According to /. it was over security guards beating up a worker:
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/12/09/24/0147200/riot-breaks-out-at-foxconn

You are too kind sounds to me like a Gulag

Gulags they never went away or closed down….

While I fully agree with your sentiments it did say it was a dispute between workers rather than workers vs management…

Rob, while it said in the article it began as a personal dispute two people arguing in an office space in Dublin doesn’t degenerate into an all-out brawl that leaves 40 injured. Some serious questions need to be asked about the ethics of this.

Products which are currently made in China among other low income countries offer us the consumer no financial benefit. All this leads to is large companies who can afford massive marketing bills. Yet we accept that as a society. I think every one of us shares a part of the blame for what happened at this plant because we all blindly accept it.

Jason, you would have to be incredibly naive to think the consumer get’s no financial benefit from the manufacture of goods in China. If these goods were produced in Europe, the US or similar their costs would be considerably higher than they are now, and you can guarantee that would be passed on to the consumer. It was estimated that the likes of the iPhone, Samsung Galaxy S, etc would need to be priced in the region of €1.000 to make it worth the companies while to manufacture those devices in the west.

Interesting partysaurus, how your largely factual comment is difficult to disagree with. And yet so many red thumbs. A few cases of wishful thinking I fear.

@partysaurusrex. Whilst I agree entirely with your post such a situation might help alleviate our obsession with constantly upgrading gadgets long before it is necessary to do so. At the same time providing better conditions to workers whether they be in the West or the East. An added bonus would be a reduction in the electronic waste we are currrntly generating en masse.

@partysaurusrex If they were produced in the US/Europe at a higher cost then the manufacturers would just have to take a profit hit because there would f*** all sales at those kind of prices. Currently the reason why China is so popular for manufacturing is not because it saves the consumer money but because it gains more profit for the manufacturer.

Partysauras, I study an international business course which includes topics such as outsourcing and the economic advantages and disadvantages. Most companies could easily manufacture in Europe while still charging the same amount. How do you think sports stars earn so much money? Because clothing brands charge the same amount for their clothes while reducing their costs to about a quarter of what they would be here. So they have millions to spend on sponsorships while still making record profits.

Funny how ridiculous wages in sports pretty much coincides with the push to produce in China. Or how about Apple having massive sums of cash in their accounts?

Well Dec, it looks like the thrust of your comment is correct.

Channel 4 News have some witness reports & mobile phone footage. The violence was not a ‘personal dispute’ but directed against the company following the beating up of an employee (around the dormitory area) by a company security guard. Apparently 5,000 police in riot gear were brought in to stop workers trashing the factory.

Was it not about 1.4 million? Seem to remember that figure from an article last week sometime.

There are factories in highly industrialised western nations that also employ many thousands of workers. The whole of Ireland has the population of a medium sized Chinese city, so things there operate on a completely different scale. Remember China has 1.4 billion residents.

The fact that it is on a completely different scale was precisely my point.

If I’m not mistaken, their biggest plant in China employs over 250,000 people. It has it’s own internal transport system, shopping areas, apartment blocks for employees, etc. It’s a factory that is a city.

Apple = biggest tech company in the world. They didn’t get to where they are by having strong ethical procedures. And even if they did Bring it in now, apple don’t own Foxconn, they can always distance themselves from any scandals. Apple hired the fair labor association to audit Foxconn earlier this year which meant yet they had reservations about them. Still didn’t stop the launch dates of their new products so its all good on their side. Conscience salved and profits up. 40% of the worlds tech is made by them, hon hai,so don’t expect any big changes soon.

Actually it would be a terrible, loss-making business venture in the fastest moving, most competitive industry in the world, which is why it hasn’t happened.

No giggling at the back but Apple actually joined the Fair Labor Association in January of this year, not that it calls for anything more than “greater transparency” in supply chains: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/apple-joins-fair-labor-association-137285303.html.

Bad pay? A Foxconn’s monthly salary is nearly twice the Chinese average industrial wage http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/05/28/apples-foxconn-to-double-wages-again/.

AFP have no idea what caused the brawl and to link Apple into the headline is disengenuous and tabloidy, especially when the company is only featured in the article once, with the line “Apple, Sony and Nokia”.

I’d love to know how many bleeding hearts left comments here from their ‘fair trade’ smartphones – which were of course built by ethically-conscious developers in first world countries at over 3x the price of Apple/Samsung/Microsoft products, right?

Obviously some of the stories that come out of Foxconn and worker’s rights are troubling but there are far more worrying things happening in that country than 2,000 well-paid workers having a brawl. If AFP couldn’t link a story like that it to western consumer devices then it wouldn’t be read by anyone.

People travel by train for days just to queue up for another 2/3 days just for the opportunity to work at Foxconn. And have you ever seen the amenities they provide for staff? As for the privately managed accommodation, it is just that accommodation. It’s not compulsory, you don’t HAVE to live there.

Biggins

You wouldn’t touch Apple products with a barge pole you say. Is that because you believe them inferior or you can’t afford them.
From a technical perspective I find them outstanding and I use them across the entire range wit IPad iPod iPhone and desk top.

I personally avoid Apple not because I hate their phones (I don’t – they DO make good phones).
I avoid Apple because I’m unhappy about the methods in which they operate world-wide, their condescending attitude towards competition and customers.
I avoid Apple because I’m unhappy about the way they make user rights restricted when possible at every turn, be this by DRM or by using a socket that forces others to only avail of their pricey (another issue) more limited range – or sometimes no sockets/port at all to allow direct access to put stuff on independently.

Do you know their intentions behind the suicide for a fact? It seems that for such a harrowing subject as suicide it would be insensitive to chalk every single employee’s motive down to one reason, no?

One person at Foxconn has committed suicide this year and four took their life last year – in an organisation that in 2011 had approximately 1.2 million workers.

Even in 2010 – when there was 14 suicides – the rate of suicide was tiny compared to the country’s average rate of 20 deaths per 100,000 persons – which would be around 240 for the same number of Foxconn workers.

So if the national average for 1.2 million Chinese people would be 240 suicides and in nine months only one worker has committed suicide out of 1.2 million workers, working conditions must have improved substantially, nevermind the doubling of their wages a few months ago.

Suicide rates within Foxconn are less than they are in Ireland. Imagine how shit conditions over here must be!

Surely they meant well-mannered intellectual debate.

I was just going to post about that. Foxconn makes parts big and small that find there way into most electronics directly or through suppliers. So before you think this is about Apple, the fact is if you have used the Internet to read this you have almost certainly interacted with a Foxconn product and your usage has been less expensive because of it.

Apple should absolutely be fingered here! Why? They are apparently (one of) the worlds most valuable companies , huge brand awareness and you have to look at how they portray themselves as a lighthouse brand. In reality, the huge profits are built on the backs of cheap labour in China in conditions that no Western iPhone wielding person would like to find themselves in. Yes, the other companies are no different but they don’t have the stature Apple enjoys.

Years ago, Nike bore the brunt of the “sweatshop” allegations in the footware industry because they were the biggest brand. It put pressure on them to make changes. Which they did. Apple are in a position as a leader to also make changes – and they should do. It doesn’t stop them being innovative (they were innovative when the manufactured in California) but it will reduce the super-profits.

They weren’t working at the time. They were in their dorms although I’m sure the factory runs 24/7.