News Foxconn sues journalists over sweatshop story

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/08/30/Foxconn_sues_journalists_over_sweatshop_story/

 

I would love if they tried to sue apple over their investigation.

I can just picture it now:

Foxconn Lawyer: We're gonna sue you for all your worth
Apple Lawyer: Really? Tell you what, we'll just take our business from you
F: OH ****

 

Sweatshop labour? Motherboard manufacturing is almost fully automated, no? Do they have underpaid employees moving boxes of parts around or something?

 

ALMOST fully. They keep their workers at bare minimum wage, poor living conditions (I think its something like 8 people in a room that you would put one person in the UK), they have to solder certain parts on by hand, check connections, maintain machinary, box/bag.

And remember there are dangerous chemicals involved in the process.

 

suing for something they have admitted to doing?

another company i wont ever buy products from then

 

Gotta love Comunists trying to act like Kapitolists.

 

Actually Foxconn are based in Taiwan. But I don't suppose you know that Taiwan isn't communist anyway.

Regardless, this sounds like they're taking legal tips from any major western corp. Be in the wrong, but never allow yourself to be portrayed in the wrong. That could practically be rule number one of most multinational corporations handbooks for employees

Seriously though, does anyone care that they're running "sweatshops"? So they get 60 hour weeks 7 days a week instead of 60 hour weeks 6 days a week. People in China and Taiwan are not going to get the standard of working in factories that we get over here. That's why they can manage to make half the worlds products.

So long as it's cheap, I'm happy.

 

Just like P. Diddy.

But yea I'd sued them too! How the hell could this Chinese guys DARE to show a WESTERN COMPANY what they did wrong in ASIA? That their continent or what?!
Idioty @ Foxconn...

 

I know Taiwan isn't Comunist... I jsut assumed that they were in China as the article made references to China in it. No need to be an ass about it. I guess I shouldn't assume.

 

Yeah specofdust remember that they work in those hideous conditions and make something like the equivolent of 40 US dollars a week. Someone working 60 hours a week in a normal enviornment would make 500-700 dollars in the US.

So "as long as it's cheap" isn't really good enough. Just think about the tens of thousands of workers in China that slave on like that endlessly just to make a weekly income barely equal to the amount that most US citizens make in a single day. That's why most major manufactuers go to China in the first place. They get cheap labor and turn around massive profits every year. And it's not like they can protest or go on strike. The government will just roll tanks through the streets again and scare their people into conformity. That's one of the major reasons why yuo can go to any big factories and assembly lines in the US and see that they are populated largely by Asian workers. It's the same work they did in China except now they make 10 times more money, work 20 less hours a week, have health benefits, decent working conditions, and they can go home every night. Unless you were being sarcastic, and I completely missed it.

But yes, I admit, there are plenty of sweatshop made products in my home, I'm sure.

 

Isn't good enough for what? It's good enough for me. Frankly I'd be rather concerned were I making only the US minimum wage, just as I'd be slightly concerned if I were earning the chinese minimum wage(assuming they have one, which I doubt). There are lots of people around the world in crappy jobs, but I buy expensive computer parts, so I'd be a hypocrit to complain. Might as well endorse it openly.

 

I don't understand how they can sue them, if its true, then the newspaper haven't lied about it, and thus the damage on their reputation wasn't from false information ....

 

I'm guessing Foxconn is bigger than that - though iPods probably do make up a substantial piece of their pie chart. It's ironic how these lawsuits will probably make them look worse than the reporters.

Of course, we're talking about freedom of press in China - so this should play out very very interestingly.

 

Keep in mind that one person's sweatshop is another person's living wage job. You remember a few years back when Nike was accused of running sweatshops in Malaysia? Lots of people boycotted them and they were forced to close those factories. End result was a lot of hard working Malaysians who counted on those jobs to feed their famalies lost their jobs. Are they better off for it? Ask them.

The situation is a lot more complicated than "Foxconn is bad, don't buy from them". The real answer is for consumers to be willing to pay MORE to buy products from companies that spend more to produce their products. What are the odds of that happening? You figure it out.

 

instead of it costing 100$ it would end costing 500$, happy now?

i dont like the idea of making people slaves, but as Cthippo says, there are people that dont have a choice, the choice to work were they want and for much they want.

 

That work will go where it is cheap and countries that desperately need any money they can get will generally be where it is, isn't something I like but I can quite easily see its going to happen and as said, trying to get companies to pull jobs from such places won't help, but I still think its pretty dispicable to go to a country where you can pay workers very little and then break that countries labour laws to pay them even less/make them work even harder.

 

nowt to do about sweat shops, they exist, it may be wrong by our standards but not necessarily in the countries they are in.

the arrogance to sue over a true story is the sole reason i wouldnt want to buy from them

 

If you don't want to buy stuff from companies having sweatshops in Asia or Africa or South America you'll end up sitting naked in a nearly empty house...

 

They dont even really need the emloyees/sweatshop workers to make the boards anyway. You can automate so much of it that all they would need to do is keep the machines stocked with components. But for now its just enough more convient to keep them working there rather than buying, programming, setting up, and maintaining the machines to do it. To me all of the work done over there is sweatshop labor, from what I have heard they work long hours and get paid crap to do so in poor conditions.

 

I'm trying to find another source on this (just read from the reg) but it appears as though Foxconn have reduced the amount they are suing.

Now just 1 Yuan, total of £0.066!

EDIT: Found another source http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7004713543

Looks like they're backing down big time after Steve Jobs was bought in.