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ABCNews reports that Apple has given Nightline anchor Bill Weir exclusive access to their suppliers' factories in China.
"For years, Apple and Foxconn have been synonymous with monster profits and total secrecy so it was fascinating to wander the iphone and iPod production lines, meet the people who build them and see how they live. Our cameras were rolling when thousands of hopeful applicants rushed the Foxconn gates and I spoke with dozens of line workers and a top executive about everything from hours and pay to the controversies over suicides at the plant and the infamous "jumper nets" that line the factories in Shenzhen. After this trip, I'll never see an Apple product the same way again" said Weir
This special edition of "Nightline" will air Tuesday, February 21st at 11:35pm ET on ABC.
Apple and Foxconn have been under fire due to working conditions in the factories that manufacture iPads and iPhones. Apple has also allowed the Fair Labor Association to start auditing their factories. FLA has reportedly uncovered "tons of issues" that will need addressing. A full report is to be coming in the next few weeks.
Top Rated Comments
I'll never see an Apple product the same way again" said Weir
Because only Apple stuff is made in China right? :roll eyes:
Gimme a break.
Pays well above local average doesn't mean **** if you're stuck living in conditions that are, arguably, more overpopulated than sardines in a can.
And yet thousands of people line up whenever they're hiring. Because they can't make wages like that anywhere else in their country.
This is a brilliant move by Apple if they can expose Foxconn for what it is.
A large Taiwanese owned employer that pays well above the average local wage, houses, feeds, clothes and educates their staff?
It isn't just Apple, yet every article seems to slate Apple to bits over it. This might show it is an industry wide problem and Apple isn't alone.
Apple "grants" access to the facilities of an independent company. That phrase alone calls for extreme cynicism: I wonder if this was a similar setup like the Red Cross visits to certain Ghettos in the late 1930s in certain Easter European regions. The Red Cross wanted to be fooled and only got to see what they wanted to see: Happy faces on a nicely prepared stage. Nothing was real, but nobody cared.
The whole Foxconn thing has been so publicly reported, and in comparison to your mention of the Red Cross visit to the Ghettos in the 1930s, is in a different world from then due to the internet. I think if ABC gave a biased report, the truth would come out via the internet anyway, and ABC would look bad. I'm sure ABC will be very in-depth and not take a blind eye to anything.But maybe there are still some journalists with the necessary ethics left in this world who are willing to look beyond the stage and report the inconvenient truth that they find.
Now we know how Apple treats bad press (New York Times) how can anybody believe this Bill Weir guy.
Like Poetin, Berlusconi etc. Apple want's to control the media. It's like a bad James Bond movie.
The New York Times article specifically pointed out the iPad and Apple, making the average Joe think Apple is the sole company using Foxconn and the cause of bad worker conditions.
It is an industry problem, and while Apple is part of that, it is bad journalism to just point the finger at one company when other companies are in the same situation.
And if you're referring to how Apple treated the New York Times in regard to the preview of Mountain Lion, their reporter said he had had it for a week, so Apple did not shunt out The New York Times like originally thought.
As a matter of fact I'm fairly certain working conditions in lesser factories with less attention are likely worse.
Exactly.
Foxconn is a dream employer for many 100s of 1000s of mainland Chinese and Brazilians who have been lifted out of rural poverty.