News - Chinese Apple and IBM worker-drones strike

[HEXUS]

1,000 workers strike as excessive hours, poor treatment and low-pay is just not worth it... surprisingly

Read more.

[Tarinder]

There's plenty happening in Brazil.

[Hoonigan]

120 hours of overtime per month?! That's probably about the amount of hours I do, without overtime.

That's just craziness!

I hope something gets done about it soon, these big companies are making far too much money from these unfortunate people in undeveloped countries.

[thomasxstewart]

http://thomasxstewart.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/dsci0302.jpg

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I hope something gets done about it soon, these big companies are making far too much money from these unfortunate people in undeveloped countries.

Exactly. I know that many of these people probably are probably from villages where there is not much work, but OTH taking advantage of this fact and pushing them to do such long hours is almost like slavery. Yet,companies like Apple and IBM (not only them) which sell higher end products at a premium and are making massive profits are using contractors which are abusing their workers. Its bad enough for cheap products but for more expensive products assembly costs are just a tiny part of the BOM.

FFS,they probably do know and are just saving pennies - why can't these companies simply go for contractors which treat their workers better;these companies would not do this to their US and European employees. It also means more expensive contractors in China or in other countries which actually treat their workers better are less competitive and it encourages them to the same thing as others. I am sure if they priced their products even a few pounds more people would still buy them and then they could put it towards pay.

[crossy]

With China looking to automate, we wonder two things; should western countries perhaps look to re-enter the low-cost manufacturing market as competition with cheap labour drops off and focus switches over to automation, a speciality in many Western countries, and; where in the world might cheap labour attempt to move to next?

Don't want to come across like a Red Robbo, but I can't help wondering if our government aren't going to try and bid for this work. After all, they seem hell-bent on rolling back any workforce protections and portraying strikers as work-shy troublemakers.

Then again, I'm biased, having previously been in a business that got privatised under Major. The bosses got "obscene" (Public Accounts Comm'tee description) bonuses and payoffs - we got our unions de-recognised and more or less forced to join a toothless "staff association" instead. Redundancies, pay-freezes and pension hits followed.

And before anyone asks, yes - I am a union member (Unite), but I'm not on strike next week. As such, I side totally with the Chinese workers, hopefully someone will be able to get some management heads banged together and stop this slavery.

[miniyazz]

120 hours of overtime per month?! That's probably about the amount of hours I do, without overtime.

That's just craziness!

I hope something gets done about it soon, these big companies are making far too much money from these unfortunate people in undeveloped countries.

Part-timer

I've hit 90h weeks maybe twice the last few months. Not as high an average as those guys though!

[OilSheikh]

Don't want to come across like a Red Robbo, but I can't help wondering if our government aren't going to try and bid for this work. After all, they seem hell-bent on rolling back any workforce protections and portraying strikers as work-shy troublemakers.

Then again, I'm biased, having previously been in a business that got privatised under Major. The bosses got "obscene" (Public Accounts Comm'tee description) bonuses and payoffs - we got our unions de-recognised and more or less forced to join a toothless "staff association" instead. Redundancies, pay-freezes and pension hits followed.

And before anyone asks, yes - I am a union member (Unite), but I'm not on strike next week. As such, I side totally with the Chinese workers, hopefully someone will be able to get some management heads banged together and stop this slavery.

Labour is more expensive in UK than in China or India. Can you imagine the cost of your iPhone if it was assembled in UK?
Is any electronic component made or assembled in the UK? No, Made in China, Taiwan, Europe ( Eastern Europe ) is all you see

[Hicks12]

Labour is more expensive in UK than in China or India. Can you imagine the cost of your iPhone if it was assembled in UK?
Is any electronic component made or assembled in the UK? No, Made in China, Taiwan, Europe ( Eastern Europe ) is all you see

With or without Apple Tax?

[Fraz]

Sickening. Though sadly it doesn't surprise me that these poor people are being exploited. Keep striking chinese labour dudes - and the big wigs will soon realise you can't mistreat the foundations of a company!

[aidanjt]

Sickening. Though sadly it doesn't surprise me that these poor people are being exploited. Keep striking chinese labour dudes - and the big wigs will soon realise you can't mistreat the foundations of a company!

China inc.?

[Krayzie Bone]

100 to 120 overtime hours a month...... F that Crap! Good for the Chinese workers especially since none of the workers can afford an iPhone! Never spend your day working your fingers to the bone just to make someone else wealthy!

[crossy]

Labour is more expensive in UK than in China or India. Can you imagine the cost of your iPhone if it was assembled in UK?
Is any electronic component made or assembled in the UK? No, Made in China, Taiwan, Europe ( Eastern Europe ) is all you see

Know the first sentence possibly better than you - mainly down to having lost a job when the work went out-of-country. Secondly, don't have an iPhone, but I know what you were getting at there. Last bit, I'm sure there are "built in the UK" items, but as you say, offshoring is currently the king.

No, my comment about the UK government was tongue-in-cheek, since they seem to be very much against workers rights. And the continual excuse of "we need to attack the deficit" makes me . There's also been comments about us "having to compete with China" and - as you point out - the only real way to do that is to get staff costs down - preferably to the (unjustifiable?) level in PRC and elsewhere.

Would I be comfortable to pay more for goods, if that money was going towards better conditions? Like many on this thread, my answer is "yes", but only a complete naif would expect that to happen - you know that money would go straight into company profits - either of the main one or the subcontractor.

Apologies if this comes across as a bit of a rant...

[TheAnimus]

No, my comment about the UK government was tongue-in-cheek, since they seem to be very much against workers rights. And the continual excuse of "we need to attack the deficit" makes me . There's also been comments about us "having to compete with China" and - as you point out - the only real way to do that is to get staff costs down - preferably to the (unjustifiable?) level in PRC and elsewhere.

Actually this comment here shows a striking lack of understanding. Whilst there may be arguments as to how, the fact the defecit really must be reduced as quickly as possible is a very valid concern, because quite simply we are currently borrowing money at german rates. You know this 'recession' we are in? Germany is experiencing the lowest levels of un-employment since re-unification, think about that for a little.

We've spunked money left right and centre, this has to stop or else we are up against PRC levels with much higher costs as we pay intrest on the debt.

The difference is we have been through the victorian era mill style working and come out the otherside with a better work life balance.

However we have recently in the last few decades especially been maintaining our quality of life at the expense of others less fortunate, whilst passing the debt on to our children. We have to stop this, and that is going to simply mean a drop in the quality of our lifes.

Would I be comfortable to pay more for goods, if that money was going towards better conditions? Like many on this thread, my answer is "yes", but only a complete naif would expect that to happen - you know that money would go straight into company profits - either of the main one or the subcontractor.

You say this now, but the issue is people on mass just aren't. There have been some fun experiments when looking at peoples generousity or alturistism when they know their been watched vs when they think no one is observing them. The two seldom meet up.

And this is kind of the problem we're in a chase to the bottom where if company X pays its workers peanuts in pakistan company Y can't compete in england.

Hence why we've moved towards a service industry, high tech manufacturing. Sometimes its not a case of us competing with the sweatshop, we can do something differen't. If we didn't have such useless teachers, and such an indiferent attitude to learning amoungst most of the population, then we wouldn't have an issue.

The problem is some people want a simple job, which can be done for less in China, but they want a lot more, and in the UK whilst often doing less of a job.

[crossy]

Actually this comment here shows a striking lack of understanding. Whilst there may be arguments as to how, the fact the defecit really must be reduced as quickly as possible is a very valid concern, because quite simply we are currently borrowing money at german rates. You know this 'recession' we are in? Germany is experiencing the lowest levels of un-employment since re-unification, think about that for a little. We've spunked money left right and centre, this has to stop or else we are up against PRC levels with much higher costs as we pay intrest on the debt. The difference is we have been through the victorian era mill style working and come out the otherside with a better work life balance.

You're doing me a large disservice here - note I am not saying that the UK shouldn't attack the national debt/deficit - only a complete idiot would say that. Our levels of borrowing are unsustainable - again, everyone appreciates that.

No what I'm objecting to is that the current jokers trot out that every time that some very unpalatable cut is made to child-care, council services, etc, whilst apparently being happy to spend elsewhere. There was a superb bit on the Beeb recently where some chinless wonder came out with the comment that they'd closed up the small value item tax loophole (which is the one that I believe Amazon, Play, etc were using - could be wrong though), but when the interviewer asked whether they'd be similarly zealous in pursuing those folks avoiding stamp duty etc the subject was very quickly changed.

So 300 mil of savings against the guy in the street is great, but (according to that interview) 2-3x that amount that's benefiting the great and the good isn't worth having? I find that hard to believe.

There was also a report elsewhere that large sums are being "spent" on high-powered consultants who's purpose is to "advise" on savings. Like the jokers that recommended closing Remploy.

Apologies to others for the political rant.