaming Apple and Foxconn, then it is simplifying the problem. Other companies including HTC, Lenovo, HP and Sony, and their OEM (original equipment manufacturer) companies such as Wistron, Quanta and Inventec, share the same situation. Workers of small OEM enterprises are working in even harsher environments and having more overtime. The root is that they are unable to reach a higher position in the industry chain. Also, there are no effective labor organizations in those factories and the government tends to shield huge companies because of their profits. - Freestyle-coming

When local governments are trying to attract new investments to their regions, they always emphasize the low-cost labor in their areas. How pathetic! - Jiangsu

Check out there rest of the comment at the New York Times.

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Proceeds from Banned Foxconn iPhone Game Given to Foxconn Employee Who Attempted Suicide

Molleindustria's critical protest game Phone Story was designed to achieve two ends: to raise consumer awareness of the conditions under which smartphones like the iPhone are produced, and to help serve as a fundraising tool.

The game, originally released for iPhone last September, traces the life of a modern mobile handheld device. It starts with coltan mining in the Congo, carries through to production in a Chinese factory, and wraps up with marketing and planned obsolescence. As we reported last year, Apple pulled the title from its App Store almost immediately after launch. Phone Story has since been made available to play on the web.

In a recent update statement, Molleindustria has announced where the money from Phone Story is now going. Although they were unable to generate as many sales as they had hoped, they have earned approximately $6000 to date and plan to donate it to a former Foxconn employee who sustained significant injuries after a suicide attempt. They write:

Despite the positive reviews and the wide media coverage, the amount of money we were able to collect from sales and artist fees (the art organizations who exhibited the game) was humbling, a little more than $6000 - see details below.

Then we came across the tragic story of Tian Yu, a girl who suffered from serious injuries after trying to commit suicide by jumping from the Foxconn's factory complex where she was working in 2010. She was 17 years old at the time.

We thought: $6000 won't do that much to an organization but they could be significant for an individual who used to earn about $130 a month. So we made Tian Yu the recipient of our first donation.

Tian Yu suffered significant permanent spine and hip injuries as a result of her four-story fall and is now paralyzed from the waist down. Meanwhile, worker conditions at Foxconn's Chinese plants remain an active concern as we continue into 2012.

'Mass suicide' protest at Apple manufacturer Foxconn factory

Around 150 Chinese workers at Foxconn, the world's largest electronics manufacturer, threatened to commit suicide by leaping from their factory roof in protest at their working conditions.

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150 Chinese workers at Foxconn, threatened to commit suicide by leaping from their factory roof in protest at their working conditions Photo: Club.china.com

The workers were eventually coaxed down after two days on top of their three-floor plant in Wuhan by Foxconn managers and local Chinese Communist party officials.

Foxconn, which manufactures gadgets for the likes of Apple, Sony, Nintendo and HP, among many others, has had a grim history of suicides at its factories. A suicide cluster in 2010 saw 18 workers throw themselves from the tops of the company's buildings, with 14 deaths.

In the aftermath of the suicides, Foxconn installed safety nets in some of its factories and hired counsellors to help its workers.

The latest protest began on January 2 after managers decided to move around 600 workers to a new production line, making computer cases for Acer, a Taiwanese computer company.

"We were put to work without any training, and paid piecemeal," said one of the protesting workers, who asked not to be named. "The assembly line ran very fast and after just one morning we all had blisters and the skin on our hand was black. The factory was also really choked with dust and no one could bear it," he said.

Several reports from inside Foxconn factories have suggested that while the company is more advanced than many of its competitors, it is run in a "military" fashion that many workers cannot cope with. At Foxconn's flagship plant in Longhua, five per cent of its workers, or 24,000 people, quit every month.

"Because we could not cope, we went on strike," said the worker. "It was not about the money but because we felt we had no options. At first, the managers said anyone who wanted to quit could have one month's pay as compensation, but then they withdrew that offer. So we went to the roof and threatened a mass suicide".

The worker said that Foxconn initially refused to negotiate, but that the workers were treated reasonably by the local police and fire service.

A spokesman for Foxconn confirmed the protest, and said that the incident was "successfully and peacefully resolved after discussions between the workers, local Foxconn officials and representatives from the local government".

He added that 45 Foxconn employees had chosen to resign and the remainder had returned to work. "The welfare of our employees is our top priority and we are committed to ensuring that all employees are treated fairly," he said.

While Apple has risen to become the world’s largest technology firm, Foxconn, the maker of almost all of its devices, appears to have broken under the pressure of keeping up with new orders.

Two more workers attempted to commit suicide on Thursday by jumping from the top of dormitory buildings at its giant Longhua factory, according to sources at the site. Both survived and are currently hospitalised.

On Wednesday night, just hours after the chairman of Foxconn assured hundreds of reporters that the plant was under control, a 23-year-old man killed himself.

So far, at least 16 people have jumped from high buildings at the factory so far this year, with 12 deaths. A further 20 people were stopped by the company before they could attempt to kill themselves.

The hysteria at Longhua, where between 300,000 and 400,000 employees eat, work and sleep, has grown to such a pitch that workers have twisted Foxconn’s Chinese name so that it now sounds like: “Run to your Death”.

Edited by Pablo Empanada
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Isto aliado ao que se descobriu que o FBI investigou sobre o Steve Jobs na época de 90, não foi uma boa semana para Apple nesse aspecto. E que foi inclusive noticia na TVI(foi ai que soube disso).

É por isso que eles são nojo e vão continuar sempre a ser.

Steve Jobs' FBI files question his honesty and morality

One interviewee called Jobs "not completely forthright and honest"

The FBI files of Steve Jobs have been released, showing a man who commanded respect as an innovator but was questioned on his honesty and morality.

The file was prepared on the Apple founder as he was considered for a presidential appointment in 1991 during George H W Bush's time in office.

Documents also revealed that Jobs had been the victim of an extortive bomb threat in 1985.

Jobs' files note, too, his conversion to Buddhism and admissions of drug use.

The documents were made public on Thursday through freedom of information laws, and posted to the FBI's website.

'Questionable character'

"Several individuals questioned Mr Jobs' honesty stating that Mr Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals," said a summary of the FBI background check.

A former business associate who blamed Jobs because he had not received lucrative stock he thought was due to him characterised the Apple founder as an "honest and trustworthy individual; however, his moral character is questionable".

Others told the interviewer that Jobs was difficult to work with, no surprise given details of his volatile temperament that emerged in his biography last year.

The unfavourable comments gleaned during the background check did not prevent Jobs being appointed to an unpaid post advising the president on export policy.

Jobs died in October after a years-long struggle with cancer.

The interviewees' names have been redacted by the FBI, with the exception of Jobs himself.

The Apple founder admitted to experimenting with drugs, including LSD, in the 1970s.

Another interviewee spoke of Jobs' high-profile reputation within Silicon Valley.

Jobs was "not an engineer in the real sense", the source says, but "an innovative force within the technical community".

@BBC

E depois há quem tenha coragem de dizer que o Jobs foi a personagem do seculo, um exemplo para os jovens bla bla bla... lol

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oh... isso não é novidade...

Aliás, até já tinha deixado a seguinte notícia postada por cá há muito tempo.... lol, 90horas de horário extra por semana, e ainda por cima, é rotina...

Apple's Chinese workers treated 'inhumanely, like machines'

Investigation finds evidence of draconian rules and excessive overtime to meet western demand for iPhones and iPadsin China, half a million workers paid about 65p an hour can exceed the 60-hour week limit to cope with demand.

An investigation into the conditions of Chinese workers has revealed the shocking human cost of producing the must-have Apple iPhones and iPads that are now ubiquitous in the west.

The research, carried out by two NGOs, has revealed disturbing allegations of excessive working hours and draconian workplace rules at two major plants in southern China. It has also uncovered an "anti-suicide" pledge that workers at the two plants have been urged to sign, after a series of employee deaths last year.

The investigation gives a detailed picture of life for the 500,000 workers at the Shenzhen and Chengdu factories owned by Foxconn, which produces millions of Apple products each year. The report accuses Foxconn of treating workers "inhumanely, like machines".

Among the allegations made by workers interviewed by the NGOs – the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom) – are claims that:

Excessive overtime is routine, despite a legal limit of 36 hours a month. One payslip, seen by the Observer, indicated that the worker had performed 98 hours of overtime in a month.

Workers attempting to meet the huge demand for the first iPad were sometimes pressured to take only one day off in 13.

In some factories badly performing workers are required to be publicly humiliated in front of colleagues.

Crowded workers' dormitories can sleep up to 24 and are subject to strict rules. One worker told the NGO investigators that he was forced to sign a "confession letter" after illicitly using a hairdryer. In the letter he wrote: "It is my fault. I will never blow my hair inside my room. I have done something wrong. I will never do it again."

In the wake of a spate of suicides at Foxconn factories last summer, workers were asked to sign a statement promising not to kill themselves and pledging to "treasure their lives".

Foxconn produced its first iPad at Chengdu last November and expects to produce 100m a year by 2013. Last year Apple sold more than 15m iPads worldwide and has already sold close to five million this year.

When the allegations were put to Foxconn by the Observer, manager Louis Woo confirmed that workers sometimes worked more than the statutory overtime limit to meet demand from western consumers, but claimed that all the extra hours were voluntary. Workers claim that, if they turn down excessive demands for overtime, they will be forced to rely on their basic wage: workers in Chengdu are paid only 1,350 yuan (£125) a month for a basic 48-hour week, equivalent to about 65p an hour.

Asked about the suicides that have led to anti-suicide netting being fitted beneath the windows of workers' dormitories, Woo said: "Suicides were not connected to bad working conditions. There was a copy effect. If one commits suicide, then others will follow."

In a statement, Apple said: "Apple is committed to ensuring the highest standards of social responsibility throughout our supply base. Apple requires suppliers to commit to our comprehensive supplier code of conduct as a condition of their contracts with us. We drive compliance with the code through a rigorous monitoring programme, including factory audits, corrective action plans and verification measures."

link

portanto....

Edited by panayotopoulos
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Eu acho piada a vocês generalizarem como se realmente existissem indivíduos cá no fórum que relativamente a este assunto têm uma opinião diferente da vossa só porque têm um Macbook ou um iPod...

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oh... isso não é novidade...

Aliás, até já tinha deixado a seguinte notícia postada por cá há muito tempo.... lol, 90horas de horário extra por semana, e ainda por cima, é rotina...

Apple's Chinese workers treated 'inhumanely, like machines'

Investigation finds evidence of draconian rules and excessive overtime to meet western demand for iPhones and iPadsin China, half a million workers paid about 65p an hour can exceed the 60-hour week limit to cope with demand.

An investigation into the conditions of Chinese workers has revealed the shocking human cost of producing the must-have Apple iPhones and iPads that are now ubiquitous in the west.

The research, carried out by two NGOs, has revealed disturbing allegations of excessive working hours and draconian workplace rules at two major plants in southern China. It has also uncovered an "anti-suicide" pledge that workers at the two plants have been urged to sign, after a series of employee deaths last year.

The investigation gives a detailed picture of life for the 500,000 workers at the Shenzhen and Chengdu factories owned by Foxconn, which produces millions of Apple products each year. The report accuses Foxconn of treating workers "inhumanely, like machines".

Among the allegations made by workers interviewed by the NGOs – the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom) – are claims that:

Excessive overtime is routine, despite a legal limit of 36 hours a month. One payslip, seen by the Observer, indicated that the worker had performed 98 hours of overtime in a month.

Workers attempting to meet the huge demand for the first iPad were sometimes pressured to take only one day off in 13.

In some factories badly performing workers are required to be publicly humiliated in front of colleagues.

Crowded workers' dormitories can sleep up to 24 and are subject to strict rules. One worker told the NGO investigators that he was forced to sign a "confession letter" after illicitly using a hairdryer. In the letter he wrote: "It is my fault. I will never blow my hair inside my room. I have done something wrong. I will never do it again."

In the wake of a spate of suicides at Foxconn factories last summer, workers were asked to sign a statement promising not to kill themselves and pledging to "treasure their lives".

Foxconn produced its first iPad at Chengdu last November and expects to produce 100m a year by 2013. Last year Apple sold more than 15m iPads worldwide and has already sold close to five million this year.

When the allegations were put to Foxconn by the Observer, manager Louis Woo confirmed that workers sometimes worked more than the statutory overtime limit to meet demand from western consumers, but claimed that all the extra hours were voluntary. Workers claim that, if they turn down excessive demands for overtime, they will be forced to rely on their basic wage: workers in Chengdu are paid only 1,350 yuan (£125) a month for a basic 48-hour week, equivalent to about 65p an hour.

Asked about the suicides that have led to anti-suicide netting being fitted beneath the windows of workers' dormitories, Woo said: "Suicides were not connected to bad working conditions. There was a copy effect. If one commits suicide, then others will follow."

In a statement, Apple said: "Apple is committed to ensuring the highest standards of social responsibility throughout our supply base. Apple requires suppliers to commit to our comprehensive supplier code of conduct as a condition of their contracts with us. We drive compliance with the code through a rigorous monitoring programme, including factory audits, corrective action plans and verification measures."

link

portanto....

lol que peta tal como se pode ler na investigavao levada pelo new york times em cima. Obvio que eles nao iam dizer "sim, eles não têm condições nenhumas sao escravizados e dormem que nem ratos."

Edited by Pablo Empanada
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lol que peta tal como se pode ler na investigavao levada pelo new york times em cima. Obvio que eles nao iam dizer "sim, eles não têm condições nenhumas sao escravizados e dormem que nem ratos."

óbvio que a malta que gere a empresa n iria dizer o contrário... de qq modo, é para nós percebermos qual a nossa concorrência, e pq isto n muda se os chineses não fizerem mudanças...

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