Riot at China Foxconn Factory: Should Apple Hire American Union Labor?

Why so they can pay a lot of money for vestry little work and a lot of breaks? Not to mention all of the other regulations the democrats have shackled the business with killing manufacturing in this country.

With all of the different companies using China's factories for production of their goods why single out Apple?

Yes

just fine

This has always been the main reason why I don't by Apple. Another case of Americans buying themselves out of jobs.

Very true.

F Foreign labor!!

Apple should hire non-union US workers and as we speak a plan is afoot to do so in California! Can't say how I know this but it's real and all very Hush Hush!

CA seems like the last state anyone with any sense would set up something like that.

I often wonder how it has any businesses left, given how hostile its government seems to them.

Hahaa...I live here and sell manufacturing equipment so I here you!

In spite of itself Cali can't help but have a lot of business.....it has the three biggest ports on the West Coast. Both Honda and Toyotas USA headquarters are here. Most of the countries communication weather & spy satellites are built here. Most of the worlds silicon wafer manufacturing machines. Cali still pumps and refines a lot of oil! Lol...not like Oklahoma.

There are over 37 million people here! They are not all in Hollywood or in Riverside buying meth!

Lot's of Military. San Diego is a huge port for the Navy and just a way up the road 1/2 the Marine Corps is stationed and trained. The Army does much of it's tank training maneuvers in the desert here at Ft. Irwin. Oh and for the Navy there is an airbase with C17s flying in & out all the time because it is the Navy's main ammunition depot for the entire Pacific Fleet.

Sure Cali has a crap government for biz but it's so big it has a lot in spite of itself!

All really good points. It seems like I never hear stories about all the things that are going correctly there. Whether the government deserves credit or blame, of course, is a matter of opinion.

Thanks for the lesson/reminder. I really hadn't thought about the ports, much less the military. Even though I definitely should have.

Eh....I understand....we get a lot probably to much because the media is here and so is Hollywood. And Hollywood does employ nearly 1/2 a million.

Oh it's Liberal for sure! But there are enough large pockets of rational people. I live in SoCal & frankly we have the best weather on the planet! Plus local mountains to 8k and further north up to 11k +!

Agriculture. Wine, Rice, Almonds, Beef, Tomatoes, Lettuce and strawberries....etc.

Hey, I'm living in OK.

If you think CA has a bad reputation that stereotypes it wrong...

Well, OK mostly deserves the stereotypes. But I understand what you're saying.

Yeah everyone has them now days it seems. I grew up with some great people from Oklahoma. I was there once with them for a visit it was fun!

They should hire American Workers but Fu*k The Unions, They are the Problem and need to be done away with. The reason Apple is in China is because of the Unions here have made American Labour to Expensive. besides only 12% of the American Work force is union. They should Set up a Plant in a right to work state.

B.S.

China is doing many things right. Education is a big priority and they have built amazing infrastructure and the famous bullet trains. But the government is still corrupt and treats its workers like dog sheet. That cannot go on forever where workers are housed in a dormitory and can be roused at any hour to report to work.

It's always about the profit line so Apple will not unionize, even though in the long run, it could... maybe.. be to its advantage. Unions have a bad rap in this country , and much of that is deserved. No doubt. Then there is Houston, where janitors' service contracts are expiring. The worker make $ 7.45 an hour and are demanding $10 and guaranteed hours. Many people find that to be outrageous, including the companies where these janitors work. The companies responded with a statement saying union demands are "extreme" and beyond what they can afford.

It's all relative.

If Apple products were made in the USA people would not be able to afford them unless they were made by robots.

I've seen a few interviews with Chinese factory owners who would love to set up operations in the US to avoid things like shipping costs.

They've all sworn that their issue isn't salary. It's worries about lawsuits from employees. So, yeah. they're waiting until they can do everything with robots.

Who knows how true their statements are.

Yes,bring our jobs back .Let's think about America's workers first.

Foxconn is a multinational based in Taiwan, and they build components for Apple, correct.

Now, more and more Chinese workers are "revolting" (yes, Your Majesty), organizing (illegal) free unions, staging strikes and violent protests. Mostly in foreign-owned companies, because they can put pressure on management more easily.

Wages are rising anyway in China, workers' protest is a key factor. Many of these workers are "migrant workers" from the poor, long neglected, rural provinces and the Chinese leaders are beginning to realize that it is in their best interest to pay attention to their demands (wages, education, health care).

Some companies are now moving operations from China to low-cost countries like Vietnam.

Yes!!! Bring the jobs back home!! (No pun intended...)

they hired the cheapest labor available - minimum wage in every state for non-union workers is higher than in China.

This is the strategy Jobs was using to make China our 51st state.

Unfortunately, it's the sort of strategy that's letting them buy us.

America is being conquered by Chinese capitalism. And we're really doing it to ourselves.

Does that count as irony?

I'd have to say so. We're going Left and China is going Right. Russia has gone Right. East Germany, Vietnam, and the rest except Cuba and a couple of others, have left Socialism because it doesn't work.

yes

I get a free phone every 2 years from Verizon. I don't care if they hire Gingrich to make Apple crap on the moon.

The workers live in the factories and are very rarely allowed out, so what is the difference between that and a prison?....

"'Mass suicide' protest at Apple manufacturer Foxconn factory

Around 150 Chinese workers at Foxconn, the world's largest electronics manufacturer, threatened to commit suicide by leaping from their factory roof in protest at their working conditions.



Foxconn, which manufactures gadgets for the likes of Apple, Sony, Nintendo and HP, among many others, has had a grim history of suicides at its factories. A suicide cluster in 2010 saw 18 workers throw themselves from the tops of the company's buildings, with 14 deaths.

In the aftermath of the suicides, Foxconn installed safety nets in some of its factories,,,"

as long as people are not forced to be in a union or to pay fees to those unions..... I myself would be willing to work without being in a union just because I do need to pay things off and there is already all kinds of safety procedures in place for american jobs so I doubt there's a need on the whole union thing right now

Without a union, there's no workers rights. Raise time, you're fired, smoke, fired; late, fired; sick fired. complain, fired,

Wih unions people that should be fired are not fired.

Just over 50 yrs ago, I worked for GM in Rosedale NY. Every month, they would fire and replace 1/3 of the mechanics, to guarantee that the UAW couldn't get enough votes to unionize the plant. It goes both ways.

They were needed back then but they are now just a bunch of parasites.

Apple's profits are based on exploiting the difference in wages and cost of living between first world consumers and third world workers.

In an ideal world, Apple would hire unionized American workers, but this would only work in a competitive market if all of Apples's competitors were legally compelled to follow. And consumers should then expect the price of their Iphone to go up about 300% to account for increased labor costs. There is no free lunch in globalization. And the workers of the world get screwed either way.

Fraid not; the US is the third world of auto manufacture. They go to the Red states, the so-called "right to work" states. Prices are not influenced.

We are still competitive with automobiles because shipping costs are substantial for an automobile. On the other hand, for an iphone, shipping costs are negligible compared to the value.

But even with the red states driving labor into third world poverty, we still can't compete on an even playing field with Asia for consumer electronics. I worked for a company that outsourced to Mexico, but even with Mexican wages 25% of the U.S., we could not compete with Asian contract manufacturers and had to shut the Mexican operations down.

Germany is 90% unionized, auto workers make about $30hr and their sales are strong while GM & Chrysler were on the ropes, BUT, income tax is zero for the poor and 45% for over $250,000.

nice to know what the Republican economic plan has in store for the American working class.

I might actually buy their products, if they did.