As you may have known, all of our beloved Apple products,
IPods, IPhones, IPads, etc. are manufactured in China. You may not; however,
realize the literal blood, sweat, and tears that go into delivering your quality product at the lowest price possible.
In this blog post, I will be exploring Mike Daisey’s claims of what he saw in
Apple factories, scrutinizing the plausibility of these claims, and analyzing
what all of this means for international trade, manufacturing, and shipping
work oversees.
Mike Daisey, a journalist hoping to see Apple factories
firsthand, traveled to Shenzhen, China to Foxconn, one of Apple’s large
manufacturing factories. He did so with the intentions of creating a monologue
detailing his experiences. Shenzhen consists of 14 million people, is larger
than New York City, and is the 3rd largest city in China. It is the
city from which most of our products labeled “Made in China” originate. If it
is so large, why then, is it not recognized by most Americans? This is because,
overwhelmingly, other cultures, especially Americans, do not care how their
products are made, as long as they are cheap and quickly produced. According to
Daisey, factories like Foxconn treat their workers poorly, and would be
appalling if handled similarly in America. Some of these terrible conditions
include that age is not a issue for hiring at factories like Foxxconn. He
personally attests to meeting children as young as 13.
He confirms that he witnessed dormitories housing 15 beds in
a single 12x12 foot room. These are
meant to house his claimed 20-30,000 employees who operate in a single
workplace. They all work at least 12 hours and up to 16 hour work days consistently.
Because of these conditions, a worker died at Foxxconn after working a 34 hour
shift while Daisey was in the country. It is said that it may have been due to
exhaustion, or exposure to n-hexane. It is a potent neurotoxin used commonly in
the factories that causes peoples’ hands to shake uncontrollably, and then
affects the whole body.
If all of this isn’t enough to pull at the heartstrings, in
his monologue, Mike Daisey’s biggest emotional appeal talked about a man that
he met. This man had a “claw” hand that had been mangled in a metal press at Foxconn.
The man had worked all of his life to make IPads, yet had never seen it
finished. As he touched it with his claw hand, tears welled in his eyes and he
described the experience as magical. It showed the true irony that China forces
their workers to suffer for Apple (and other companies) but does not even sell
Apple products in their country.
These horrifying conditions supposedly cause employees to commit
suicide by jumping off of the buildings at Foxconn. The bosses could have
responded by counseling or improving conditions; however, they chose to simply
put nets around the buildings to catch the jumpers. Employers are not doing
anything to help their suffering workers, and the employees themselves cannot
even help themselves. Unions are illegal in China, and a worker will be
blacklisted from all future work if they are found to be participating in one. For
a company that pays such attention to little details, it is really possible
that Apple knows about these abuses and does not do anything about it? The
answer is a bit complicated.
First of all, it has been found that most of Daisey’s claims
were proven untrue and/or greatly sensationalized. When others attempted to
verify the information that he was reciting around the world, he was found to
be a liar and attempted to backtrack and save his credibility but failed.
Everything was revealed by his translator Kathy, who witnessed everything
alongside him. He lied about guards holding guns, the amount of factories that
he visited, he never saw the dorms or the nets, the man with the “claw hand”
never said it happened at Foxconn, and even the child workers never existed.
These are only a few instances of his lies in his monologue. He claims that he
kept lying to keep his story together. He retracted his story as journalism and
now markets it as theater since he was caught. He does not feel as if the exact
truth is important if it gains action for a problem that still exists. I would
disagree with Daisey. I think in order for an international cause to be
worthwhile, the leader of it needs to be upfront and truthful with their
followers, otherwise, they will uncover the lies and abandon the cause. What do
you think?
But how does this instance relate to World Politics? It
relates in two separate ways. 1) International Economies 2) Promoting a cause
internationally in order to get a solution. I will first begin with the
international economic issues brought up in this. There are actual tremendous benefits of these
factories to China as well as Asia as a whole. They create massive employment
opportunities, and create a hint of a middle class in China that never
previously existed. The fact is, the onset of factories raised China’s economy
and regardless of the atrocities going on, it has moved hundreds of millions of
people from horrible poverty to a situation significantly better than before.
Not only this, but it gave women options and more leverage in their families
because they didn’t have many alternatives for employment. According to
Nicholas Kristof, “…the grimness of factories like Foxconn was better than the
grimness of the rice paddies.” Factories, while still bad, are the key to
fighting poverty in China and allowing them to be a larger economic actor in
the world and empower their people with more money to have a place in the world
system as individuals.
When it comes to international causes, people need to be
able to “see” what is happening in order to care. Although the majority of his
facts were incorrect, Daisey was still able to bring international attention to
an issue in order for others to discover the truth. One of the large problems
is that countries send their “dirty work” overseas, but do not send the same
worker protections of their country with them. I feel that we have an
obligation as a First-World nation to establish labor unions and worker-protection
to help the Chinese. We are, in fact, the ones that instituted the factories
and demand the products, thus we should be responsible for the people that we
hurt. Even though Daisey lied, 42,000 people downloaded his writing about Steve
Jobs and Apple in the first 48 hours of release. From this, he got such a large
following against the abuse of China, that his cause still lived on in places
like America, Britain, France, etc. despite his lies. There is still a lot of work to do in order to improve working conditions worldwide. Not only China, but India, Taiwan, etc. are also feeling much of the same mistreatment in order to save a few dollars.
We have to realize that international exporting of work for
the sheer benefit of money can no longer happen. It strains peoples’ lives in
the countries we export them to, and in reality, making IPhones under American
working standards would only mark up phones by $65. As international leaders,
we have to find a happy medium versus product prices and human “prices.” It is
important to continue marketing this issue internationally to gain more
support. Countries who buy products made under these conditions (not only Apple
products) are only perpetuating these problems by buying into the products
without understand their origins. Maybe this will make you think twice when
looking at Apple products.
Works Cited
Glass, Ira. "460: Retraction." Audio
blog post. This American Life. Chicago Public Media & Ira Glass, 15 Mar. 2012. Web.
25 Nov. 2012.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/460/retraction.
Glass, Ira, and Mike Daisey.
"454: Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory." Audio blog post. This
American Life. Chicago Public Media &
Ira Glass, 6 Jan. 2012. Web. 25 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory>.
"Mike Daisey." Wikipedia.
Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Nov. 2012. Web. 19 Nov. 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Daisey.Williams, Matt. "Foxconn Audit Finds Illegal Overtime and Unpaid Wages at Apple Factory." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 29 Mar. 2012. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/mar/29/apple-foxconn-audit-labour-violations>.
Valerie, the topic you presented is very interesting. You mentioned the impact that factories such as those run by Apple have on the economy of China, but it seems that most of those are domestic effects. How does the placement of factories where they are affect the rest of the world, particularly the US where Apple is based and where (I assume) most of the profits are heading? If production would only cost $65 more in America, it seems that the current system might only be increasing the disparity between different economic regions of the world. Depending on what the effects on the international economy actually are, do you believe that the situation and its reaction would be more in the realm of transnational civil society or state actors themselves?
ReplyDeleteI can see US-China relations being altered if there is any change in the system as it stands, but- not to sound unsympathetic, as this is an issue that I am sympathetic towards- do these workers in the factory even matter on a grander scale of International Relations?
Very interesting question, I hope that I can hit all of the points! First of all, I think that on the grander scale, as a whole and not as individuals, these workers matter. Much like human trafficking as a transnational crime, we as a society tend to care when a large amount of members of our society are wronged. We, as Americans, should care especially because we were going through these sorts of things in our own country and now have the experience to help make them right again. I did mention many domestic affects on China, but this is in relation to international trading. They have been improving domestically because, internationally, they have more gaining more revenue than ever before because of these factories.In other words, more countries are invested in trading with them. Mass-production of goods, especially electronics, and the shipment of these goods worldwide has changed China's economic system. I also relate this because India and Taiwan have been seeing similar patterns in economic growth because of these factories. Not only this, but this is an international issue because China's people have more money to spend as individuals than in the past. It gives individuals more buying power in the world market. It also raises China's GDP as a whole, which gives China better buying power in the world market to take on countries' debts. In fact, China holds $1.1 trillion dollars of our debt.
DeleteI believe that both transnational civil society members and state actors can play a role in alleviating this problem. I think that the non-governmental organizations will (and have been) first to lead the charge against these abuses. These organizations will then work to pursuade state actors. State actors will be the ones that can actually make measured change though. State actors have more authority and pursuasive power over other states. I believe that the United States will be leading these efforts. I forsee them putting more regulations in place to protect workers and other companies and states will follow.
Val, good post and well argued. Because I like to look at a lot of things from different perspectives all the time, I want to ask you about a leverage-effect. If these factories do create a middle class in China, is in more beneficial for the Chinese in the long run than it is for the Americans in the short run? Does our cheap crap today translate into a stronger, more stable, yet possibly more aggressive China tomorrow? Is it the best interests of the United States, as an influential power, and its influential companies that can create products at the best comparative advantage by making cheap products in China, to continue this status quo instead of changing it? A little heartless, I know, but what's your take on that perspective?
ReplyDeleteIn my perfect world politics world, we would raise conditions in China, thus making it more expensive to buy Chinese-produced goods. This will even out that $65 dollar gap in production that we are currently seeing. In this perfect world, companies will realize that outsourcing work is not always the most beneficial thing for their country, and more work will be brought back to the states. Is this ideal? Yes, in my eyes it is, but will this happen? Probably not.
DeleteI think that our first concern in this situation is human rights over economics, but I realize that many would disagree from a realist, power standpoint. I think we should help people because it is our civil duty to do so. If we are able, and are also the cause of these violations to begin with, then we should be the ones to fix them. Strategically, I can understand why we may not want to fix conditions. As you said, it will raise their economy and give us less relative power. Looking at this problem in a strict black and white way, we should continue conditions because it leaves China in a lower power position. However; as we all know, the world is not black and white. There are many advantages to doing the opposite and raising their prosperity. The United States may bring more work back home, we will be seen as a virtuous country in this respect to the rest of the world, we will have a stronger trading partner, and we are not causing the suffering of a country. It is not our job to attempt to snuff out any rising power because we feel threatened. Instead, we should focus on positively raising our own economic and power security within our borders by becoming less dependent on China.