Apple- DO SOMETHING!

Recently, on January 2, 2012, around 300 Wuhan workers fled to the top of a factory building in order to get their way. They threatened their employers with mass suicide of jumping off the tall building over low wages. The workers were employed through Foxconn Technology Park in Wuhan in the Hubei province. This company was a manufacturing partner to Apple, Sony, and Microsoft. The employees had asked their bosses for a raise, but their employers told them to quit or keep their jobs at their normal salary pay. According to Huffington Post, Foxconn factories in China have been the scene of several suicides by workers in the past, including 14 in 2010 alone at its Shenzhen plant, after complaints of low pay and poor conditions. 

The Labor conditions that are happening in companies such as the Foxconn Technology Park should NOT be happening. According to a 2010 company report, Foxconn said it promotes "employee respect, an atmosphere of trust, and personal dignity,” but apparently not. I feel that if Foxconn is not going to keep an eye on the labor laws and follow them, then the sub-companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Sony should enforce them, or get out. There are so many holes found in the system, its nuts. I could not imagine having to work in any of the conditions they do, such as starting to work at FoxConn at age 13, living in a three room apartment with 20 other employees, or having 84 hours of overtime a month, according to statistics at ProPublica. Labor Laws should be enforced by the companies the laborers work for.

            40 percent of the world’s consumer electronics are manufactured by FoxConn. If the companies aren’t going to step up to help the employees in need of higher wages and better working conditions, then maybe America should. Wuhan workers go on strike to get themselves better wages, and even threaten to create a mass suicide. Would it be so hard for America to strike the companies involved? If the population took the initiative to help those in need, we could put a dent in the Tech companies in no time, with the amount that FoxConn is manufacturing. I know that life without technology seems unbearable, but is it worth the lives of others? Is it worth letting other human beings work 34 continuous hours on electronics for the more fortunate? I think not.

            I feel that most of America, such as the companies that work for FoxConn only care about the money aspect. It’s much cheaper to pay FoxConn to manufacture their products because FoxConn works their employees too hard, and for very little pay, even if the employee has a college education. They aren’t thinking of the personal conditions the workers are going through. They are just sitting in their office enjoying the money that Low Wage FoxConn workers are making for them. Some disagree and think that Apple and other companies aren’t to blame, such as an article from The Loop, but I say they are.