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Vendors distance themselves from Foxconn
HARDWARE VENDORS are distancing themselves from Foxconn as the death toll rises at one of its Chinese factories.
For weeks, reports have surfaced about the working conditions of employees and provided a morbid count of suicides at Hon Hai Precision Industries, better known as Foxconn. The Chinese manufacturer employs close to 900,000 workers to produce gadgets for companies likes Apple, Dell and HP. Now those firms are trying to distance themselves from Hon Hai and allegations of oppressive living and working conditions at its city-like factory complexes.
A recent undercover investigation paints a picture of appalling conditions for employees. With the count of suicides having steadily grown over the past several months, that has led Hon Hai founder Terry Gou to show journalists that workers, who presumably have completed overtime work that they seek due to low pay, have access to a swimming pool. While Gou was doing his best to counter reports that Foxconn's factories are nothing more than soul-killing sweatshops, a number of his biggest customers have announced internal investigations.
Apple has said that it is "saddened and upset" at the recent suicides and has announced that it has teams "independently evaluating" the steps Hon Hai has taken to address these events. HP has come out saying that it was investigating "the Hon Hai practices that may be associated with these tragic events." Dell has also weighed in, saying that it expects suppliers to "employ the same high standards" as in its facilities, all but admitting that Hon Hai's standards are below Dell's.
While the recent statements are welcome, given that they were only issued after the story hit mainstream media one has to wonder whether this is just damage control rather than any indication that changes will be made.
Given that companies typically survey facilities and have their own staff onsite to maintain quality levels, it would be shocking if Apple, Dell and HP were unaware of factory conditions at Foxconn.
For the workers, thankfully the international attention that's finally being paid to their plight may force the multinational corporations that profit from their hard work to address their own lack of corporate conscience. µ
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The working conditions at Foxconn may be appalling by our standards - though conventional by Chinese standards.
But the suicide rate isn't unusual at all. The Chinese national rate is about 13 per 100,000 (U.S. rate is 11 per 100,000). With 900,000 workers you'd expect about 10 per month - and that's successful suicides, not just attempts.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article7137756.ece (free but not for much longer) proposes that the suicide rate in one factory's population of 300,000 (!) is less than the Chinese average (or the Welsh), while noting that suicides are more common outside urban areas (this may apply to Wales too).
If you are considering suicide, don't do it, because if you do, nobody will be impressed but some people will be distressed, including those who have to clean up the mess.
Since apparently the Chinese workers have been leaping from high floors of a dormitory building, the mess must be considerable, and very public if they land on a paved path or something. Difficult to clean up. I suppose it isn't constructive to suggest that as well as a swimming pool they should have a bouncy castle, strategically placed, but how about some extremely prickly bushes, such as holly?
Actually if we all made a fuss it wouldn't do much because of the inherent flaws of the Capitalist system.
This is what it's designed to do, to push down wages, concentrate power in the hands of a few unaccountable people and eventually, left unchecked, lead to monopolies (or near) in every industry.
Just look at Microsoft, Intel, McDonalds, CoCa-Cola; you think these companies will ever have a genuine ethical and moral agenda when there sole purpose is to create profits for shareholders?
And don't forget, under this system if companies were to put worker safety ahead of profits the top management could be removed by shareholders for failing to have their profit making interests at the top of the companies' agenda.
Unless there are laws and regulations that put worker safety ahead of profit it will stay this way.
Corporations are like machines, they ruthlessly pursue whatever task you set them and currently the only task they are given is profit.
We demand lower and lower pri8ces and that's why there ane sweatshops. If we all made more of a fuss about this then it would happen less. But we don't.
if you really care about working conditions in Chinese factories, than prepare to pay twice for everything, so they can have better conditions.
Of course Lawrence you know about SEDEX. I'd research that prior to writing anything like this and examine Hon-Hai's conduct based upon their findings in any given facility. But this is cheap journalism with scant grounding and you don't have anything to back up you're posting from all angles. Forget the fiction and friction thing, you have bought about "unfounded propaganda" with little resource.
Lest that be the continued demise of L'inq ?
Is one's portfolio of knowledge industry based or writing for a part of the industry based?
I'd love to see this oracle return to having the esteem it had but the ROG now is the stream.
""HARDWARE VENDORS are distancing themselves from Foxconn""
That's great, does that mean the factories are coming back home.:)
""For the workers, thankfully the international attention that's finally being paid to their plight may force the multinational corporations that profit from their hard work to address their own lack of corporate conscience.""
Give me a break, these corporations didn't go to China to setup a replica of a factory that was once in the USA. The deals were made knowing full well what the guarantees would be. Otherwise the factories would still be here, employing US workers.
Sh*t, Dow Chemical still hasn't dealt with the Bhopal chemical disaster, that killed and maimed thousands in India. You actually believe the crap that comes out of the mouths of the PR people. You think that all of a sudden the Heads of these Corporations have a vision and become truly remorseful to their shareholders, whom turn a blind eye to what goes on. Corporate heads become ethical because of a few headlines in a newspaper that in two days have found something else to write about.
RIGHT!!!!
Somehow never done until the facts are publicized, when anyone with slight awareness knows that most of China manufacturing depends on near slavery, and the rest of it on prison labor.