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Apple in Middle of China Labor Dispute

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

August 30, 2006, 5:03 PM

Apple, believing it had headed off a possible public relations nightmare regarding working conditions in one of the plants of the Chinese manufacturers it uses to produce the iconic iPod, found out it had a new headache this week. Its manufacturer Hongfujin Precision Industry has filed a lawsuit against two journalists in China accusing them of defamation.

Hongfujin is owned by Foxconn, which owned the plants Apple investigated earlier this summer. Although Apple found some instances of work code violations, it did not find any widespread occurrences of worker abuse. Reports in the state-owned China Business News, and in other sources worldwide, have indicated otherwise.

In the article, written by journalist Wang You and edited by Weng Bao, Foxconn was accused of forcing their workers to produce the music players for low pay and in harsh working conditions. Taiwan-based Hongfujin disagrees, and armed with Apple's recent findings, it sued the two in federal court in Shenzen, China.

As a result of the case, the personal assets of Wang and Weng have been frozen, a move that journalist advocacy group Reporters without Borders criticized. The group also called for Apple to step in. The company confirmed it was working behind the scenes to resolve the case, but would not comment any further.

The case highlights two problems: one on the increasingly difficult job of the journalist in China, and the continuing problem Western companies face when using overseas production plants.

In many cases, the working conditions and pay are questionable at best and offenses of worker codes of conduct often occur unbeknownst to the company, sometimes surfacing through the media. To its defense, China Business News said it would fully support its two employees, even going as far as to publish another article saying Wang had evidence of worker abuses.

Representatives for Hongfujin declined to comment, although in the past they have denied any wrongdoing.

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By pissoff

edited Sep 1, 2006 - 12:27 PM

It is time to boycott chinese goods, we are promoting a communist country that is one of the worst human rights violaters in the developed world all in the name of saving money and making a profit. They are destroying america using its own capitalism and they are quitely waiting to attack us when our economy falls apart. The chinese are known to be masters at warefare and are famous for patiently waiting generations if neccesary to conquer their enemies and when they do they show no mercy. Just study a little about their history and beliefs. Its time for america to wake up. Walmart has destroyed countless small towns and family businesses selling sweat-shop made chinese goods.

Score: 0

By deminicus

posted Sep 5, 2006 - 11:10 AM

i doubt that they have some sort of secret plan started generations ago. if our economy crumbles so will theirs since they will not have an influx of money coming in. also as the middle class grows so will their demands for better wages, in turn eating away at china's biggest asset; cheap abundand labor. sooner or later they'll have the same issue we face.

globalization continues....

Score: 0

By kc71

edited Sep 1, 2006 - 3:47 PM

Let's not miss out on the bigger picture here - American companies outsourcing jobs using what amounts to slave labor in countries like China. Now, I'm all for cheaper products, but not when it costs Americans jobs. We shouldn't be expected to compete with slave labor wages in these countries; and shame on companies like Apple (and many others) for looking the other way. It'd also be nice if the Chinese government would support its people instead of trying to hide these labor conditions.

Score: 0

By dhjdhj

posted Sep 3, 2006 - 9:21 AM

You're correct. We "shouldn't" but who is "we"? It's a global economy now and people (individuals and companies) in general will buy from the cheapest supplier so as long as there is ANY exploitation, there's a problem.

I believe in a market economy but unfortunately, it's not perfect. Simple analogy - say I've got a friend in the "widget" business - because he's a friend, I'm willing buy widgets from him rather than somebody I don't know. So for example, if his widget costs $5 and someone else's identical widget costs $4.00, I'll still buy from my friend. The difference in cost is not material.
But suppose he's selling a widget for $50,000 and somebody else is selling the identical widget for $40,000. That $10,000 is MAJOR significant and obviously I'm not going to be willing to forego $10k.

Generalize that to the economy and one can clearly see the problem.

------------
We shouldn't be expected to compete with slave labor wages in these countries

Score: 0

By Intrusive_Rogue

posted Aug 31, 2006 - 2:02 PM

OK, all Wang You jokes start here:

Instead of going to Harvard, I chose to attend WANG YOU.

Score: 0

By GCoder

posted Aug 31, 2006 - 12:20 PM

Thats what ya get for using a retarded country to manufacture your products in...

Score: 0

By alphatrigon

posted Aug 31, 2006 - 1:02 PM

retarded country? I hope that's a mistargetted statement and not a racist one

Score: 0

By Paradise-FH-

posted Aug 31, 2006 - 3:29 PM

either way, it's a retarded one.

durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Score: 0

By PC Rat

edited Aug 31, 2006 - 11:07 AM

...

Google turns in users to the Chinese
secret police.

Apple uses Chinese slave labor.

Where's AOL ? Shouldn't ~they~ be
practicing infanticide or something
in China ?

...

The Computer Rodent

...