Temporary halt to iPhone 5 production due to protests in the Chinese factory against their horrific conditions. Will the world join the protest?

Of course not. We’ve known about the terrible conditions in those factories for years and it hasn’t stopped the products from selling like hotcakes.

@DeanV And our shirts, our shoes, our wristwatches, our computers…..

No, it won’t change a damn thing.

Yes, of course. I added the ~ but of course I am being cynical about this. I just find it/us sad and hypocritical. I include myself.

THE FENCES KEEP PEOPLE OUT THAT WANT THE JOBS

We never abolished slavery, we outsourced it.

Thank you, @johnpowell… that ties in with my point.

Corporations have put profits before personnel for centuries. Labor unions in this and other countries were formed in protest of this, to make the point that the people who actually do the labor deserve fair, livable wages. I always liked the idea of profit-sharing programs for employees because it is a system that gives direct rewards for a job well done.

The fat-cat CEOs and shareholders don’t like to reinvest profit into their workforce, and so they find loopholes around the regulations – including sending the jobs overseas.

These countries are experiencing their own industrial revolutions, and it is up to them to hopefully learn from history, rather than repeating it… but greed seems to trump all.

Also, ”A Foxconn spokesman declined to specify whether the Taiyuan facility made products for the Apple iPhone 5, which went on sale last week, but he said that it supplied goods to many consumer electronics brands. Foxconn said it employed about 1.1 million workers in China.” —so they are not saying which products/components are built there.

Apple supplier halts China factory after violence vs. Apple Could Be Worth $1 Trillion Within a Year Really, which headline do you think the majority of people who are in a position to immediately change this are most concerned about.

The word is that this had nothing to do with working conditions and a lot to do with personal disagreements between two people.

So as much of a smear job as you are attempting to create, it doesn’t appear to be correct. Nice try, though.

Be careful, @elbanditoroso. There’s a lot of misinformation coming out. The two people may have been one of the guards who mans the metal detector on the way out, and a man going through that metal detector. There may be a great deal of resentment about being searched on the way out of the factory. It may have started with two people, but it doesn’t flame up like that without more widely shared resentment.

Of course, without profit, there can be no factory. So to say that corporations put profits before people for centuries is to say that if you don’t produce more than you consume, the factory goes bankrupt. Unions were formed to help workers improve working conditions. They were not formed to do something about profit.

Even in Marxist nations, where workers own the means of production, they care about profit. Or they should care about it. If the management structure is wrong, then it is hard to run the business well, and the company doesn’t make a profit, and even when the workers own the factory, if they don’t make a profit, they go bankrupt. Although it can take a lot longer for that to happen. Ironically, even when the workers own the factory, the “fat cat” bosses don’t invest in workers.

It isn’t profit that is the problem. It is management. Managers who make choices that devalue workers, and that take as much profit out of them as possible are managing short-sightedly. But the system works in a way. Workers can only take so much before they get pissed off and rebel. Change is slow, but it happens eventually.

Probably (at least in the US) no one will speak out about the working conditions in China. I do not own an i-phone & I seriously doubt that I ever will. Apple has manipulated the demand for its products with a constant barrage of advertising, making each of its ‘new’ creations a “must have” among a great many people. Apple products used to be made in the US, but the Apple company found they could increase their profit margin by out-sourcing the mfg to China. Apple was not concerned with the working conditions of the workers in China & (basically) Apple is still not concerned with the working conditions of the people in China who make their products. Should we be concerned about the working conditions in China? The answer is yes, we should…. working conditions around the world should be of concern in the United States, considering that most of us work for a living & if a company can get away with extreme working conditions in other countries – how long will it be before the companies that do still produce products in the US will try to resort to the same extreme working conditions? Unfortunately, the focus of the US tends to be materialistic, fueled by advertising for the newest ‘techno’ gadget. It creates the mind-set in the US that it is easier to not think about the world’s problems, just keep the gadgets coming.

Just because I like my iPod Classic doesn’t mean I can’t realize it was probably made in some 3rd world sweatshop for no pay.

Isn’t it funny that by the ‘world’ you meant Americans? I don’t know, people here don’t really protest bad working conditions all that much and they do love them some IPhones…I am very glad for whatever protests there have been and that production has halted.

I think people will relate to the pain and anguish of the little yellow man for about 5 minutes…..

Then they’ll run full belt into the nearest apple store shouting

“WHY IS MY FUCKING IPHONE LATE!!!!!!”
“I ORDERED IT TWO WEEKS AGO!!!!!!”

the people must consume….........
consume until they die!
consuuuuuuuuuuume I tell you!

Why are you singling out apple, the article says this, “Foxconn, a key supplier of products to Apple and other global electronics companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Microsoft.” That doesn’t absolve but as @jerv said, it applies to just about everything you use and wear.

The article also said, ” Apple and Foxconn have worked together in the last year to improve conditions, raise pay and improve labor standards.” It doesn’t mention any of the other companies doing anything to change the system.

I don’t know if it is true or not, (how does anyone know what to believe), but I read somewhere that if these young women were not employed by factories they would probably be reduced to begging or prostitution. Actually this was said about India but I am guessing the situation is not too different. If I were in that position, I would rather work for low wages and retain my self respect than be hanging on the street corner.

Dell used prison labor.

I’m not excusing the practice but everyone does it and it is unavoidable. Once oil is so expensive that it is cheaper to produce locally then fly it in from China we might see some balance.

In twenty years China will move on and all out t-stirts and iPods will be made in Africa.

The jobs are gone… They are not coming back anytime soon. We need a smarter workforce that designs and programs the machines that make the cheap shit China sends us.

We need to invest in education so we can make the stuff that makes stuff.