[Discuss] foxconn

[hsuanyeh at gmail.com (Hsuan-Yeh Chang)]

Stephen Adler <adler at stephenadler.com> wrote:
> I've recently read a news article which talked about Foxconn and their
> supposed abusive labour practices. Foxconn is the maker of a lot of
> popular electronics including the iPhone.
>
> This got me thinking, when I go off an buy a motherboard or memory SIMM
> or whatever, am I buying a product which has been manufactured by
> laborers who work under conditions I wouldn't allow my own family to
> work under? Is there any awarness campain or whatever which allows one
> to buy some electronic component which was manufactured in conditions
> which meet some kind of labor standards? On my part, I would pay more
> for my electronic components if I new they were being manufactured using
> a by someone who's working under good conditions, not sweat shop like
> conditions. Am I being too paranoid about this in the sense that labor
> conditions in China are just fine and the workers are well paid and not
> over worked?

It all boils down to cost.  Foxconn is one of the OEM manufacturers,
who make products in accordance with the specification of brand names
(such as HP, Dell, etc.).  Admit it or not, when you pay X amount of
dollars for your hardware, most of your money goes to the brand names,
not to the OEMs.  The OEMs only have a profit margin of at most 3-5%.
Foxconn is not the target to blame.  It's the brand names who hide
behind the scene and who earn big bucks.  Ask the brand names to give
OEMs more profit margins such that they can improve their workers'
working condition.  Those brand names bring production lines
off-shore, partly because they want to earn more by cutting cost and
partly because they don't want to be blamed of putting employees under
undesirable working conditions, which closely correlate with cost
control.

HYC