Apple inc. – 10 years of exploiting slave labor revealed in bombshell book 'Dying for an iPhone'
Introduction
Some extremely revealing and damaging news about Apple from earlier this week didn't make the headlines of mainstream media. It seems to have been largely swept under-the-rug and probably for good reason - at least for the greedsters at Apple inc. and their tremendously wealthy and oblivious shareholders.
Having lived in China since 2008, I was quite appalled and disgusted as far back as 2010 when several suicides occurred at the Foxconn factories where most iPhones and other products from the behemoth were made.
Of course the standard "investigation" occurred after some bad press about the leaked conditions that factory workers endured making Apple's star products.
Apple had given the usual assurances that their partners abided by the local laws and standards and offered the usual lip-service that the situation would be rectified.
Now, let's fast forward ten years to see if this is true or not.
The 10-year Investigation
Yet, a recent bombshell 10-year under-cover investigation and related book reveals quite the contrary.
Of the few news outlets reporting on this recent news that deserves a lot more attention, Hong Kong Free Press has published an article entitled ‘Dying for an iPhone’: The human cost of Apple’s high-speed production demands where they've interviewed one of the book's authors, Jenny Chan.
Here are some highlights from the article along with quotes from Chan [emphasis added]:
In 2010, 18 young workers at Foxconn factories in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen tried to commit suicide by jumping off the roof, according to researchers. Fourteen died and three survived. The youngest jumper was aged 17.
The spate of suicides sparked a decade-long investigation by the team of researchers at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. This led to a book, Dying for an iPhone, written by Jenny Chan, Mark Selden and Pun Ngai and published this summer.
Foxconn Technology Group, a giant Taiwanese company with strong ties in China also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, is one of Apple’s largest suppliers. The two companies have been linked since 2000...[Foxconn] is one of the largest employers in the world during the peak production period for the iPhone, employing up to 1 million workers as of 2018.
Undercover investigations
Over the course of ten years, academic and co-author Jenny Chan and a team of Chinese student researchers infiltrated 12 Foxconn factories, where they interviewed workers and human resources and product managers. The team conducted field research at over a quarter of Foxconn’s facilities, including the Longhua and Guanlan factories in Shenzhen and one in Chengdu. Foxconn currently operates 40 manufacturing sites in mainland China.
Chan and her team went undercover at Foxconn factories, donning the company uniform and borrowing staff cards to assess conditions in venues such as workers’ canteens and dormitories, and some production workshops.
To get an accurate picture of conditions on the production lines, the Chinese student researchers applied for jobs. They shed light on how rising demand for products directly affected Foxconn workers, who were made to work around the clock to meet them.
Researchers found that Foxconn sometimes pushed employees to work up to 12-hour shifts for seven days a week, with one day off per month.
Twelve hours a day, seven days a week, with a measly 1 day off per month! Yes Apple, I am sure that this follows the norms and acceptable standards.
Corporate Irresponsibility
“This is a violation of Chinese labour laws,” Chan told HKFP. “[This] was a very important finding because both Foxconn and its international buyers all have so-called ‘supplier codes of conduct’.”
“Even though these companies claim they are highly responsible for workers’ well-being and respect workers’ rights, this turns out to be not true.”
Chan said the investigation found that Foxconn workers were being exploited to fulfill Apple’s obligations to its investors. “They are all maximising their profits and hold themselves accountable to their shareholders. They care less about the workers,” she said.
Having taught business at the collegiate level for many years, I have been disgusted by this phenomena for as long as I can remember. Both as a business student and instructor I've always believed and advocated that Corporate Social Responsibility should entail taking care of ALL stakeholders, not just investors/shareholders.
What CSR / Corporate Social Responsibility should be about: taking care of ALL these stakeholders.
But tragically, greedy companies like Apple care only about shareholders and money. Fuck the other stakeholders.
Sure they always put a lot of "fluff" on their CSR web pages, but we all know it is utter bullshit, lip-service, and empty promises to appease the critics and the all-too-yielding financial media (you know, those whores at Bloomberg, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial times, et al.)
Like with many other giants, Apple has a global supply chain and thus is responsible for ensuring that those involved in that supply chain, in this case Foxconn, at least meet standards that are acceptable in their home countries.
But the sad reality is that they almost always ignore these and fully take advantage of lax labor norms and poor environmental standards just to save on costs. They don't care about the environmental consequences, nor do they about people who slave in horrid conditions to make their over-priced and over-hyped products.
The Irony
The irony is that in a country like China, the likes of Apple and its former founder and CEO Steve Jobs have been idolized for years. Same goes for the iPhone. And all this despite the fact that their own people have been treated like menial workhorses with deteriorating mental and physical health while manufacturing their products.
During his life, Steve Jobs has NEVER ONCE visited China and the army of hundreds of thousands of workers who labored intensely to make his vision and dream of Apple come to fruition.
Chinese gobbling up a biographical book on Steve Jobs, (source)
Nor has the current greedster Tim Cook, ever even considered giving bonuses and sharing some of their mammoth profits with them, let alone pay them a fair hourly wage.
How is that not a disgusting predicament and utter lack of social responsibility?
Current Apple CEO Greedster-in-Chief Tim Crook (source: Bloomberg)
For a few years now, Apple has been valued as the biggest & richest company in the world by market capitalization and cash savings.
It's market cap is actually now valued at over US2 Trillion
Source: ZeroHedge - Apple Hits $2 Trillion Market Cap
Source: ZeroHedge - Apple Hits $2 Trillion Market Cap
So, can someone please explain to me with nearly half a trillion dollars in cash reserves how this company cannot find itself to SHARE some of that wealth with the people who actually make their products?
Not even a single penny?
Continuing with the HKFP article,
Chan said it was not acceptable for Apple for hide behind the fact that Foxconn workers are not their direct employees. “It’s not just about your employees. It’s also about the workers who are producing products with your logo. You are connected but you use outsourcing to… shift the responsibility to the suppliers.”
You see, Chan is right. Companies like Apple always shift them blame and onus of responsibility on their suppliers, never taking any kind of responsibility for their own lack of oversight.
In 2013, after their first round of research, the team sent letters to Foxconn and Apple, asking them to respond to their findings. They were met with blanket replies. “They were just doing PR with their responses. They copy and pasted their corporate social responsibility reports. They gave us very standardised responses,” Chan said.
Yep, more of the same of what I suspected.
Time is money
Chan says working conditions have not significantly improved in the ten years since their research began. “There were a few manipulations of union elections at Foxconn and the schedules are still really tight. Time is money. If Apple fails to launch the new MacBook while competitors are able to do that, they lose money.”
You see, they lied about their commitments to truly address the issues.
They were, and still are, primarily concerned with one thing and one thing only: getting their new products to market as fast as humanly possible, no matter the effect on their workers.
Even human life is beyond them.
In December 2011 another explosion at an iPhone factory in Shanghai injured 61 workers. Many suffered life-altering disabilities.
Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior protest in November 2017. Photo: SACOM. (source)
To Chan, these are examples of the real human costs of the race to deliver new Apple products as quickly as possible. “Why do explosions happen? Because safety rules are ignored and you just work, work, work. You don’t monitor the workplace,” she said.
Destroying futures
Another, more insidious, manifestation of Foxconn’s maltreatment of its workers is its internship programme. Young students from across mainland China are recruited under the guise of interns, but are made to work the same hours as regular workers, effectively becoming even cheaper, temporary workers to meet seasonal demand.
“Student interns are doing the same 12-hour shifts to assemble the iPhone,” Chan said. “It’s a very worrying phenomena. You are destroying their futures. They are not learning. These are not meaningful internships.”
Also, exploiting students as slave labor rather than being responsible for their education and apprenticeship is something that Apple openly espouses.
The book:
Dying for an iPhone: Apple, Foxconn, and The Lives of China's Workers by Jenny Chan, Mark Selden, Ngai Pun, September 1, 2020
Against these challenges, Chan said the book’s ultimate aim is to make consumers fully informed about where their devices come from, and the conditions in which they are made.
“This is a book that hopes to make a connection… between consumers… and workers. We want to understand the connection between production and consumption,” she said. “So it’s not just about them (the workers). It’s as much about us. How we envision more sustainable models where workers will not be pushed to the brink of depression and… lose hope for a better future.”
The double meaning in the book’s title urges consumers to reflect on how their craving for faster and better technology affects those who are producing it.
Chan said she hopes that, through exposing abuses that continue at Foxconn factories, large tech companies like Apple and others will also be held accountable.
Read the full article here.
Conclusion
If all of this is not the epitome of greed, then I don't know what is.
So, I hope I speak for many when I say: Fuck you Apple!
I hope that people start realizing exactly who you are and stop buying your over-priced and over-hyped products.
As for the others: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Disney, Walmart, Nike, and the rest of you greedy behemoths, it's time to get your act together; or, the masses may just as well wake up to your greed and stop buying your crappy products and services.
Hoping this real news can help broaden the Great Awakening that is taking place.
God Bless.