If it wasn’t for the fact that most of my mates have a Blackberry and that you can get BIS for only R59 a month on Vodacom i’d probably get an iPhone so this post is in no means intended to be bashing Apple Inc.
Just found it rather disconcerting that an article on Business Insider stated as fact (and not a value judgement) that Apple products like the iPhone and iPad are built using labour practises that would be illegal in the US…and according to a special report some workers at the Foxconn factory in China are as young as 12.
The article referred to “This American Life” which did a show on Apple’s manufacturing and some of the details include:
- One Foxconn worker Mike Daisey interviewed, outside factory gates manned by guards with guns, was a 13-year old girl. She polished the glass of thousands of new iPhones a day.
- The 13-year old said Foxconn doesn’t really check ages. There are on-site inspections, from time to time, but Foxconn always knows when they’re happening. And before the inspectors arrive, Foxconn just replaces the young-looking workers with older ones.
- In the first two hours outside the factory gates, Daisey meets workers who say they are 14, 13, and 12 years old (along with plenty of older ones). Daisey estimates that about 5% of the workers he talked to were underage.
- A Chinese working “hour” is 60 minutes — unlike an American “hour,” which generally includes breaks for Facebook, the bathroom, a phone call, and some conversation. The official work day in China is 8 hours long, but the standard shift is 12 hours. Generally, these shifts extend to 14-16 hours, especially when there’s a hot new gadget to build. While Daisey is in Shenzhen, a Foxconn worker dies after working a 34-hour shift.
Go read the rest HERE.
Pretty hectic stuff.
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