Foxconn denies iPod sweatshop accusations

Apple's promise to investigate "iPod City" allegations wasn't quite the flat-out denial we were expecting for a situation like this, but the accused iPod manufacturer, Foxconn Electronics (aka Hon Hai Precision Industry), was a little more straight forward. Spokesman Edmund Ding stated that there were huge discrepancies between the truth and the claims in the report, and that Foxconn reserves the right to take legal action over the report. A couple notable facts include Ding's claim that Foxconn has a worldwide workforce of about 160,000 -- compared to the 200,000 in one factory claimed by the report. Foxconn's website has also denied them even having a factory in Suzhou, which was mentioned as an "iPod City" in the accusatory article. Ding was also careful to mention that Foxconn abides by the employment law of China for minimum wage, and has been actively making improvements to workers' living conditions with the addition of free laundry service, sports facilities, libraries and other facilities. We're sure we haven't heard the last of the plight of iPod workers, but at least according to their employer it doesn't really sound too terrible.

[Via iLounge]

Read - Foxconn denies allegations
Read - No iPod city in Sozhou

[o rly @ Jun 19th 2006 11:41AM]

If you post more updates to the story, at least use pictures from "iPod City" instead of some random factory worker that happens to be Asian.

[cccp @ Jun 19th 2006 11:46AM]

More proof of the evils of capitalism.

[Todd @ Jun 19th 2006 11:48AM]

Oy vey - "spin cycle" turned all the way up...

Edmund Ding is part of the same propaganda machine that, to this day, no protesters were harmed during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Don't even get me started with Mao's denial that he personally cause six million men, women and children to starve to death.

But hey, I gots to get me the latest Dave Mathews, no matter what the cost!

[Bryan Ribas @ Jun 19th 2006 11:52AM]

I'm sure Steve would not be "down with that". I’m sure he and his employees do research on companies before then sub contract them. They are a company that tries to clean the world by making smaller, more biodegradable packaging. Im sure they will not subcontract a sweatshop.

[bob @ Jun 19th 2006 12:02PM]

this whole thing is dump, if it didnt ivolve apple or ipod then no one would be a) interested or b) care, they are the same factories that sony and nearly everyone else uses. is this a policitcal or technological news sight? put and end to it now, its tiresome

[jeff @ Jun 19th 2006 12:08PM]

todd,

i hope you're not as ignorant as you seem to be. hon hai is a taiwanese company with factories in china. edward ding is most likely a taiwanese employer, and has as much to do with tianamen as you do. part of the same propaganda machine? that's like blaming toyota for the war in iraq.

[Tom H @ Jun 19th 2006 12:48PM]

Frankly I'm not surprsed.

The reporting capabilites of the daily mail are abysmal, up there with our other tabloids.

and you lot think USA today is bad...

[Rafael Oliveira @ Jun 19th 2006 12:48PM]

It's always funny to see how the developed countries get so incensed on news like that. As some post above said, that is capitalism. Period. No employer is truly interested with the welfare of their employees as far as lawbreaking goes. The wages they get there isn't that much lower than Brazilian *legal* minimum wage (about US$ 120). My american/french/english friends always get shocked when they argue someone doing my job in the "First World" would pay at least thrice more than I earn. That's being underdeveloped. I have o choice unless I move to a developed country, and even then, I'd have to face immigration laws, some sort of prejudice, etc. It's hard, but that's life.

[Jeff J @ Jun 19th 2006 2:08PM]

My father in law runs a textile business in China with factories in numerous cities. They have some of the same characteristics as mentioned in the article, on-site dorms in some cases, other cases the company rents apartments, and on-site cafeteria. The company execs live on site too for the most part in the same dorms as the employees, they also eat together. Contrary to what this article says his employees live and eat for free. They pay very competitive wages too because it is VERY hard to retain employees in the highly competitive Chinese market. They work a 6 day week but less hours during the day so it works out to about 45-50 hours a week.

When I was there two Christmas ago, he gave away TVs, washers, microwaves, ipods, DVD players, ton and tons of cash gifts away at an annual company talent show they have every year.

Most westerners would kill to have this good of treatment from their employer.

Of course he grew up during the Cultural Revolution dirt poor in a rural town. He used to eat dirt just to have something in his stomach. So now he tries to help people from his home town and other rural area get educated and skilled in the hopes that they will have some company loyalty. People he hires from the bigger cities usually end up just competing with him after they learn the business.

China has plenty of crappy working condition factories, but most that are large international businesses I have been to are actually pretty nice. Not as modern as say Japanese factories but slowly working towards that.

Oh and he also spent millions cleaning up the heavily polluted land surrounding the factories and building traditional Chinese gardens and lakes and clean river areas.

[Mark 2000 @ Jun 19th 2006 2:09PM]

I ordered an iPod Nano engraved a few months ago and it was shipped via fedex from - guess where - Suzhou, China. So I would just make a guess that Foxcomm is lying. And if you lie about one thing, you can lie about others.

[Jon H @ Jun 19th 2006 2:09PM]

Given the timing, I bet Creative placed a bogus story with the Daily Mail.

[Jeff J @ Jun 19th 2006 2:32PM]

Well, he might be telling a half truth. The factory might be located in a nearby neighboring city and then distributed out of Suzhou. Suzhou is China's most famous garden city and is known as China's Venice because of all the river canals that run through it, part of it seen in Tom Cruise's new MI movie. and there are a few neighboring cities with a lot of industry surrounding it and it is close to Shanghai so the factory could be in one a bunch of cities around the area. China's cities are organized very differently than western countries, especially in more rural area.

[roberto @ Jun 19th 2006 3:01PM]

what's up with the textile mill pictures?

[Simon P @ Jun 19th 2006 3:07PM]

toyota are completely to blame for the war in iraq.

[Reality Check @ Jun 19th 2006 8:37PM]

This is the biggest wanker story from the last few weeks. :D

Factories in developing countries are different to first world countries. Workers are there because they can get better wages than their home town. These factories exist so that we don't have to pay $1000/iPod to American factory workers.

There'll always be deficiencies in whatever factory one examines. But let's put it in perspective. This story doesn't deserve the sensationalism it is receiving!

[China Law Blog @ Jun 19th 2006 10:24PM]

The minimum wage is so low as to be absurd. It is interesting Foxconn is not denying the wage rates, which struck me as lower than market.

[John Henry Brown @ Jun 19th 2006 11:00PM]

No stories yet about any other company's gadget factories yet. You've had two or three on iPod factories now. I don't think you hate Apple, I just think you are very shallow. Staying with this story is just like repeating malicious gossip about the in crowd in high school.

[Tommy Mang @ Jun 20th 2006 2:56AM]

Yeah right !

[Chagrined @ Sep 19th 2006 1:02AM]

Do some research instead of prattling on! Did no one read the original article and compare it to Foxconn's denial? The original article did NOT say that Foxconn has a plant in Suzhou. They mention the manufacturer there by name (not adding it - why include another name that people can get wrong). Ergo, Foxconn's denial is a red herring, people!
The original article did mention Foxconn, but the location is down south (Suzhou is outside of Shanghai), and it also managed that Foxconn is putting millions into Suzhou (which is possible/likely, as it is the hitech centre for central coastal China).