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Apple puts India iPhone plant 'on probation' after mass food poisoning

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"Chinese styled working conditions will not work here"

No these are Indian style working conditions. Chinese workers get higher wages and better working conditions. PM Modi probably forgot about this part before claiming that his 'Make in India' campaign was a success.

7 ( +10 / -3 )

Some 250 women working at Foxconn's iPhone factory in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu were treated for food poisoning this month, 159 of whom were hospitalised.

Food poisoning and suicide nets; Foxconn sounds like a great place to work as an alternative to starvation, which is the premise of laissez-faire, neo-liberal capitalism.

Besides the probation from Apple the response will most likely be government subsidies from the public treasury " to ensure human rights in the global supply chain".

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Foxconn is India's largest electronics manufacturer and the Modi brigade claimed that Foxconn's investment in India was a successful example of his comically named 'Make in India' campaign to scale up India's manufacturing capabilities.

As is usual with that buffoon, his PR machine will remain quiet on such news and probably this kind of news will never make it to the front pages of many of the Modi-friendly news outlets.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

"Never read this news in Indian media....Looks JT is on a scoop mission, trying to get much needed limelight...."

As far as I can tell JT pulls its articles from other news sources. I don't think too many of their articles are original work by JT staff. Either CNN or CBS had the exact same article (too lazy to load the sites and see which one it was).

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Apple knows the factories and the working conditions of the companies they give contracts to for parts. That's what business trips are for and it's impossible they didn't know any of this.

An attention getting incident is what finally made Apple move so as not to look like a sweatshop owner, of which they actually are, by funding this exploitive company.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

"the work culture in any foreign firm is never the local work culture"

Thanks for your insight.

Foxconn is a Taiwanese company and Taiwan is neither a part of China nor of SE Asia. Maybe you missed that part during your school geography lessons but my question to you is what is the great PM Modi doing when, as you claim, foreign electronics manufacturers are providing substandard conditions to their Indian workers? Indian government did not take any action against Foxconn - Modi does not have the balls to do so - but it was Apple which put the plant on probation.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

"Never read this news in Indian media....Looks JT is on a scoop mission, trying to get much needed limelight...."

All right then, let me help you over there -

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/apple-iphone-india-plant-foxconn-apple-india-plant-news-how-a-protest-by-women-forced-change-at-iphones-indian-plant-2679209

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Never read this news in Indian media....Looks JT is on a scoop mission, trying to get much needed limelight....

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Apple knows the factories and the working conditions of the companies they give contracts to for parts. That's what business trips are for and it's impossible they didn't know any of this.

Without having direct experience with them it is hard to say. I can tell you that pretty much every place I have ever worked including the military, the very moment there was even a hint that we would have important visitors all the workspaces were cleaned up and anything even a little incriminatory was hidden from view. Where I work we have problems with our own contractors hiding things from us. They build things for us but we don't own their plants, and we do not have free access to their plants. They guide us around. We can't wander around wherever we wish. No company lets visitors see their dirty laundry. if they want to keep the visitors business. So wrt to Apple and Foxconn it is hard to say with certainty from a distance.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Companies in Asia do not treat workers as human beings but some components that can be treated as trash.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

"the local government in most cases in any country will not interfere in the operations of a foreign firm"

So any foreign firm operating in any country does not need to abide by the law of the land?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Foxconn is a Taiwanese company and Taiwan is neither a part of China nor of SE Asia...

That's not the main point, and no surprises given the obtuse nature of such comments..the work culture in any foreign firm is always the work culture of that firm not the local work culture.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

And to add, the local government in most cases in any country will not interfere in the operations of a foreign firm, in some unique/rare cases they may intervene, but in most cases they will not.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Foxconn should realize that this is not China and as such Chinese styled working conditions will not work here, and if the idea is to slowly move manufacturing away from China than they will need to address this soon.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

No these are Indian style working conditions

Oh..no definitely the Chinese/SE Asian styled work culture...the work culture in any foreign firm is never the local work culture..

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

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