News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

June 12, 2006

business

Labor abuse in iPod factories?

Posted Jun. 12, ’06, 3:33 PM PT by Scott Silverman
Category | Business

IpodfactoryNow here’s something you don’t here much about when it comes to Apple’s products: their assembly. According to an article published by Macworld UK, the workers who assemble iPods are mainly female (because females are “more honest than male workers”) and earn as little as $50 per month, although they work 15 hours a day. The dormitories of one plant, located in Longhua, Shanghai, each house 100 people and do not permit visitors from the outside.

A second factory at Suzhou in Shanghai (the same place BTO MacBooks are shipped from) pays workers $100 per month, but those workers are required to buy their own food and accommodations with their salary. The iPod nano, meanwhile, is manufactured in a 5-story building secured by police officers. Could we have another Gap on our hands?

[via MacNN; image via macbillboard]


4 Comments

Aaron Author Profile Page said:

I bet it's bad influence from Nike. I knew that partnership could only lead to trouble.

June 12, 2006 3:46 PM
Scott said:

I think you'll find that if you want to buy any modern consumer electronics then it will be built in a similar way. As Apple is the market leader it makes sense for the journalists to look at Apples factories.

June 12, 2006 3:54 PM
exnihilo said:

I lived in China (Shanghai) for two years, and I met many Chinese people, and people who work in factories. In one apt. building, there were 8 people living where I would have fit 2-3. Disipte all of that, they have never complained about their conditions. They realize it is better than the alternative, which is laboring in a field, picking rice for $10 a month, and that's if they are lucky. Most people in China are subsistance farmers.

Before you write angry letters to your politicians demanding that workers in China be given the same work standards in the U.S., you should ask yourself, how much are YOU willing to pay for an iPod Nano/Shuffle in order to meet the increased costs? You want to place the blame on some body, maybe you should place the blame on the U.S. labor pool for pricing itself out of the global market.

Oh, and BTW, if you can show me a place in the U.S. where I can pay less than $100 a month for food and housing, please let me know!

June 12, 2006 7:17 PM
Jan Korbel said:

Just do not forget, that $50/month is probably way higher then what they would get otherwise, if there were no "evil capitalist companies" there.

June 12, 2006 10:51 PM

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