The Apple Supplier Responsiblity Report is an interesting read [pdf] (here’s a summary). It’s a report of Apple’s efforts to audit its supply chain to find instances of child labor, unsafe working conditions and employment discrimination. It also details Apple’s effort to reduce suicides at one of its major suppliers, Foxconn.
It’s great that Apple is making this effort, and disclosing its findings. But it’s also clear that working conditions in non-unionized, foreign plants are sometimes terrible, even with a corporation like Apple supervising factories:
76 facilities had records that indicated workers had exceeded weekly working-hour limits more than 50 percent of the time. At 74 facilities, more than half of the records we reviewed indicated that workers had worked more than six consecutive days at least once per month.
Apple’s 2010 audits revealed 91 cases of underage labor, including 31 workers who had been hired prior to reaching the legal age, but were no longer underage or no longer employed at the time of our audit.
54 facilities had workers who were not wearing appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), such as earplugs, safety glasses, and dust masks. In some instances, the facility had not provided the appropriate safety equipment. In others, the workers neglected to use the equipment or were using it improperly
I wonder how much worse things are for workers in non-supervised plants.
Kryptik
A giant company/corporation/conglomerate, actually self-regulating itself? Are you sure this isn’t simply some kind of myth?
R-Jud
Beatings, fines, confiscated papers, lying about hours– and that’s just the stuff that gets reported. If you Google “chinese sweatshop conditions” you will find that some places will have a show plant and a real plant to trick auditors.
I know in Latin/ S. American maquiladoras they used to force birth control on a lot of the women.
Off-Topic from the Dept. Of No Surprises Here: Defector admits to WMD lies that triggered Iraq war
Brian S (formerly Incertus)
I wonder how much worse things are for workers in non-supervised plants.
Eleventy-billion times worse, I promise you. There’s nothing invisible about the hand that’s smacking those workers upside the head every ten minutes.
Brian S (formerly Incertus)
@Kryptik: The funny thing is that Apple often comes in for criticism because of these working conditions–and they should–but the only reason they’re open to it is because they open themselves up for it. None of the other companies do this sort of thing, and I suspect that’s because they know the kind of massive PR hit they’d take if the world knew what most of those conditions are like. Maybe it’s spin–I don’t want to make Apple look like altruistic heroes here–and they’re doing it to stay in front of the story, but it’s more than anyone else I can think of.
R-Jud
@Brian S (formerly Incertus):
Win. And: if you want to get a flavor of what third-world workshops are like, just read the chapters in Fast Food Nation about worker abuses at meat processing plants and slaughterhouses in the good ol’ USA.
Kryptik
@Brian S (formerly Incertus):
It’s certainly more than about 90% of companies do, that’s for sure.
And…on an OT note, simply because this is simply too batfucking insane to pass up: South Dakota considers law that would make killing Abortion Providers a ‘Justifiable Homicide’
PopeRatzy
I’ve worked in and around Silicon Valley for over 30 years. Most of the olde school think of Apple as the evil empire (as opposed to M$). They have been one of the most aggressive off-shoring companies since the 90s. I work down the street from the old Macintosh plant. The one when it opened was going to carry Apple through to the new millennium. The one they closed about 6 years later as they moved their manufacture of overpriced and dumbed down computers overseas.
Nothing about the public perception of Apple is accurate.
PurpleGirl
@Kryptik: Re: South Dakota law on justifiable homicide: The cold must do something to the brains of these people. {shakes head}
Dennis SGMM
It isn’t necessary to go to China to find sweatshop conditions. The US Department of Labor estimates that half of America’s 22,000 garment factories are sweatshops. Conditions are even worse for workers in the Unincorporated American Territories of Saipan, Guam, and Samoa. The aforementioned are all places where we could do something to alleviate worker misery but choose not to.
WyldPirate
This type of stuff is common as dirt at universities in the US. OSHA would shut down most university science departments if they sniffed around just a little bit.
Oftentimes it is not a matter of compliance either–it’s because the funds are not available to buy the stuff needed, particularly in student labs. In research labs, it often comes down to the choice of buying the safety equipment or doing the research.
me
@Brian S (formerly Incertus): The only reason this happened was becuase the Foxconn suicides were terrible PR.
Alwhite
@Dennis SGMM:
You really don’t want to look into meat packing in the United States either. They use a lot of undocumented workers & abuse the living hell out of them. They also keep two sets of books & get ‘cooperation’ from their employees because to not cooperate is to get a visit from the ICEman.
This is the reality of labor today, that the US is just slightly behind the 3rd world in innovative cost saving measures is not from lack of trying.
WyldPirate
@PopeRatzy:
Here. Here.
WyldPirate
@Alwhite:
It’s way past time for a 21st century Upton Sinclair. I doubt that he would be sucsessful at sparking change though given the fact that he/she would have to run the gauntlet of denialism led by Faux News and the Reich leaders who relish denial of empirical facts staring them in the face.
Ash Can
@Kryptik: If this law were to pass, every woman of childbearing age and every girl not yet of age would be advised to leave the state, because unless they live near the state line with easy access to an abortion-providing facility, they can’t be reassured that their lives will be spared in the event of ectopic pregnancy or other life-threatening condition.
Culture of Truth
I see a Justin Bieber movie ad under this post. Coincidence?
jharp
All of the major retail chains audit the factories they do business with.
Still, there are corrupt inspectors and things aren’t very good for many workers.
And still, at the end of the day, those poor Chinese get to keep more than their American counterparts.
gene108
What are you talking about? Makes no sense.
@WyldPirate: When I worked in a lab, as an undergrad, for a college professor we were given some OSHA rules, which were generally ignored by professors, grad students and undergrads. People generally tended to operate on a “common sense” basis. For example, is what they were working with toxic enough to warrant needing to waring shoes, instead of sandals in the summer time, which OSHA required for working in the lab, no matter what.
I agree that if OSHA checked into college labs a lot of violations would be found.
On the article about safety gear not being worn, I do wonder how much of it was by choice of the worker. Some of the safety gear people ware in industrial settings can be uncomfortable and cumbersome. I can see poorly educated unskilled workers not wanting to ware the protective gear, because of the discomfort and inconvenience, especially considering the chances of an accident not occurring are usually lower than the chances of an accident occurring.
A Commenter at Balloon Juice (formerlyThe Grand Panjandrum)
Here is an old report that includes some interesting information our old buddies Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay. But more importantly did you know anything made in the Marianas Islands can sport Made in the USA even though they are not required to follow US labor laws.
The current brand of the GOP is crazier and just as corrupt as the old brand. Lovely.
Dennis SGMM
@A Commenter at Balloon Juice (formerlyThe Grand Panjandrum):
Goods made in Guam and Saipan can also be labeled “Made in USA,” despite not being required to follow US labor laws.
WyldPirate
@gene108:
gene108, I agree that most of the safety equipment is not worn due to the discomfort from wearing it. That’s pretty common reaction from people at the highest rungs of understanding (universities) to high-school educated or less workers on factory floors.
I would also agree that there is a “common-sense” factory on the toxicity or potential for harm for many things in labs. On the flip side of that, in most labs, it is a perception–not any expertise–that is motivating the evaluation of the toxicity of a particular substance. Additionally, you have the added factor of “protection” from the standpoint that most university labs have so much turnover that people exposed during their tenure in a specific lab rarely are exposed for a length of time and at high enough levels to do a lot of harm.
Still, my beef is that the very people who are supposed to be educating those that WILL enforce this sort of stuff at the industrial level pay it short shrift.
jharp
gene108 – February 15, 2011 | 10:25 am · Link
And still, at the end of the day, those poor Chinese get to keep more than their American counterparts.
What are you talking about? Makes no sense.
****************************************************
I’m talking about the Chinese workers getting clothed, fed, free health care, and lodging.
And basically getting to keep everything they earn.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Kryptik:
Attention all SD retail cashiers and grocery clerks: If a pregnant women brings a carton of smokes or a bottle of Wild Turkey up to your cash register, make sure nobody standing in line behind her is packing heat before you ring up the sale.
Comrade Dread
It’s considerably worse in non-supervised factories. But the jobs are more attractive than starvation, so they’ve got that going for them.
It would be really nice if more companies did this and demanded working conditions that at least met 1920’s safety standards, but that would probably cut into the profit margin and then the outsourced workers would probably want to unionize and then they’d have to outsource their outsourced jobs to even poorer countries.
It’s much easier to just try and bring the American standard of living for the middle class and poor down to third world levels than it is to bring the rest of the world up to our level.
Judas Escargot
@Brian S (formerly Incertus):
There’s nothing invisible about the hand that’s smacking those workers upside the head every ten minutes.
And remember, folks– this is the labor model being held up by Roubini et. al. as the future of Global Capitalism: The whole world, one great labor camp/hive factory. Profits and a life of carefree leisure for the MOTU: Slave wages (and no peace this side of the grave) for the rest.
Wonder who paid for those junkets Yglesias and McMegan took to China?
Lurking Canadian
The working standards in factories in low wage countries is (or should be) the great shame of free trade cheerleaders. The lives and health of workers are one of the “competitive advantages” developing countries get to sell so Westerners can buy cheap junk at Walmart. It’s a disgrace, but because Westerners like buying cheap junk at Walmart, nobody wants to look at it honestly.
trollhattan
@Dennis SGMM:
Wasn’t that part of the Abramoff scandals, helping establish Saipan and the Northern Mariana islands as part of the US WRT manufacturing?
OTOH I am consistantly informed by comments to the local newspaper that Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer have teams of “union thugs” who do their bidding. Don’t mess with Nancy and Barbara!
Don
Anyone who thinks the matter of compensation for workers producing export goods in a lower-income country is a simple black or white issue is smoking something strong. I firmly believe that if you think you have all the answers then you don’t have an understanding of the situation.
That aside, any of you who are somewhere that Mike Daisey will be rolling through with his monologue The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs should find time and money to go see it. I went to the preview last year when he was first working on it and it’s a phenomenal piece of work. The half about the history of Apple is somewhat interesting but the half about his travels to Foxconn are just riveting. Both from a globalization standpoint and as a commentary on journalism.
It’ll be in the DC area in March and is in Berkeley for another few weeks. Info is on his website.
Svejk
I second Don’s rec of Mike Daisey. He actually went and talked to Foxconn workers, including at least one 13 year old.
Coastsider
As someone works on these issues for another tech company, I can say that electronics manufacturing is paradise compared to the plants that make toys, footwear and pretty much everything else. I’ve been to Foxconn a half-dozen times and its not the hell-hole that many make it out to be, though no one here would want to work there. Labor issues are a caused by a combination of workers wanting to work overtime so they can get as much money as possible, poor demand planning by brands and poor social support systems for migrant workers.
gene108
@Judas Escargot:
I think your sort of thinking about oligarchs grinding the rest of us under their heels is misguided.
The job market in China, India, Vietnam or which ever country is attracting foreign investments has their working conditions and livelihoods of their workers improving by leaps and bounds.
First World countries are experiencing employment problems and maybe the standard of living for some people may drop relative to a generation or two ago, i.e. high school drop outs getting secure middle class jobs, but in the end the standard of living in developing countries will continue to improve until they rival First World nations – not the other way around.
For example, South Koreans have a standard of living close to First World standards. They didn’t do this by creating a neo-Dickensian wonderland.
gene108
@Lurking Canadian:
What were the working conditions like before Wal-Mart opened a factory? Was it some sort of unspoiled agrarian utopia?
The march of globalization will be to lift the poorer nations up to First World standards.
Fine we have to deal with more competition from around the world, but it’s worth trade off, as more people are able to move out of crushing poverty.
Left_Wing_Fox
@32: You might as well excuse Dickens workhouses because Oliver Twist at least got some gruel. To point out that some good comes from unfettered trade is to ignore the fact that there are better solutions.
Yes, the workers in China are benefitting from the employment. The business owners are benefiting FAR more by paying workers 1/8 of the wages made by the people they sell the products to. There’s no way a US worker can “compete” with someone making less than $2100 annually. (Based on the exchange rates of the 2010 Shanghai minimum wage of c¥1200/month).
This has ultimately knocked the legs out of the labor market in the developed world, as multiple countries outsource their manufacturing to China. If this is ultimately not sustainable (I.e. if the chinese cannot afford the products they make, an the foreign market dries up from the destruction of the formerly unionized middle class), then both china and the developed nations will be hit with the recession, knocking back both economies, while the executives which took advantage of the imbalance make out like bandits.
The goal ultimately should be not to punish foreign trade, but to at least even the terms, by ensuring imported goods meet domestic environmental and safety regulations, and ensure equalizing (as opposed to punitive) tariffs. That would reduce the “race to the bottom” mentality that happens with Free Trade, and allow domestic production to compete with international production.
jh
Anyone attempting to justify the egregious abuses of laborers, and the relentless race to the bottom by corporations via wage and currency arbitrage, claiming that it “helps” the workers of developing nations is an asshole.
Producers competing on quality, innovation and increased efficiency (as long as it’s not dervied from worker abuse) is fine.
Leveraging worker desperation, lack of oversight and the rigged system of currency valuation into profts is unconscionable, unethical and in the long term, unsustainable.