Blog 3

I did the article “Apple manufacturing plant workers complain of long hours, militant culture”. The article talks about a female worker name Chen describing the working conditions in China. They work in long assembly lines for many hours. Pay is very minimal and the working conditions are poor. She works for Foxconn which is a factory that works with Apple. They are the one of the best industry’s in China to work for but that shows how bad it is to work in a factory. Chen had to have her real name private because if Foxconn ever found out who she really was, she would be laid off in a second. Suicide has even been a problem for Foxconn and they had to have nets in the factories to keep employees from jumping. Apple has said that they expect working conditions to be fair for employees and that it should be environmentally friendly.  Many employees don’t stand up for themselves because many of them are low class citizens who can’t find another job. They either have to put up with it or not have a job. What also surprised me was that Chen has never seen a finished product of her work. Chen was amazed of the Ipad and said she has never seen it finished. She only does what she needs to in the assembly line and moves on with her life. 

I believe that these working conditions in China have to be changed. It is not fair that these people have to work long ours in a non friendly environment. But I also believe change will not happen. China is more like a communist country/economy and does not want the wealth to be evenly distributed throughout the citizens. Even though Apple says they want better working conditions, I do not believe that they will actually enforce it. They know that if they try to change it, they will get charged more for the products if it does happen. Being charged more means raising prices in America. And when they raise prices in America, Apple will lose customers.