On Eve Of iPhone Launch, Apple Hit With Another Manufacturing Scandal

[CheesePie]

On Eve Of iPhone Launch, Apple Hit With Another Manufacturing Scandal
By Henry Blodget | Daily Ticker – 1 hour 42 minutes ago
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Foxconn, the company that assembles Apple's iPhones, has been employing tens of thousands of "interns" who have been forced to make iPhones as part of their school-work, the New York Times's Charles Duhigg reports.

This follows on the heels of the intense scrutiny Apple (AAPL) and Foxconn faced last year, in the wake of a fabricated report that Foxconn employed workers as young as 13 and paid them like slaves. In response, Apple stepped up its commitment to monitoring its supply chain. Apple's move, combined with the exposure of the Foxconn report as a fraud, quickly put most of the concerns to rest.

In this case, Foxconn acknowledged that it employed about 32,000 students. The company said that the students were not required to work as part of their curriculum, but several students disputed this. They said they were told that if they refused to work, they wouldn't graduate.

Foxconn appears to have used the "interns" to ramp up its production lines in weeks leading up to the iPhone 5 launch. It's not clear whether the students were paid for their work. This labor issue seems much less serious for Apple than the prior one, and it will likely blow over quickly.

More broadly, though, as China's economy matures and huge American companies like Apple continue to coin money with the help of cheap Chinese labor, these issues are likely to come up again and again.

In the 1980s, frustration with South Africa's apartheid policy led to pressure being put on many global companies to withdraw from South Africa until the policy was changed. It remains to be seen whether human rights concerns in China will ultimately provoke this sort of response, but the issue isn't likely to go away.

Meanwhile, Americans are eagerly getting ready to line up to buy the iPhone 5.

 

[Kinana]

i will definitely not buy iphone anymore.

 

[Fook Seng]

I will definitely buy. One of the few phones you can use the keyboard with one thumb.

 

[I_Hate_Pappies]

I will definitely buy. One of the few phones you can use the keyboard with one thumb.

Seng, most smartphones can use one thumb leh.

 

[po2wq]

i will definitely not buy iphone anymore.

ah! ... big deal! ...

 

[Cestbon]

Andriod rule!
Now most change to Samsung when purchase new phone.

 

[laksaboy]

iPhone or Android phone, it'll still sell much better than Windows phone.

You know they are desperate when they used this ugly bitch to promote the Nokia Lumia 920.

 

[Fook Seng]

Seng, most smartphones can use one thumb leh.

Not when it is as broad as the smile of the Cheshire Cat. For those phones, you need two thumbs.

 

[johnny333]

In case people don't know, the new Iphone 5.0 will be announced tomorrow. Some say it may add between one quarter and one half a percentage point to fourth quarter annualized U.S. gross domestic product growth in 2012

 

[Fook Seng]

In case people don't know, the new Iphone 5.0 will be announced tomorrow. Some say it may add between one quarter and one half a percentage point to fourth quarter annualized U.S. gross domestic product growth in 2012

One new thing with that phone, you will likely find the addition of languages to Siri. Mandarin and Cantonese are highly anticipated. I guess we can start practicing rolling our tongues for a Beijing version of Mandarin. With the arrival of iPhone 5 do not be surprised to find what seems like an increase of PRC voices in the MRT, buses and shopping centres.

 

[johnny333]

One new thing with that phone, you will likely find the addition of languages to Siri. Mandarin and Cantonese are highly anticipated. I guess we can start practicing rolling our tongues for a Beijing version of Mandarin. With the arrival of iPhone 5 do not be surprised to find what seems like an increase of PRC voices in the MRT, buses and shopping centres.

Good grief. it's going to be noisier in the trains.

 

[Fook Seng]

Good grief. it's going to be noisier in the trains.

Wait. Did Apple incorporate noise cancellation in their phones?

 

[Westwood]

iPhone 5 launch: Foxconn condemned over student labour

Ahead of the launch of the iPhone 5, Apple faces criticisms that their supplier Foxconn uses young interns who have "little choice" over whether to work there.

2:17PM BST 12 Sep 2012

Apple supplier Foxconn faced a fresh wave of labour misuse allegations on the eve of the unveiling of the long-awaited iPhone 5 on Wednesday.

Chinese vocational schools are forcing students to work on the assembly line for the Taiwanese-based technology company, according to a recent article by the state-run newspaper China Daily.

Some of the students major in subjects unrelated to manufacturing, it said. One student told the official English newspaper that her school would not let her graduate if she refused the internship.

China Daily quoted anonymously an employee from a Foxconn plant's human resources company, who told the paper that the upcoming launch of iPhone 5 brought huge orders and rendered them short-staffed.

In China, about 42 per cent of the 18.1 million students who graduated from middle school in 2010 enrolled in a secondary vocational school or technical school, stated a recent report by the Hong Kong-based labour group China Labour Bulletin.

It added that "it would be safe to assume that there is some degree of force or compulsion in internships in many vocational schools across China." Geoffrey Crothall, director of communications at the labour group, said he hoped iPhone 5 buyers would understand what went into the making of their new gadgets.

"Well, I think they should realise that what goes into their phones is an awful lot of hard work by young people, probably younger than themselves, who have very little choice rather than go into those factories because there are no other opportunities available to them. They work very hard and they deserve more money," Mr Crothall said.

Mr Crothall added, however, that the issue is widespread and not limited behind Foxconn factory doors. "The use of student interns is very widespread throughout the manufacturing sector within China, and Foxconn being a major manufacturer is very much part of that system, I would say it's very important within that system, but everybody does it. You know, in some ways, it's unfair to single out Foxconn because they are just using the system, the tools that are available to it," Mr Crothall said.

Apple Inc and Foxconn came under fire over conditions at the plants blamed for a series of suicides in 2010. The Fair Labour Association, which the two firms enlisted to monitor their labour conditions, said in late August working conditions at Chinese factories that make most of the world's iPads and iPhones have improved.

Earlier this year, the FLA - of which Apple is a member - found multiple violations of Labour law, including extreme hours, after launching one of the largest investigations ever conducted of an American company's operations outside the United States.

Apple, the world's most valuable company, and Foxconn - the trading name of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry whose clients also include Dell Inc, Sony Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co - agreed to slash overtime, improve safety, hire new workers and upgrade dormitories.