The Telegraph UK reported that Apple's CEO Steve Jobs said about a string of worker deaths at Foxconn, the contract manufacturer that assembles the company's iPhones and iPads, "It is very troubling." The Chinese workers jumped to their death from the roof of their employer.
Now I know where Walmart got its idea for falling prices.
Jobs said "Apple does one of the best jobs of any company understanding the working conditions of our supply chain," which means that Jobs knew about the conditions in advance.
Jobs said Apple's factory in China "is not a sweatshop." This is probably literally true in the winter, when Apple and other multinational corporations keep the heat turned down low to save money.
Speaking of Walmart, "troubling" is the same word used by a Walmart spokeswoman after it was caught importing jewelry from China contaminated with toxic cadmium.
But Apple and Walmart are hardly the only companies treating foreign workers as slaves. Microsoft was recently caught using Chinese slave laborers to manufacture its computer mice and Xbox controllers. Microsoft CEO Ballmer was not concerned enough to use the word “troubling” in a press release.
Global Voices: China Blue showed that in Chinese jeans factories conditions are as bad as any seen during the Industrial Revolution, with child labor and extremely long hours. Often people work with only four hours of sleep, forcing some to use clothespins on their eye lids. Workers are not paid on time; sometimes pay is months late.
The USA should set a shining example for the world by establishing minimum worker conditions for all imported goods.
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