Shaggy Dog Pix: January 2012

Leftovers.

Ah, the perils of righteous indignation. As Tyler so wisely pointed out in his comment on yesterday's indignant post, Apple is likely no more guilty of abusive labour practices in China than many other well-known high-tech companies. Luckily for me, I did say that that was but one of my reasons for, um, not being as fully appreciative of the wonders of all things Apple as others. But, as everyone knows only too well by now, opening up that jam jar (Apple vs. PC) just creates a sticky mess that benefits no one. If anything fruit-derived is going to be opened, a nice bottle of red wine is just the thing.

Maybe it'll all just go away.

Another reason I'm not a big Apple fan:

"One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.
A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.
“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”"

Let's see, 8,000 human beings, separated from their families and confined in "dormitories", available to work, without choice, at a moment's notice, their twelve hour shift fueled by a biscuit and a cup of tea....... Can you say, "slaves"?

The source of the story. It's all about the reasons high tech companies don't want to "hire American". Some crazy notion about the sort of conditions being described above being intolerable to American workers. I mean, gees! Do you want a job or don't you?