Love your iPod? Think twice. "Apple criticized for factory conditions"

iPod City: Apple criticized for factory conditions
6/12/2006 7:09:57 PM, by Tanya Klowden

If you are fortunate enough to live in the UK, you may have seen an interesting piece in the Mail on Sunday this past weekend. The Mail sent some reporters to Longhua, China (twenty minutes from Hong Kong) and Suzhou, which borders Shanghai to visit two factories which bring forth the iPods, Nanos, and Shuffles that are "designed in California" and tremendously popular around the world. There they found conditions that to our Western ears sound positively Dickensian.

"We have to work too hard and I am always tired. It's like being in the army. They make us stand still for hours. If we move, we are punished by being made to stand still for longer…We have to work overtime if we are told to and can only go back to the dormitories when our boss gives us permission…If they ask for overtime we must do it. After working 15 hours until 11:30pm, we feel so tired."

The first facility, run by Taiwanese company Foxconn, is described as "the original and largest plant to be built in mainland China. It's a sprawling place where 200,000 people work and sleep." Many are already questioning this figure as being an error of some sort, as that would basically be a city the size of Tallahassee, Florida. It is worth noting, however, that the Foxconn facility produces electronics equipment for a variety of IT companies besides Apple, and the Longhua facility holds one-fifth of their "million-strong workforce." iPod Nanos are produced in a five-story factory at the facility, stationed with police officers who check everyone who enters and leaves to "thwart rivals intent on industrial espionage." For 15 hour workdays, pay at this facility is approximately US$50 per month.

snip...
We can only hope that Apple, who puts at least a little of that marketing budget into trying to promote themselves as a socially responsible company, can get on board with the movement towards technology manufacturing ethics. Of course, Apple isn't alone in its use of labor in Asia, including that which has been profiled here. We hope that all such companies keep the improvement of workers' conditions at the top of their "must have" feature list for the future.

cont'd...
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060612-7039.html

For us to think something 'affordable' means somebody else is getting a lot more out of it. And those who do the work typically suffer for it.

Technically, the company isn't apple. But apple's board execs had no problem courting foxconn. And one of them in particular, if ever asked, would undoubtedly have an interesting story to tell.

The ipod to me isn't affordable - I think people are nuts to be paying that much for the thing. Their profit is huge on them.

And Americans, even those losing their manufacturing jobs to outsourcing, don't seem to care enough to boycott these luxury items. And Americans, I dare say, are the majority of buyers of this STUFF. Complaining about losing jobs and yet still filling the coffers of those who are exporting their jobs. It's just so amazing to me.

JOBS ?

a way to replace the battery when it could no longer be recharged. Then, its batteries were difficult to recycle and include lead.

Apple, to its credit, eventually addressed all these concerns (too bad they didn't think of these things on their own, in advance - they'd really get kudos for that).

But Apple is now recycling the batteries:
Customers who return an iPod to one of the company's stores in the US will get 10 percent off the price of a new one. <snip>
The company promised to process returned iPods in the United States and not to export the hazardous materials they contain, which include lead.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,39020351,39201996,00.htm

> Then, its batteries were difficult to recycle and include lead.

Wrong, unless you're speaking about the lead solder that
*EVERYONE* was using at the time to build electronic devices.

All iPods have always had lithium-ion batteries. Apple hasn't
used a lead-acid battery since the original Sony-made PowerBook 100.

Tesha

Not only did they contain lead and other toxic chemicals, they initially also died quite quickly and Apple didn't have a recycling program for them, all of which contributed to the likelihood they'd end up in the landfill. It was only after activists started a campaign that Apple improved things on this front. Which Apple deserves credit for - but even better would have been thinking about these things in advance.


In particular, protesters focused on the fact that Apple's iPod comes with a battery that cannot be replaced easily by consumers and the fact Apple charges $100 for a new battery--a significant percentage of the cost of the iPod itself. "Most consumers are just going to throw it away and get a new one," Davis said.

Jobs took issue with that, pointing out that consumers often throw batteries into the trash. He also said that tens of thousands of iPod customers have replaced their batteries through Apple and that Apple properly disposes of the depleted batteries. He went on to note that while the iPod has a small amount of lead, much more of the harmful compound is in cathode-ray tube monitors, which Apple has abandoned for all but its eMac computers.

=============
10's of thousands? "In the last part of 2004, Apple sold 4.5 million portable music players. Given the iPod's battery life, all of these could become e-waste by 2007."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0209/p11s02-stct.html

But Europe may save us (although not from the ipods already sold):
"One recent directive by the European Union shifts responsibility for recycling electronics and electrical equipment manufactured or sold in Europe from consumers to producers. European companies need to have facilities in place to handle this task by August. Even more important for US manufacturers is an EU law that will ban the use of toxins such as lead and mercury by July 2006."

Your citation fom the Monitor does not support
your claim.

The only lead in iPods was the standard leaded solder that
everyone else in the industry was using and had been using
since the dawn of the industry.

Now, with the RoHS restrictions in Europe, everyone, Apple
included, is moving away from lead and other heavy metals
(such as cadmium plating).

Stop trying to tar Apple with the lead brush; they are and
were no better and no worse than *EVERY* other electronics
vendor, and

*NO, THE IPOD BATTERIES NEVER USED LEAD AS AN ACTIVE
INGREDIENT*.

Tesha

"Ars Technica -- Serving the PC enthusiast". :eyes:

Go to any tech manufacturer and you are guaranteed to find "police officers who check everyone who enters and leaves to thwart rivals intent on industrial espionage."

This is a non-story, written by someone whose Dell just crashed.

And FYI - this is a well-accepted tech site within the tech community.
Maybe you should actually check it out.
http://arstechnica.com/index.ars
What info do you have that warrants trashing them?

as far as the wages, there are probably 100 items in the room you're sitting in which were made under worse conditions.

The fact that there's no comparison whatsoever makes this smell like a hit piece, and it has a lot more to do with the iPod's success than working conditions.

My Sony 1GB holds more music than an IPOD 4gig and it was much less expensive in price.

And there are a host of other great MP3 players out there that will also provide you the same quality.

It's "free trade' and the whole industry that needs to be changed. It's impossible, currently, to compete in this market without using this overseas slavery.

might as well buy the cheaper one.

get more youngsters' attention. I'd hate to give up hope on waking them up a bit.

AND - I guess I expected better from Apple - in the beginning, they felt like local boys who would care about the neighborhood.

While American consumers aren't the only consumers, they could make a big dent in this crap if they would only buy items made in America in order to support their own and their neighbors' jobs.

Anyone here old enough to remember the old commercial: "Look for the Union label"? It worked. Until US corporations got around that by using foreign mill goods and letting them be made in USA. Now we don't even have that.

Guess I'm just depressed today (after reading about Rove and then the Palast book) feeling there's no getting my country back -- ever.

sigh.....

Instead of complaining here, do this:

o Call Apple.

* 1 Infinite Loop
* Cupertino, CA 95014
* 408.996.1010

o Ask to speak to Steve Jobs. They'll transfer you to
the department that handles customers trying to speak
to Steve Jobs.

o Respectfully state your position that you would be
willing to pay $5 more per iPod if the workers who
built them saw the benefit of that higher price.

That will make a much bigger difference than complaining
here in a computer chat room.

Tesha

the article - not merely to, as you say, complain here in a computer chat room.

(In case anyone's forgotten, Al Gore is a Director
of Apple Computer.

Tesha)

who might do something about this, he's the guy.

Clearly, you're not comparing equivalent musical formats.

Next time, Lynne, compare "apples to apples" instead of unlike
formats.

Tesha