Daily Lessons from Life 30 March 2012 - Apple supplier Foxconn cuts working hours, workers ask why

"Apple supplier Foxconn cuts working hours, workers ask why - Reuters 30 March 2012

LONGHUA - When Chinese worker Wu Jun heard that her employer, the giant electronics assembly company Foxconn, had given employees landmark concessions her reaction was worry, not elation.

Wu, 23, is one of tens of thousands of migrants from the poor countryside who staff the production lines of Foxconn's plant in Longhua, in southern China, which spits out made-to-order products for Apple Inc and other multinationals.

Foxconn's concessions, including cutting overtime for its 1.2 million mainland Chinese workers while promising compensation that protects them against losing income, were backed by Apple, which has faced criticism and media scrutiny for worker safety lapses and for using relatively low-paid employees to make high-cost phones, computers and other gadgets.

But at the Foxconn factory gates, many workers seemed unconvinced that their pay wouldn't be cut along with their hours. For some Chinese factory workers - who make much of their income from long hours of overtime - the idea of less work for the same pay could take getting used to.

"We are worried we will have less money to spend. Of course, if we work less overtime, it would mean less money," said Wu, a 23-year-old employee from Hunan province in south China."

Finally Apple has acted like a big company. With a bit of heart. Unlike its co-founder and famed ex-CEO Steve Jobs who is not bothered with its sub-contractor's problems! OK. I should not bad-mouthed a dead man since he could not defend himself. The man was a super talented guy in putting technology togethher and do great marketing and sales job. And made a lot of shareholders rich and his employees rich.

Lessons for me are:

1. what is the BIGGER purpose of work? To make money to spend. To make money to make life better by acquiring more material stuffs? The workers have to decide. What they make money for. Really.

2. how about the big guys in Apple and its shareholders? It it wrong to focus on profit from 'great' products made at the cheaper cost? Why should Apple be concerned with sub-contractors' workers when the workers are not directly employed by Apple? Maybe Apple can don't care if only the bothersome human right group in the USA stop pestering them. These are good money in China. The workers' concerns about not getting more work time and hence lower pay show that the human right activists got it all wrong! Yes? :-)

3. 1.2m workers. Has any company ever command such a large workforce besides WalMart at its peak? It is not easy to run such a big workforce and on a % basis, the 10 or 20 suicides in Foxconn factories over the last few years are really insignificant. Also what were the circumstances of those cases? Were they related to harsh working conditions and long working hours? Really? I am sure there are abuses but then again like what Steve Jobs said: I may be rough with my people but it surely can't be that bad as these are smart people who could have left and easily get top jobs in other companies. That fact that they stay means that they don't feel brutalized!

Will Foxconn make more money from Apple? Will Apple make less money from its customers? Will Apple's customers be willing to pay for the Foxconn's workers? That will be the test!