Chinese readers respond to story of Apple's Chinese suppliers

"Apple typically asks suppliers to specify how much every part costs, how many workers are needed and the size of their salaries. Executives want to know every financial detail. Afterward, Apple calculates how much it will pay for a part. Most suppliers are allowed only the slimmest of profits.
So suppliers often try to cut corners, replace expensive chemicals with less costly alternatives, or push their employees to work faster and longer, according to people at those companies.

“The only way you make money working for Apple is figuring out how to do things more efficiently or cheaper,” said an executive at one company that helped bring the iPad to market. “And then they’ll come back the next year, and force a 10 percent price cut.”"

So this is how Apple make their profit and use the profit to build more luxury shops all around the world, and thickens the executives' big wallet. Although knowing these workers working like there is no life, Apple still don't care and keep making big bucks out of them. Goodbye! I will not support this kind of business lest I will have part, indirectly, in killing other innocent people over iDevices. I will not buy any Apple products any more. I will use the one I have until it dies by itself and then look elsewhere. Yes, of course, losing one customer means nothing to Apple.

Each of us have the freewill to choose.

Life > iDevices

I'm just glad the people complaining aren't in charge of the economy in China. If Apple suddenly started paying the workers what American's get paid (5 to 10 times or more of what the Chinese are paid) I can't even fathom what it would do to the economy. It sounds good on paper, but suddenly creating a SINGLE group of rich workers would make all kinds of mess. There would likely be people LITERALLY killing each other to get someone's job at foxconn. I'm all for them slowly raising the pay over time, but if we were to just one day flip the switch and pretend it's America, it would be a big mistake.

While Apple should be applauded for caring about working conditions enough to publish annual reports and be as transparent in the working conditions of the suppliers and manufacturers that they employ in China they can do a lot more honestly. One thing they can do is publish the names of manufacturers and suppliers that fail Apple's own internal manufacturing and supplier policies.

I'm an Apple consumer, I love my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro, and think Apple does a lot more than other hardware companies in the computer market when it comes to labor in China. That doesn't mean they don't fall short in many ways.

The problem comes down to the fact that we've exported the manufacturing jobs that once resided in our country to China, without the labor laws that Americans fought tooth and nail for. I don't think it is unreasonable to make sure that basic labor rights like a 40 hour work week, rotation, and overtime pay (that HAS to be paid), is an unreasonable request.

Go read Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell.......you will find a section about 3rd world manufacturing. It serves up some marvelous perspective to situations just like this and it echoes some of the comments above by Chinese citizens

For some, moving to indoor work in a sweatshop is a move-up job opportunity over recycling entrepreneur (trash picker). We keep applying our expectations to the whole world, 2/3 of which lives on less than $2 per day. Should we live a better life because theirs is so poor? Probably not. Should we not allow them to make our shoes or shirts, since they would be paid so little? Even worse. The key is "are they free to leave at their own will?" When the answer is not clearly yes (read up on American Samoan sweatshops) we should be ashamed of ourselves.

NO. Apple absolutely does not need to do anymore to ensure the safety of the workers at these companies.; it is the responsibility of the company to ensure the safety of ITS employees. The same people that cry out for Apple to get more involved are the EXACT SAME PEOPLE that will criticize Apple for getting involved in a foreign country's company policies. It's ridiculous. Does this all sound familiar? The same "human rights activists" that cried for America to aid Iraq and rid the country of a tyrannical dictator (who was slaughtering his people), are the same ones that criticized the president in charge of pulling the trigger on that liberation operation! Butt out! Let's stop putting blame on others, and take responsibility for ourselves (individually)! They're adults for God's sake; THEY are accepting the job, knowing what to expect.... AND CAN QUIT AT ANYTIME!

When I read stories like this the issues that aren't discussed are much more interesting. Apple cares, and seems to care much more than any other company that it "rivals" i.e. HP, Dell, Sony, Microsoft. China is an economic and manufacturing powerhouse. They achieve this title by having little to no regulatory standards. The main source of China's power comes for dirty coal power plants and do you know why? Because they don't care, for them making money is more important than what they are doing to their natural resources, as well as, their population. Everyone shakes their finger at Apple for allowing doing business with a company that supposedly treats its employees with little to no respect. The fact of the matter is though, that it is CHINA who should be concerned about this. If an American worker complained about something like this it would be investigated by the US government because we have standard procedures and regulations against such conditions. In China; however, these regulations and procedures do exist, not because they couldn't but because it would impede China's growth as a country. And why is that? Because China recognizes like any intelligent Country that if they are not willing to do it then some other country will. Whether that is India, Turkey, or somewhere else, someone will step up to the plate and see the economic boom that will ensure from acquiring such a contract. I am not discounting that Apple should hold its contractors to such high standards but rather that the Country that is manufacturing the products itself should care just as much Apple. Should Apple care more about the working conditions in China or should China care? Because based on everything I have read it seems that Apple give much more consideration to Chinese workers than China itself.

First, this is an apple blog; do you think they are going to print something that demeans their bread and butter. Secondly, China has no free speech so again, do you think they are going to say something that demeans their government or country. Not everybody who reads this blog is naive tuaw.

Why do people continually point out Apply as the only company that uses Foxconn? Think about how many enterprise employees that use products made at Foxconn from companies like HP or the millions of gamers using Playstations or xBoxes? People, you buy technology, its mostly got something made in an Asian factory where conditions are crap. Either stop buying or put up. Remember, companies are nothing without consumers.

Developing countries have poorer working conditions than America. This is nothing new and nothing specific to Apple. All electronics manufacturers out source to these countries because it's the only way to compete, and honestly things were even worse for these people before manufacturing came.

Remember that America has only achieved what we now consider decent working conditions in the last century, and that was preceded by millenia after millenia of harsh lives for our ancestors. It's unrealistic for us to expect that the entire rest of the world would have suddenly improved just because we recently did. They are developing and will improve as the country becomes more prosperous, which can only happen by getting business from companies like Apple.