Apple’s iPad and the human costs for Chinese workers

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The New York Times:

Apple and its high-technology peers — as well as dozens of other American industries — have achieved a pace of innovation nearly unmatched in modern history.

However, the workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labor in harsh conditions, according to employees inside those plants, worker advocates and documents published by companies themselves. Problems are as varied as onerous work environments and serious — sometimes deadly — safety problems.


  • Anonymous

    I’m all for exposing working conditions and improving them, but they’re a bit sensationalist towards Apple, don’t you think. Not that Apple isn’t guilty, but so is every other manufacturer, and so are we, the consumer, who demand prices so low and new products so soon that manufacturing there is the only option.

    • Anonymous

      Yes, yes I do think they are a bit sensationalist towards Apple.  But you know what?  Visibility and prestige is a double-edged sword.  Apple is the most visible company in the world, and when you’re the most visible you need to take the bad along with the good that comes with that.  Apple also has $100 billion sitting in the bank.  Think of the good it would do if they put some of that cash towards addressing these issues in their supply chain and turned it from something to be ashamed of into something to be proud of.

      I’m the biggest Apple fanboy in the world (I admit as much), but even I think they can do better here. It’s okay to think so, I promise.

  • Anonymous

    At the risk of sounding callous, this isn’t newsworthy. There are a lot of jobs out there with harsh conditions.  People still choose to do them.  If the pantywaists in the press think it’s unfair that China (and most of the world) doesn’t meet their standards for work conditions, let ‘em protest outside the consulate, throw any offending products that they may have unknowingly purchased over the fence, and promise to only buy high-tech kit manufactured by unionized westerners who work no more than 7 hours per day, with hourly breaks and a personal chiropractor, massage therapist, barista and seat-cushion-fluffer assigned to each workstation.

    …and they should boycott Alaskan crab too.  Have you ever seen “Deadliest Catch”?  Those poor, ignorant fisherman suffer in such beastly conditions- just like those millions of poor, oppressed Chinese, they can’t possibly know what’s good for themselves!!  They need our support! We need to raise consciousness and social awareness! Add a crab to your twitter avatar today!

  • http://www.popwuping.com/ Clark

    I’ve met some people who work some of these – like almost all line work – mind numbing jobs and they do not find these jobs entertaining nor at times do they find management particularly accommodating. But this isn’t even comparable to the hard labour of working on a farm or the dangers of working in a mine; compared to the alternatives they are make good pay and are happy. And somehow commentary from a writer sitting in a comfortable chair in a warm office in New York rings hollow to me. There is still a great deal of work out there that people perform without the luxuries of a catered lunch. 

    And most writers and people in general don’t realize the scale of these campuses. They are cities and have city sized problems.

    That’s not to say we should keep our eyes closed but some perspective is needed.