In February, following lobbying from Apple, Foxconn, and other companies, the Indian state Karnataka loosened its labor laws to allow for 12-hour work shifts, according to the Financial Times. Foxconn plans to build two new factories in the state.
Well, well, well. So, it’s the exploitive work culture that’s the main issue.
Another worker, Rajalakshmi, said her target is to inspect 526 motherboards every hour.
That’s less than 7 seconds for each motherboard. Might as well not check.
Looks like a motherboard, check. Looks like a motherboard, check…
That’s 9 seconds maggot! Pick up the pace before I get my whip!
Seems like if a human is only getting 9 seconds you’re better off with a computer thst just takes a pic and compares it to a reference image.
honestly why (apart from global politics) are they trying to move from China?
…put 2 iphones on a shelf…one from CN and one from INDIA and I know which one I would pick. CN is so optimised for building these devices (inc supply chain proximity), I don’t want a phone from a struggling factory.
…put 2 iphones on a shelf…one from CN and one from INDIA and I know which one I would pick. CN is so optimised for building these devices (inc supply chain proximity), I don’t want a phone from a struggling factory.
The assumption is that Apple would not sell any iPhone that does not meet quality standards. So any iPhone they put on the shelf should be equivalent in quality. The problem here seems to be efficiency, yield, speed, etc.
Better title: Inside Indian workers’ struggle to get basic decency and fair treatment at Foxconn factories.
The clash in work ethics reminds me a lot of the film American Factory. A Chinese glass manufacturer set up shop in America, they sent Chinese workers to train American workers, then complained about how “lazy” and “entitled” American workers are. Behind the scenes are workers in China being worked to death in conditions OSHA would be scared of, yet they thought it’s the norm and tried to impose it on American workers. I’d highly recommend a watch.
Very insightful article. Feel terrible for the workers, it is almost like a cyberpunk situation.
An incredibly well-written article, almost like a screenplay. Reminds me of TSMC trying to set up shop in Arizona. Of course a different type of factory obviously, but still.
A great example of the impacts of globalization and the race to the bottom.
This is exactly why a major return of manufacturing to the western world is not going to happen. International corporations and the global capitalist class have trillions invested into exploiting the arbitrage trade between cheap Asian labour markets and the rich West. Labour rights, industrial hygiene, occupational health and safety are problems to be worked around, not guardrails to stay between.
Good article. It sounds like people in the Indian factories don’t have the same work ethic. They’re not willing to kill themselves to get slightly ahead or make a bit more money. They want a more balanced work life balance. Foxconn wants slaves that work insane hours, for low pay, doing robot like repetitive work, deal with problems quickly, and take few breaks.
The reality is that the Chinese model is fucking bonkers.
But five Chinese and Taiwanese workers said they were surprised to discover that their Indian colleagues refused to work overtime. Some attributed it to a weak sense of responsibility; others to what they perceived as Indian people’s low material desire. “They are easily content,” an engineer deployed from Zhengzhou said. “They can’t handle even a bit more pressure. But if we don’t give them pressure, then we won’t be able to get everything right and move production here in a short time.”
I’m sure that the factories will get better over time but part of me wishes we didn’t have humans doing this kind of work anywhere. It’s dehumanizing.
A very insightful peek into modern factory workers hard life. I often forget that behind all political and marketing spectacle, real humans are involved.
Whenever I see people saying that China is evil on Reddit, I always think that they’re just humans working really hard to survive and provide for their families. The political stuff is mostly about preventing China from competing in industries that developed countries compete in. It’s a way to prevent China from moving up the value chain. Developed countries don’t want China to produce chips, software, AI, electric cars, etc. They just want China to be the world’s factory forever.
You’re strawmanning this thing so hard.
The reason the US is putting up barriers on China is due to them supporting Russia in Ukraine, running the worlds largest cyberwarfare program (2nd is Russia), supporting North Korea, having extreme anti-competitive laws, IP theft at a scale never seen before, and their countless human rights violations.
A simple example: TikTok is the most popular app in the US. Instagram, Facebook, and Google are all illegal in China.
China complains about the West not wanting to compete, but they have literally outlawed Western competition in every single area. Tesla in China is 51% owned by the Chinese. It’s insanity.
Here’s the top upvoted story on HackerNews right now.
One of the greatest user interface disasters in history https://octodon.social/@jalefkowit/111490485825183949
Basically, US Navy ship had bad UX for a system and shot down an Iran Airliner that killed 290 people.
Here’s the first comment. It’s spot on.
Everything’s possible, but there would be no debate about UI mistakes if it was Iran shooting down a US plane. They would’ve done because they are evil by nature, or at least perceived as such. In that case the media and the public buys into its own reality, but of course the UI discussion could be a distraction from the public maybe starting to question if that’s actually the reality.
Absolutely, but either that’s true, or it’s just the US showing that they are better at PR than their adversaries.
Either way, it doesn’t have much to do with how the entire world should be putting up barriers for China to do trade. It’s simply not fair that the worlds 2nd largest economy is closed off to foreign competition.
It’s simply not fair that the worlds 2nd largest economy is closed off to foreign competition.
I just went to China. Countless foreign brands everywhere. Audi and BMW sell more cars in China than in Europe and the US. McDonalds everywhere. Starbucks everywhere.
Meanwhile, the US is doing everything possible to prevent Chinese companies from competing with American car makers, solar panel producers, 5G equipment makers, phone competitors, etc.
most of the jokes on reddit are actually a joke.
Still blows my mind that its cheaper to throw these sweatshops up around Asia and train a workforce than it is to simply redesign the iPhone to be easily assembled by an automated assembly line. Car companies automate far large and more complicated assembly processes than a phone.
Redesigning the iPhone specifically to be more easier for automated assembly would likely result in a worse product, and thus it wouldn’t be worth it for Apple as that would lead to less sales. It’s more profitable to just hire cheap labor and sell more product.
Apple has a fully automated recycling robot in the works, it functions but has issues and isn’t big enough scale to handle all the recycling waste Apple has. There are videos on it, but as you would probably guess, destructive recycling is far easier than ‘white glove’ assembly. It breaks the screen, drills out the screws, freezes the back of the phone to weaken the batteries glue, etc. https://youtu.be/fUXiYecGZs8?si=2S5ic8M-M5cbGT8g
While complete autonomous assembly is absolutely doable, it just takes a ton of engineering and time, and with Apple producing new phones every year, that’s just not worth it, when you can train a person to do the same task in minutes. It makes more sense for products that aren’t going to change much over the years and can easily be nearly fully automated, like the production of pasta.
Elon Musk tried to automate every aspect of production of Tesla car, then had to admit that humans are irreplaceable. He gave up on all-aspect automation - there are far too many small components that tiny human hands are more adept to than robots. Actually, disassembling an iPhone a few times, I would agree, these are very intricate and fragile tiny pieces/cables everywhere.
Labor is still required even with automation. Local viability for cars works out sometimes due to high cost of shipping and numerous trade restrictions.
It already is automated. The supply chain and logistics are all in China because China spent money on infrastructure. You can’t plop a factory in the middle of nowhere without support structures, railroads, ports, trucking stations, etc.
Plus this is already final assembly to placate American interests. The supply chain are all in China and Korea with all the components being shipped into India for assembly.
but Reddit said India would replace China as the next manufacturing superpower!
You should really read the article, the Chinese workers brought in to supervise the transition say as much:
Li said Chinese engineers sometimes talked about how they were working to make their own jobs obsolete: One day, Indians might get so good at making iPhones that Apple and other global brands could do without Chinese workers. Three managers said some Chinese employees aren’t willing teachers because they see their Indian colleagues as competition. But Li said that progress was inevitable. “If we didn’t come here, someone else would,” he said. “This is the tide of history. No one will be able to stop it.”
I’m from this state and staying closs to the Factory. All the points mentioned in the article is true
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Foxconn will never achieve their chinese efficiency here because unlike IT industries manufacturing based ones have many unions which try to fight for workers right.
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Most of the plant assembly workers are atleast graduate. Many upwards of 80% know English and they wont be able to work 12 hours straight, as many of their peers are just working 8 to 9 hours per day in other IT industriers.
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The pay is really low compared to lucrative IT, so most of the womens working here aged 21 - 26 won’t work here after their marriage. So you have constant pool is skilled employees leaving each year and their is a constant need to train new set of employees.
So unless makes a new strategy for their Indian factories instead of trying to replicate the same from china, these problems will remain the same
Even China struggles with turnover. Like, half of a factory simply not returning after the CNY holiday isn’t unusual.
Those are rookie numbers, amazon may run out of us workers next year because they burnt out of so much of the working population who thought they could handle the job.
And with unemployment rates officially at record lows they are screwed state side unless they change working conditions.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jun/22/amazon-workers-shortage-leaked-memo-warehouse
Amazon will only survive if they get more warehouse robots.
Foxconn will never achieve their chinese efficiency here because unlike IT industries manufacturing based ones have many unions which try to fight for workers right.
The next major move would be probably towards northern states which don’t have strong unions
Most of the plant assembly workers are atleast graduate. Many upwards of 80% know English and they wont be able to work 12 hours straight, as many of their peers are just working 8 to 9 hours per day in other IT industriers.
Most of them would be from tier 10 colleges and wouldn’t be working here if they themselves got jobs in the IT sector, so it would be unrealistic to expect the same level of salaries as IT sector
So again, the solution is to move towards northern states which are relatively less educated & have less IT sector penetration
The pay is really low compared to lucrative IT, so most of the womens working here aged 21 - 26 won’t work here after their marriage. So you have constant pool is skilled employees leaving each year and their is a constant need to train new set of employees.
Solution is to provide childcare & increase wage in factories and retain workers or hire male employees
So unless makes a new strategy for their Indian factories instead of trying to replicate the same from china, these problems will remain the same
I think states can also help by providing cheaper electricity, lower property taxes etc
I don’t think “iphone assembler” and “software engineer” are really hiring from the same talent pool, that doesn’t make sense.
Software engineer isn’t the only part of IT. It’s a small part
Your first statement is correct; your second statement is incorrect, considering that large portions of electronic hardware are computer electronic hardware, and almost all modern computer electronic hardware doesn’t work without software^(1).
- It is possible to hardcode functions into a chip; that probably doesn’t count as software.
- Most of the plant assembly workers are atleast graduate. Many upwards of 80% know English and they wont be able to work 12 hours straight, as many of their peers are just working 8 to 9 hours per day in other IT industriers.
India’s population will surpass China’s soon. They have enough people without a college education who will want to work in factories.
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