Friday 26 August 2011

An apple a day may kill you

Steve Jobs has stepped down as the chief executive of Apple. Well he is gravely ill with cancer so he really should have other things to do in his life then sell gadgets to people with too much money to waste.

Yes I am not a fan of Apple or Mr Jobs and I do work in IT so I know a fair bit about computers and many other things to do with them. I do admire how he sells his products, he does nothing different but what he says at the press conference.

When Microsoft does a conference they show off the new thing and then say how much it is. Steve does a big long slide show as if he has been on holiday for a month giving you the story. And people love it, nothing new or different is contained in any Apple products as it has all been invented before.

Gone are the days of the Apple computer made in the U.S.A. they now buy off the shelf components from China. I have a big problem with this as much of what comes from China has been made in a factory where the health and safety practices are none existent. Also a normal working week can be 60 hours for the workers who are on a pittance pay.

Just two years ago the Foxconn electronics manufacturer had a workers commit suicide. Blaming the working practices and hours in the job he had. This did then go on to start a strike in the factory that also spread to others companies as well. This is nothing new and for us Brits, from the coal miners to the trains many have done so. But in China you can face being arrested for going on strike.

Foxconn have in a space of two years had 18 attempted suicides and of that 14 have died. Last one was in July this year. Most have been from jumping off the building they work in. Investigations have concluded the job is what is causing it. Also 20 Chinese universities have done studies and reported the same facts.

I may have a unique view of this as I have worked for a Chinese company’s and it was in the electronic area. Luckily I worked in the UK and was covered by the laws we have. I found the companies to be the worse I have ever worked for. The job was simply horrible, you were physically sore in your hands from the repetitive movements, feet sore from standing in the same position. So when I talked to some of the Chinese workers who then believed to be lucky to have that job here cause back home it was way worse. Working close to 80 hours a week doing the same manual task in a factory with no window, pretty much none existent breaks and you can't talk to anyone when working. Add in pretty much no health and safety, people soldering PCB s in a room with no extraction or masks will poison the people working (solder has mercury in it). Something like 120 hours overtime was the normal amount of overtime people were working. So after a working week of up to 80 hours a worker would be expected to work on for overtime. Remember the people get paid a pittance, simply owning an apple product is a pipe dream.

This was to me knowledge in 1996 and it was not till 2010 I saw anything in the news about it. The reason being the boom of electronic sales like Apple stuff. Oh and I don’t just not buy Apple. Same goes with Sony, Dell and Nokia. I will never own one of their products till this is all changed.

Ok after the strike the workers had a pay rise to a whopping $312 a month. WOW!

The management has been to blame and this has been reported from inside and outside China. They say they have done many things to change the working conditions like putting up netting (Much like in old prisons) to prevent suicides. Reports have been made that the netting has saved lives. Still does not make you feel good thou, kids still jumping. The management introduced a document where you sign saying you won’t kill yourself. Fuck what a great idea; roll it out to all the people on suicide watch the world over. Problem solved EH?

Personally if you have to live in a room a few metres square and work 60 plus hours a week for $312 a month I’d say that is very close to slave labour. The only way you can make enough money is to work on. Again this is the sort of treatment that was normal in the cotton mills in Glasgow and the world over 150 years ago.

Apple responds to this by saying they think nothing is wrong and go as far as saying Foxconn are doing well.

So next time you are in Starbucks and you see someone with an Apple, Dell or Sony laptop sipping a free trade coffee you have the tools and knowledge to tell em that they are a fucking hypocrite.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/7773011/A-look-inside-the-Foxconn-suicide-factory.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10182824

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