CNN manufacturing stories once again?

[Moliere]

The 34 hour shift story is definitely newsworthy, although the CUF doctors probably don't have as much sympathy as you or I might.

Hmmm....where was the news story on every one of my freakin' busy seasons for the past 6 years? TIC

[Indy Coug]

Hmmm....where was the news story on every one of my freakin' busy seasons for the past 6 years? TIC

I'm glad I've never experienced anything more than a 20 hour work day.

[Surfah]

Where does it say it's abnormal compared to other factories? I see a quote from a protester saying it's abnormal but there is no mention of that abnormality being compared to other factories. No where in those articles are we shown the rate compared to other factories, only the rate compared to China as a whole

I know. I didn't say it did. I was asking if like factories were a better yardstick than China as a whole.

[Indy Coug]

I know. I didn't say it did. I was asking if like factories were a better yardstick than China as a whole.

I don't know enough about other Chinese factories as far as

1. Size
2. Demographics
3. Mortality experience

goes. I do know that measuring a partial year worth of exposure for 300,000 employees for an event with a expected likelihood of 0.014% of happening to a given person in a year is not going to yield reliable conclusions.

[Surfah]

I don't know enough about other Chinese factories as far as

1. Size
2. Demographics
3. Mortality experience

goes. I do know that measuring a partial year worth of exposure for 300,000 employees for an event with a expected likelihood of 0.014% of happening to a given person in a year is not going to yield reliable conclusions.

Right. I get that. I am just posing the question if we had complete data.

[Uncle Ted]

Good news everyone...
China iPhone plant workers get a 30% raise.

[Indy Coug]

Good news everyone...
China iPhone plant workers get a 30% raise.

That's thanks to the new iPhone data pricing plan.

[Uncle Ted]

That's thanks to the new iPhone data pricing plan.

Yeah, no kidding.

[Moliere]

That's thanks to the new iPhone data pricing plan.

Which new data plan will save me $5 a month.....


Sorry I couldn't resist

[Moliere]

I'm glad I've never experienced anything more than a 20 hour work day.

I never "worked through the night" per se, but I had a string of consecutive weeks in 2006 where I was working from 7am to 2am (taking into consideration a 45 minute commute each way that leaves very little time for sleep). Thankfully I rested on the Sabbath, which means I only put in an 8 hour day.

[Indy Coug]

IMO, this story is a byproduct of China becoming more self-aware in how it fits in the developed world. That includes how its workers are treated, compensated, etc. etc.

It goes without saying that their working conditions and compensation are abysmal by the standards of every other major economic power. This topic is being seized upon is nothing more than a reflection of that angst.

This is another example of what I'm talking about here.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapc....html?hpt=Sbin

[Clark Addison]

This thread is probably as good a place to put this as any.

A lot of the heat that has been on Apple, Foxconn, and China manufacturing in general lately has come because of a segment on "This American Life" from a few months back called "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory". In the piece, Mike Daisey, who describes himself in the piece as an extreme Apple fanboy, tells about going to China to look into Apple's manufacturing practices, and finding some very unsavory things, mostly at Foxconn. I thought we had discussed this episode here, but couldn't find it.

This week, "This American Life" will retract that story, and spend their entire show detailing the errors. This is obviously a big black eye for TAL (of which I am a big fan). To their credit they did a decent amount of fact-checking of the story when it originally aired, with one major exception. Because of that fact checking, as well as the story itself, I was not a fan of the story when it first aired, for many reasons, including some that I no longer recall. The ones I do recall include:

• I was never impressed with Daisey. He seemed like a guy trying to sell something rather than a guy trying to be honest, and what he was trying to sell was his show (he performs a one-man show about his trip). If he was really a fanboy, wouldn't he give an honest view and Apple's side of the story
• For example, he talked quite a bit about the suicides, never mentioning that the rate was not only lower, but quite a bit lower than China's average (the TAL fact-checkers did mention this)
• He said several things that didn't make sense. One example was that he talked about how controlling Foxconn was of their workers, and how terrified they were of the company. In a different section, he talked about how high the turnover rate was (attempting to show what a bad place to work it was) If a worker can walk out of a place anytime they want, and they do in fact do that, then the place probably shouldn't be compared to a totalitarian state. I'm not saying Foxconn is a workers' paradise, but you can't on one hand say "Workers are left no alternative except suicide", and on the other hand say "Thousands of people quit every day".
• A LOT of his story was based on anecdote. You could find enough disgruntled employees of just about any company in the world and do a piece about how terrible that company is. It's just not that convincing to me.
• He was willing to give no credit at all to the good that companies like Apple do in raising the standard of living. I'm fine with holding Apple's feet to the fire, but you can't condemn them for everything bad that is done while ignoring everything positive.
• He painted with a very broad brush. He blamed Apple for things that went on at other places altogether.

In the end, the problem with the story went far beyond my concerns at the time. TAL's biggest place where they dropped the ball was when they believed Daisey's claim that he couldn't contact his translator, who had been with him during the whole trip. A correspondent from "Marketplace" found her, and she said that a large part of his story was simply untrue.

Here is a story on the retraction:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/...175638428.html

Here is TAL's press release:

http://www.chicagopublicmedia.org/si...se%20Final.pdf

[Moliere]

This thread is probably as good a place to put this as any.

A lot of the heat that has been on Apple, Foxconn, and China manufacturing in general lately has come because of a segment on "This American Life" from a few months back called "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory". In the piece, Mike Daisey, who describes himself in the piece as an extreme Apple fanboy, tells about going to China to look into Apple's manufacturing practices, and finding some very unsavory things, mostly at Foxconn. I thought we had discussed this episode here, but couldn't find it.

This week, "This American Life" will retract that story, and spend their entire show detailing the errors. This is obviously a big black eye for TAL (of which I am a big fan). To their credit they did a decent amount of fact-checking of the story when it originally aired, with one major exception. Because of that fact checking, as well as the story itself, I was not a fan of the story when it first aired, for many reasons, including some that I no longer recall. The ones I do recall include:

• I was never impressed with Daisey. He seemed like a guy trying to sell something rather than a guy trying to be honest, and what he was trying to sell was his show (he performs a one-man show about his trip). If he was really a fanboy, wouldn't he give an honest view and Apple's side of the story
• For example, he talked quite a bit about the suicides, never mentioning that the rate was not only lower, but quite a bit lower than China's average (the TAL fact-checkers did mention this)
• He said several things that didn't make sense. One example was that he talked about how controlling Foxconn was of their workers, and how terrified they were of the company. In a different section, he talked about how high the turnover rate was (attempting to show what a bad place to work it was) If a worker can walk out of a place anytime they want, and they do in fact do that, then the place probably shouldn't be compared to a totalitarian state. I'm not saying Foxconn is a workers' paradise, but you can't on one hand say "Workers are left no alternative except suicide", and on the other hand say "Thousands of people quit every day".
• A LOT of his story was based on anecdote. You could find enough disgruntled employees of just about any company in the world and do a piece about how terrible that company is. It's just not that convincing to me.
• He was willing to give no credit at all to the good that companies like Apple do in raising the standard of living. I'm fine with holding Apple's feet to the fire, but you can't condemn them for everything bad that is done while ignoring everything positive.
• He painted with a very broad brush. He blamed Apple for things that went on at other places altogether.

In the end, the problem with the story went far beyond my concerns at the time. TAL's biggest place where they dropped the ball was when they believed Daisey's claim that he couldn't contact his translator, who had been with him during the whole trip. A correspondent from "Marketplace" found her, and she said that a large part of his story was simply untrue.

Here is a story on the retraction:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/...175638428.html

Here is TAL's press release:

http://www.chicagopublicmedia.org/si...se%20Final.pdf

I listened to "Retraction" on my way into work today. What a mess for TAL and this Daisey guy. FTR, I'm a big fan of TAL and will continue to listen to their show, but wow did they drop the ball on this one.

I came away from the Retraction episode almost convinced that Ira originally knew the Apple episode would be a huge hit (which it was as I think it is the most downloaded show ever) and that probably led to some of the shortcuts in fact checking.

[Dwight Schr-ute]

It just all a big "out of context" misunderstanding.