Where workers sleep who make your iPhones and why we need to get out of the slave trade agreements

[grahamhgreen]

"Since a spate of eleven suicides earlier this year, every building on the Foxconn campus is draped in netting. It is morbid but seemingly effective; there have been no suicides since the nets were installed in May."


more: http://gizmodo.com/5678732/exclusive-look-where-the-workers-who-made-your-iphone-sleep-at-night

[leftstreet]

1. K&R

[gmoney]

2. Foxconn makes everything for everybody, not just Apple

That looks like a fairly reasonable dormitory style room... Maybe a little small for 8 people, but it's not much smaller than what I had my first year at Ohio State (8 bunk beds in about twice the space, plus a lounge area and bathroom). At least it's clean and has some windows.

Probably not much smaller than a lot of military barracks, etc.

Not saying it's great, but could be a lot worse. I'm guessing migrant farm workers in the US are at this level or worse.

[grahamhgreen]

5. When manufacturing was in this country, each worker had their own house, 2 cars, and kids in college

[gmoney]

6. Eventually, yes... basically the advent of unions made that happen

It didn't start out that way here... China is still emerging. Another generation or two, they may get there. But their middle class is growing steadily.

And there have always been working poor people in this country, even during the "Leave it Boehner" fantasy times you invoke. They still fill slums that make this little dormitory look like a South Beach resort.

Edit: Again, I'm not saying the conditions there are great, but the photos of that dorm certainly don't invoke the nightmares that other living conditions around the world do.

I wonder how the people working in this playing card company would like the Foxconn option?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KAny-1saS4

[grahamhgreen]

7. You think it's ok to send our jobs that provided for a middle class lifestyle to

Countries that only pay enough for you to live in a dorm?

It's not.

This kind of mentality is destroying our country.

[gmoney]

20. Of course I don't.

The OP is presenting the notion that this is some sort of squalid hell hole. I'm just saying that it looks like a reasonably clean dormitory that would be preferable to living in a dirt floor lean-to with no clean water and people throwing their raw sewage into the street, or the other scenarios of abject poverty that we see from around the world.

No, it's not a 3-bedroom colonial on Wisteria Lane. And it sucks that a US worker who could possibly afford that sort of lifestyle is not doing this job, in favor of someone making maybe 5% or 10% of his US counterpart. The race to the bottom has been brutal.

[grahamhgreen]

22. I agree!

[gmoney]

24. Thank you

[readmoreoften]

9. You go live in it then. People are committing suicide there. You deserve to be living in a work camp

about as much as these people do.

Enough with your neoliberal nonsense. What? The peasant class forced into labor is going to make the future bright through their personal suffering? No, I don't think so.

[gmoney]

21. Where the hell did I say any of that?

I'm not happy about any of it.

But I'll report to my work camp soon enough, I suspect.

I'm just tired of people and the media characterizing Foxconn as strictly making Apple products. They make products for virtually every consumer electronics company, and to my knowledge, Apple is the only one that's actually putting any pressure on Foxconn to improve conditions for workers.

[Matariki]

18. It looks like a prison.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. I agree we need to repeal free trade

we need to to realize that foxxcon makes everything NOT JUST IPHONES.

You got an x-box? what about HP?

Are people this dense?

We need an INDUSTRIAL policy... oh never mind... let the bashing of ONE company instead of a POLICY to continue.

[grahamhgreen]

4. Not trying to pick on Apple - manufacturing needs to be returned through trade barriers and tarriffs

[4lbs]

14. True. I would venture an educated guess that the computers that people are typing on have items

inside them made by FoxConn, and the monitor that they are looking at to read the posts on DU.

Furthermore, if we just limit ourselves to comparing cell phone technology, I'd bet that those smartphones made by Samsung and Nokia are made by FoxConn-type labor.

[Occulus]

17. Before you start saying that we all support this sort of thing,

you might want to have some alternatives so we can stop supporting those sorts of things.

What? You mean there aren't any alternatives to buying cheap electronics built by oppressed workers who are making slave wages?

Well, boy howdy. I guess maybe before people start saying that "we do it too" we might try putting some thought into getting those jobs back. In the meantime, we really don't have much of a choice.

[grahamhgreen]

23. Of course there are real, simple solutions

Before we changed our trade policies in the 90's most of our electronics were made right here!

We simply need to withdraw from GATT, NAFTA, and the other slave-trade agreements!

Then, we can raise tariffs so that foreign made goods cost more than US made goods, and we are done.

[readmoreoften]

8. And that's one of the nicer ones.

"But $10 a year is a good salary for those people!" in 3...2...1

[tomm2thumbs]

10. I'm sure they can figure out nicer accommodations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Mwv90m3N2Y

this is probably a prototype for future iPhone workers

when one konks out, you just push the button and get a new one

[Starry Messenger]

11. k & r

[OlympicBrian]

12. Representation of the Often-Untaxed Elite - The US Corporatocracy

What kind of machine cranks out Foxconn?

Representation of the Often-Untaxed Elite - The US Corporatocracy
(original 10/29, Dan S., Seattle)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9425839

[paulflorez]

13. Unionize them

China has unions but they are state-run unions.

We should only do business with countries that allow unions to organize freely.

Raise tariffs on countries that do not allow third-party unions and promote trade with countries that don't prevent their workers from unionizing.

The AFL-CIO should be encouraging unionization in developing countries that are free, and the U.S. should be trading with those countries and not with countries to unfairly manipulate their currency and prevent their workers from unionizing.

Powerful unions in the U.S. won't do shit if there are no unions in developing countries. If all countries had unions, corporations would have no where to run (and exploit).

[HEyHEY]

15. The only way this will work is pressure from home

Unions in the USA need to approach companies using foxcon.But, they won't.

[paulflorez]

19. Why not?

I would think the AFL-CIO would be itching to get more people signed up with unions globally, even if not their own unions.

[HEyHEY]

25. Cause they are taking union jobs at home.

[paulflorez]

26. They're taking union jobs anyways...

the only difference is that their not getting paid union wages or union benefits because they're not unionized, and as a result unionized U.S. labor is more expensive and at a disadvantage.

One solution is to demolish union wages and benefits, eliminate minimum wage and labor laws, then U.S. workers could compete at the same cost as offshore labor.

Or pay offshore labor union wages and benefits, and let U.S. and offshore labor compete by squeezing savings out of somewhere else other than the although withering wallet of the blue collar worker.

[HEyHEY]

16. Got some news for you, that's one of the GOOD ones n/t

[Obamanaut]

27. Are there any iPhone users who plan on giving them up because of this photo? nt