Last week there was intense discussion about the problem of the employees of the Foxconn company, but this week things do not seem to calm down. Although Foxconn has been accused of treating its employees extremely badly, in front of the headquarters in Zhengzhou, China, thousands of people In the format a queue of 200 meters trying to submit a CV to the company. In that city, Foxconn intends to hire another 100.000 people at the local factory and it seems that he will have a choice, although everyone knows how he will be treated as soon as he moves to the factory campus. The respective employees would receive a salary of $270 per month for 8-12 hours of work per day and I think that some of them are better paid than the employees of some companies in Romania who work the same amount.
Even if those Chinese don't care where they end up, 150.000 fans of the Apple company au signed an online petition by which they ask the leadership in Cupertino to take measures to solve the problems of Foxconn employees. Those 150.000 signatures were collected in just 48 hours from the start of the petition and that says a lot about how the whole problem is viewed by people all over the world. Unfortunately, Apple will not do much for employees because it has to keep production costs at a low level. I, for one, am amazed by the attention that some pay to the problem in China, although nothing will change and the Chinese do not care where they go to work since they gather by the thousands at the gates of Foxconn.
Dear Apple,
You know what's awesome? Listening to NPR podcasts through an Apple Airport, playing through a Mac laptop, while puttering about the kitchen. Do you know the fastest way to replace awesome with a terrible knot in your stomach? Learning that your beloved Apple products are made in factories where conditions are so bad, it's not uncommon for workers to permanently lose the use of their hands.
Last week's This American Life shone a spotlight on the working conditions in the Chinese factories where iPhones are made. Just one example of the hardships there: the men and women in these factories work very long days spent repeating the same motions over and over, which creates amped-up carpal tunnel syndrome in their wrists and hands. This often results in them losing the use of their hands for the rest of their lives. This condition could be easily prevented if the workers were rotated through different positions in the factory, but they are not. Why? Because there are no labor laws in China to protect these people.
