The only surprise here is that this unflattering portrayal was published in SCMP. They are accused of becoming another mouthpiece for the CCP, but this indicates there may still be some editorial latitude.
I was offered a job at Foxconn to assemble iPhones for $1.7 per hour
11–20 of 83 posts
Re: I was offered a job at Foxconn to assemble iPhones for $1.7 per hour
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you know the market rate for this kind of labor in the area? Is Foxconn competitive with other manufacturers? Feel free to cite any numbers if you've got em. From what I've heard, Foxconn is a highly desirable place to work with top of market pay and benefits. A lot of people move just to work for Foxconn. So clearly there's a dynamic going on here that'll take more nuance to understand than can be painted with a…
If the broad brush stroke had a social democratic Western labour perspective, the labour would be unionised and pay and benefits would be negotiated collectively. That doesn't seem to be the case. Of course the "market rate" will always depress wages as much as possible, because that's what markets are supposed to do - and also to excuse. But there are human externalities, and it takes a rather strange view of the va…
My argument isn't to excuse Foxconn. It's to point out that we're having this discussion at the wrong zoom level.
There are complex geopolitical, social, and economic factors involved. In the system that exists, Foxconn is actually one of the better if not best actors.
But of course HN wants to boil it down to Apple cutting a check to Foxconn employees because iPhone.
Yes let's severely gimp a domestic company that generates over 5% of America's GDP (and 1% of the world's) in favor of paying Chinese manufacturers much more - when China incessantly steals American IP without care and prevents foreign companies from competing in their domestic markets. Great idea.
Re: I was offered a job at Foxconn to assemble iPhones for $1.7 per hour
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the broad brush stroke had a social democratic Western labour perspective, the labour would be unionised and pay and benefits would be negotiated collectively. That doesn't seem to be the case. Of course the "market rate" will always depress wages as much as possible, because that's what markets are supposed to do - and also to excuse. But there are human externalities, and it takes a rather strange view of the va…
My argument isn't to excuse Foxconn. It's to point out that we're having this discussion at the wrong zoom level. There are complex geopolitical, social, and economic factors involved. In the system that exists, Foxconn is actually one of the better if not best actors. But of course HN wants to boil it down to Apple cutting a check to Foxconn employees because iPhone. Yes let's severely gimp a domestic company that g…
I don't really see how this is about Foxconn. Foxconn only hires those people for Apple and Apple only have Foxconn do it because they'd have to pay more to do it themselves. How much they're paid is dictated by Apple.
I think there's some parallel with Uber's contractor-vs-employee situation but it's much more apparent when you consider these people are exclusively working on Apple devices, within Apple's supply chain, subject to Apple's rules and rulings, even some of the components and the software come from Apple employees.
Their $1.70 an hour should be compared to the US federal minimum wage or something because that's the number Apple decided to skip out on, even as they hoarded a quarter trillion dollars.
Re: I was offered a job at Foxconn to assemble iPhones for $1.7 per hour
#14Apple's rumored to profit several hundred dollars per iPhone sold, between the $1.70/hr not-employees, massive tax evasion, and dishonesty with hardware issues there's not much left to respect them for. Privacy, with the caveat that you're not the product except for Google paying $9 billion to make you their product.
Do you know the market rate for this kind of labor in the area? Is Foxconn competitive with other manufacturers? Feel free to cite any numbers if you've got em. From what I've heard, Foxconn is a highly desirable place to work with top of market pay and benefits. A lot of people move just to work for Foxconn. So clearly there's a dynamic going on here that'll take more nuance to understand than can be painted with a…
What about the racism? Is there nuance in that as well?
Re: I was offered a job at Foxconn to assemble iPhones for $1.7 per hour
#15> A poster in an agency describes job qualification for Foxconn workers: age between 16 and 40, ninth-grade diploma, no Tibetan and Uygur ethnicities. Many damning things in the report but this straight up racism demands a firm response from Apple.
Probably does demand a response, but this doesn't seem to be an "official" Foxconn policy:
> These conditions on ethnicity do not appear on the Foxconn website, but do adorn the walls of private job agencies hiring directly for the technology giant
Re: I was offered a job at Foxconn to assemble iPhones for $1.7 per hour
#16> A poster in an agency describes job qualification for Foxconn workers: age between 16 and 40, ninth-grade diploma, no Tibetan and Uygur ethnicities. Many damning things in the report but this straight up racism demands a firm response from Apple.
Hang on. It’s not just racist hiring policies. We have companies here that are doing business in a country that is putting millions of people of a certain ethnicity in concentration camps. That really is not being talked about enough.
Re: I was offered a job at Foxconn to assemble iPhones for $1.7 per hour
#17Apple's rumored to profit several hundred dollars per iPhone sold, between the $1.70/hr not-employees, massive tax evasion, and dishonesty with hardware issues there's not much left to respect them for. Privacy, with the caveat that you're not the product except for Google paying $9 billion to make you their product.
Do you know the market rate for this kind of labor in the area? Is Foxconn competitive with other manufacturers? Feel free to cite any numbers if you've got em. From what I've heard, Foxconn is a highly desirable place to work with top of market pay and benefits. A lot of people move just to work for Foxconn. So clearly there's a dynamic going on here that'll take more nuance to understand than can be painted with a…
> From what I've heard, Foxconn is a highly desirable place to work with top of market pay and benefits.
The article states differently:
>> Foxconn is known for its high staff turnover, largely because of the low monthly salary of 2,100 yuan per month (US$313) in Zhengzhou. By comparison, the average salary in the city of Zhengzhou in 2018 was 6,929 yuan (US$1,035) per month.
Re: I was offered a job at Foxconn to assemble iPhones for $1.7 per hour
#18> A poster in an agency describes job qualification for Foxconn workers: age between 16 and 40, ninth-grade diploma, no Tibetan and Uygur ethnicities. Many damning things in the report but this straight up racism demands a firm response from Apple.
Probably does demand a response, but this doesn't seem to be an "official" Foxconn policy: > These conditions on ethnicity do not appear on the Foxconn website, but do adorn the walls of private job agencies hiring directly for the technology giant
Wouldn't be such a big deal if the Chinese weren't literally interning and exterminating Uyghurs. Calling this stuff racism is like calling Nazi Germany Alt-Right... Stops WAAAY short of framing the problem.
Re: I was offered a job at Foxconn to assemble iPhones for $1.7 per hour
#19> A poster in an agency describes job qualification for Foxconn workers: age between 16 and 40, ninth-grade diploma, no Tibetan and Uygur ethnicities. Many damning things in the report but this straight up racism demands a firm response from Apple.
Hang on. It’s not just racist hiring policies. We have companies here that are doing business in a country that is putting millions of people of a certain ethnicity in concentration camps. That really is not being talked about enough.
This.
Re: I was offered a job at Foxconn to assemble iPhones for $1.7 per hour
#20These workers are basically human robots, but they are not only faster and more accurate then robots, they are much cheaper!