5 ms·

Who made your iPhone? (video)

7 points by QuarkSpark 15y ago

threepointone 15y ago
I don't mean to sound snarky, but this video is remarkably scarce on real content. There're exactly 2 complaints I gathered from the video. 1. Low wages (this could be relative) 2. Bad hours (sounds like most startups I know) Heck, she even says she's "bored" and is free to leave. While bad, I don't think this deserves the adjective "worst". PS - Just to be clear, I'm not saying Foxconn has excellent working conditions, just that this video gave me zero insight into them.
- ballard 15y ago
  This video looked more like the transfat filler bookended by moist, decadent slabs of commercials than anything close to resembling the crunchy, investigative rigor from feisty curmudgeons. For example, 4 unanswered central theses: 1) Do rank-and-file employees in China tend to downplay actual conditions? If so, what are the roots and motivations? 2) What do western managers and investors have to say for themselves? Would they in practice let their own college-aged kids work in any of these facilities? 3) What are reputable companies doing to distance themselves from facilities that don't comply? Is there any meaningful policing mechanism? Are government(s) assisting, complicit, ambivalent or mixed? 4) What is going on in these facilities? What's the real deal (or at least, the 60 minutes cliff-notes version)? How do we know that age old "ISO 9000" games aren't being played along with other maquilliocity, i.e., sending network cable subassemblies home for cottage-industry production with very low per-piece-wages? Why not open up some of a facility's security video feed to demonstrate to the world how fair and safe are their particular working conditions? Granted there are many concerns, interests and moving parts to this, but it could be doable.
- glenra 15y ago
  It'd be refreshing if people running such stories would go interview some teens who work at McDonalds or at Disneyland and ask the same questions. Electronics assembly is transitional employment for young people. It's a boring dead-end job but pays significantly more than most low-skill jobs, so people put up with being bored for a few years until they have something better to do. And there's nothing wrong with that, on either end. (The worker herself did not complain about low wages - CNN did that on her behalf, neglecting to add the context that Foxconn's wages are about 50% higher than the average wage in China)
hollerith 15y ago
Could someone please add "[video]" to the title?

7 points by QuarkSpark 15y ago

I don't mean to sound snarky, but this video is remarkably scarce on real content. There're exactly 2 complaints I gathered from the video. 1. Low wages (this could be relative) 2. Bad hours (sounds like most startups I know) Heck, she even says she's "bored" and is free to leave. While bad, I don't think this deserves the adjective "worst". PS - Just to be clear, I'm not saying Foxconn has excellent working conditions, just that this video gave me zero insight into them.

ballard 15y ago
This video looked more like the transfat filler bookended by moist, decadent slabs of commercials than anything close to resembling the crunchy, investigative rigor from feisty curmudgeons. For example, 4 unanswered central theses: 1) Do rank-and-file employees in China tend to downplay actual conditions? If so, what are the roots and motivations? 2) What do western managers and investors have to say for themselves? Would they in practice let their own college-aged kids work in any of these facilities? 3) What are reputable companies doing to distance themselves from facilities that don't comply? Is there any meaningful policing mechanism? Are government(s) assisting, complicit, ambivalent or mixed? 4) What is going on in these facilities? What's the real deal (or at least, the 60 minutes cliff-notes version)? How do we know that age old "ISO 9000" games aren't being played along with other maquilliocity, i.e., sending network cable subassemblies home for cottage-industry production with very low per-piece-wages? Why not open up some of a facility's security video feed to demonstrate to the world how fair and safe are their particular working conditions? Granted there are many concerns, interests and moving parts to this, but it could be doable.
glenra 15y ago
It'd be refreshing if people running such stories would go interview some teens who work at McDonalds or at Disneyland and ask the same questions. Electronics assembly is transitional employment for young people. It's a boring dead-end job but pays significantly more than most low-skill jobs, so people put up with being bored for a few years until they have something better to do. And there's nothing wrong with that, on either end. (The worker herself did not complain about low wages - CNN did that on her behalf, neglecting to add the context that Foxconn's wages are about 50% higher than the average wage in China)

hollerith 15y ago

Could someone please add "[video]" to the title?