The dark side of shiny Apple products

(CBS News) 

Even in this high-tech age, our most popular electronic devices are largely made by hand . . . MANY hands, as it turns out . . . hands that often are very over-worked, or so industry's critics contend. Our Sunday Morning Cover Story is reported by Martha Teichner:

Just try to imagine 37 million iPhones . . . that's how many Apple sold in just the last three months of 2011.

On Tuesday it announced revenue of more than $46 billion for the quarter ending December 31.

Tim Cook, the man who replaced the late Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple, told Wall Street analysts the company couldn't keep up with global demand for the new iPhone 4S. "We didn't bet high enough," he said.

The world is in love with everything Apple . . . but here's a question: Have you ever wondered where all that stuff gets made?

"I had never thought ever, in a dedicated way, about how they were made," said performer Mike Daisey, an admitted geek. That is the centerpiece of his monologue, "The Agony and the Ecstacy of Steve Jobs."

"Shenzhen is a city of 14 million people that is larger and denser than New York City. It's the third-largest city in all of China. It's the place where almost all your **** comes from."

Performance artist Mike Daisey in his one-man show, "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs."

(Credit: CBS)

The show is an on-stage expose of working conditions at a factory in Shenzhen, China, owned by a company called Foxconn, which manufactures electronics under contract for practically every major brand you can name, including Apple.

It is, as Daisey says in his performance piece, "the biggest company you've never heard of. Foxconn makes over 50 percent of all electronics in the world."

The Foxconn plant in Shenzhen employs more than 400,000 people.

"If you've never been to the economic engines of China, these giant buildings stacked up with people, they're just staggering," said Daisey. "It almost takes your breath away."

Daisey went to Shenzhen. Foxconn wouldn't let him in, so he stood outside the main gate with his translator, talking to workers at shift change.

"In my first two hours of my first day at that gate, I met workers who are 14 years old," Daisey said. "I met workers who were 13 years old. I met workers who were 12. Do you really think Apple doesn't know?"

But what was news were the suicides . . .

"While I was there, in May and June 2010, that's really at the peak of when the suicides were happening with kind of terrible regularity," he said, "where week after week, workers would go up onto the roofs of these buildings and throw themselves off the buildings."

(Credit: CBS)

"When you were there, were there nets around the building to prevent further suicides?" asked Teichner.

"There was," he said. "They look a lot like the nets you would put out to catch fish."

"From the spike of suicides at Foxconn, we began to question maybe the harsh management methods drive the workers to commit suicide," said Debby Chan, a project manager for SACOM - Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior, a labor watchdog group based in Hong Kong. SACOM reported at least 18 Foxconn workers committed suicide in 2010, and more tried.

"We began to interview the workers, and then many of them told us they have work pressure - if they make some mistake they would be punished."

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page »

[SeaBear70]

Ok, let me get this straight...

Since China as a whole has a suicide rate 10 times higher than Foxxcon, isn't the attempt to fix this "problem" going to, if anything, result in the deaths of thousands of more people that would not have died if the liberal morons had not tried to fix things in the first place? Could it be that like usual, liberals should shut up before they make things worse? Could it be that if that guy wants to be the next Michael Moore, he should probably skip the identical diet?

[edhilljr]

You have got to be kidding. OK, let me get this straight...

YOU are suggesting that doing nothing is the correct response to the suicides at this factory? I'd like to see your response if you or your kids had to work at this place. Oh, wait, I'm hoping you do procreate otherwise we'll all be in a worse place.

[basilr2]

It certainly is not just Apple. Too much emphasis on Apple in this piece. I have visited Shenzen. It is not a place I would want to see again.
I would have preferred to see this story tie into the question-why can't we bring some of these factories to the US? Even a fourth of the production here would help provide jobs, and then slowly add more and more. Surely many of our unemployed are capable of doing these jobs. Personally I would pay more to have the products made in the US, and the company's advertising could reflect-made in the US.

[KKernahan]

Inventor Nationalism is part of what Mike Daisey was talking about wrt Apple and China. If more of our inventors including Steve Jobs, possessed this principle few American innovations would be made off shore.

American Inventors are issued 60% of the patents world wide and are a tiny fraction of just 4.5% of the worlds population. That is an exceptional fact.

Hi, I am part of an American group that controls most of the American innovation we ship to our economic competitors. There are only about 400 of us, and most of us do not give a thought as to the consequences our choices exact on our fellow Citizens.

There are many times fewer Prolific Inventors than there are Venture Capitalists. We are the reason Venture Capital is possible. By international patent law, the Inventor gets to choose, unless we give our rights away.

And No Mr Romney, a corporation can not apply for a patent, humans only. Corporations don't innovate, humans do.

Please forgive the reference to another network. What the Shark Tank investors missed on Jan 27th is that if Donny (the inventor who wants to manufacture in the US) has a patent, his invention can only be made where he says. If manufacturing cost is an issue, try Mansfield, Ohio or any community that lost a GM or other auto plant.

To lean more, Google "Great Rescission? My Fault." and then "Locally Grown Power" to see a practical example of Inventor Nationalism at work.

[wredchard]

No one who has commented here could have done so without a product that has the exact same "taint" that iPhones do, nor could CBS have produced this story without Chinese electronics, nor could the New York Times have researched, written or distributed their series (via their iTunes app, I might add) without the same class of products.

So the question has to be not just asked, but answered, why just Apple, and why only Steve Jobs (who has passed away and can no longer defend himself)?

[bevrleed]

On Sunday CBS morning show I watched the program about worker conditions in China at high tech factories. I thought it was uncharacteristically poor journalism, not up to your usual high standards. The premise was that Foxcomm is abusive to its employees. You stated there were 18 suicides last year at the factories. Foxcomm said that was lower than the national average. You seemed to dismiss that and reported there was a net(!) around the building to prevent suicides, implying that was a bad thing, I guess. And then you disdainfully reported it looked like a fish net. I guess the fact that safety nets look like nets is bad. Or that somehow the people are being treated like fish. You said, without proof, that employees commit suicide because they are worked too hard and are stressed bacause they are "punished" for making a mistake. "Punished" sounds like physical pain but it might be a written warning or dock in pay for errors, not unlike US manufacturing plants.
I understand workers vie for positions in these factories and if they are not given 10 or 12 hour shifts they try to move to a factory that will give them the hours and overtime pay.
All in all, I think you can be more balanced.

[Shadeburst]

That attitude is like some guard at Belsen saying "I only killed 500 Jews last week, look at that guy he killed 600."

And it's an admission of guilt, straight and simple. Holier than thou isn't going to cut it here.

[shameonbush]

You couldn't give me an iphone, ipad, or any apple product. This makes me furious. I know how apathetical these huge companies are toward their employees, they try to squeeze all they can out of each employee. Driving these people to suicide so much that they attached nets to catch people jumping out of buildings? I'm through with Apple. This is too sickening.

[jsmith1908]

I commend you on your decision to boycott Apple. Thats one less person ahead of me in line when the iPhone 5 launches.

[william02138]

Mike Daisey is a cruel idiot. He would prefer that all these Chinese workers' jobs were eliminated and the work was done by machines instead. All of you who think the "solution" is to stop buying electronics, has it ever occurred to you that an assembly job at FoxConn is better than whatever these worker's second choice is? How is making someone lose their job supposed to help them?!?

[noloyalisti]

The American consumer runs 70% of the economy. We could shut this thing down in a heartbeat if we unite. And you know what, we are going to have to do this sooner or later. The only thing the giant race-to-the-bottom corporations and the greedy Top 1% understand is their wallets.

Yes we will all have to take a hit but we already are. And if we don't stop the maniacs, it will get much, much worse. Simple and time to decide.

[shameonbush]

Right on! So true.

[william02138]

Why shut it down? Everyone gets something out of it. Shareholders get profits, the public gets iProducts, and -- most significantly -- 400,000 Chinese workers get jobs from this operation. These jobs may not meet your cushy American standards of what a good job is supposed to be, but don't forget, these people work at Foxconn because it's better than the alternative: either another factory job that's probably worse, or moving back to their village and living in poverty. You're so bent on stopping the 'greedy Top 1%' you're ready to throw 400,000 workers out on the street. Nice guy.

Or, maybe the real dark secret is that these are low-paying Chinese jobs and not high-paying *American* jobs. Is that what the 'race-to-the-bottom' complaint is about? You're not concerned about these workers at all, are you. The only thing you understand is your wallet. Where have I heard that before?

[boulderfan]

Want to help fix this? Even if you love Apple products, "like" Boycott Apple to help pressure them to end the abuse:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Boycott-Apple/157824344331874

Also, sign the petitions:
http://chn.ge/ytp00o
http://chn.ge/wubtRW

[wredchard]

So I should use (presumably) some other brand of electronic device to register my participation in a boycott of Apple because their products come from an abusive industrial system, the exact same which has produced the product I'm using to register my participation in the boycott?

[abbey19942003]

Perhaps there could be a consumer protest against the working conditions of Chinese laborers. I suggest not buying "Made/Assembled in China" products on Sundays until China is able to meet some form of internationally accepted standard of employee treatment. The market disruption might get the attention of those businesses using Chinese labor.

[noloyalisti]

I am so glad to see so many people now questioning the American capitalist model of the ends (making money) justifies the means. We owe a lot to the Occupy and the 99% movement for making people question the greedy status quo. Now that we have identified the problem we can move to change it.

[askagain]

How many consumers are willing to pay higher prices? That is like asking drug users to quit using drugs to stop the murders of thousands of people each year in Mexico. It is unlikely to happen.

[phydeux2]

To Noloyalisti, would you stop with the "fake free-market scam" diatribe? There's nothing fake about it. THIS is how the free market operates. It goes looking for the cheapest labor, freight, packaging, taxes, building costs, and highest performance. It doesn't take a genius to realize that China would be perfect. What with its vast numbers of people and a government attitude that makes those vast numbers largely expendable as a resource. We did it to our own people until the early part of the 20th Century when people had had enough and walked out of the sweatshops. Eventually the Chinese workers will do the same and the government will have two choices, violent military crack-down, or reforms. And if those reforms take place, that means higher costs and the free market will start looking for the next cheaper place to produce their widgets. You can hate it, revile it, and protest it all you want, but until enough people are willing to give up nearly all modern tech conveniences, you're not going to change anything. You're just screaming at a tornado.