[Macworld]

Post your comments for Apple asks Fair Labor Association to inspect Foxconn here

[KAdamsInCO]

Good for Apple. Not that they are really obligated to do so as a corporation outsourcing their manufacturing to a Chinese firm that services many, many electronic firms. Hopefully other electronic manufacturers will follow suit.

[lawrance]

I just love how Apple is somehow to blame for Foxconn's unhappy employees, even though Apple is just one of their many customers. Foxconn makes products for Microsoft, Sony, Acer, Dell, Cisco, Gateway, HP, IBM, Motorola, Sharp, Toshiba, Vizio, Nokia, Panasonic, Sumsung, Amazon, Netgear, Nintendo and many, many more companies. Yet, I never hear these other companies mentioned. Gotta love media spin!

[yumenyukuaile]

[yumenyukuaile]

[k88dad]

The money quote...

"Apple was the first technology company admitted to the (Fair Labor Association)."

As usual, Apple is leading on this.

[pawhite524]

Anyone notice if the NY Times is taking credit for this yet by reporting this story and mentioning their own slasher story on Apple?
It won't take long...

[NightshadesMac]

Yeah, Apple seems to be the only company we hear about in these worker abuses stories because they are the top dog in consumer electronics despite the fact that many other MAJOR electronics companies also use these same Chinese manufacturers. I'm getting quite sick and tired of all this Apple bashing in the media and I'm also disgusted with the suggestions that Apple could change things overnight if they really wanted to as if they aren't doing anything.

I don't mind Apple being MENTIONED in these stories but they shouldn't always be the focus and the other companies should get equal exposure. You'd think from reading these stories that Apple is the only consumer electronics company on earth.

[herbert harper]

What is the Chinese government's position on all this? Strange you made no mention of this angle. I can't imagine they are exactly rolling out the red carpet to third party inspectors.

[Macnutjohn]

I can't believe the Chinese government is just going to sit on their hands over these inspections, considering just how much they hate any kind of bad publicity.

[umbilicus]

Twenty years after horrific abuses like this http://www.newsobser...amlet-fire.html working conditions in the food processing industry here in our backyard are often still as bad as any described at Chinese electronics plants like Foxconn and in fact they can even be worse. Chicken and fish processing plants often have their employees standing with their hands in and out of ice water all day, while field workers bend double for ten and twelve hour shifts from the morning frost to the hot evening sun at piece work rates that seldom make minimum wage. The US ag industry in general has a terrible record of ruthless exploitation of undocumented and minority workers trapped in a cycle of poverty. For many Chinese factory employees the job is a step up, a temporary condition on their way to a better life: for US ag employees it's often a life sentence with no possibility of improvement. By all means feel guilty about your iPod if you want to, but spare a thought too for the origins of all that cheap food the US is famous for.

[MarcW]

The FLA is an industry controlled agency, it is hardly independent, and seems basically toothless. Serious violations of humane workplace conditions have gone on under its nose. This is a fig leaf for Apple, a public relations move. Apple knew all along about the dreadful conditions at Foxconn (including of course, Jobs) and couldn't care less. That is, until the NYT exposed them. Only now are Apple's gold- plated execs scrambling for cover, hoping this will blow over as Apple fanatics childishly await the next version of ipad or iphone. This lack of concern for basic human worth is upsetting.

[Phaz]

Of course nobody complains about American doctors being forced to work 80 hours a week during their internships.