iPhones at Foxconn built, in part, by 13 year-olds working 16 hr/day for 70¢/hr

I can make direct comparisons to the everyday reality seen in one American factory. Sure, I'm the sysadmin, but I'm responsible for all the computers on the shop floor, among other things. There's not a soul out there I don't know, and I've seen what things are like when they work until 7 AM the next day to finish things.

Here's how these conditions measure up:

* 12 hr shifts normal, 14-16 hour shifts common? Ouch. They must be at capacity. Sure, the guys have seen 70+ hour weeks of heavy labor and 20 hour days, but they're not that common, and they usually get their full weekend. Sure, it's normal that workers stand, but that's what makes working a shift that long so brutal (as well as heavy lifting & heat/cold). And I'm sure they don't have ergonomic mats to stand on in China.

* Inspections known in advance? That would be normal. You should expect them to spend roughly the week before the inspection trying to look good.

* Management clueless about what's really going on? Normal.

* Unions are illegal in China? Wow. I thought they were, you know, Communists or something. This being a "Right to Work" state, I've never dealt with unions either.

* Kids working under-age? Don't see that here. Your average US shop floor factory worker is an HS-dropout or ex-con (or both). Nobody works there because they want to and the burn-out rate is usually pretty high. In a good economy, it would be ~15% turnover per month, though that goes down almost to zero when jobs are scarce. I'm sure they need the money, but I sure wouldn't want to see kids needing to do that sort of thing. US workers make roughly 10-15x as much, depending on experience, though I don't know how the buying power compares.

* Worker dorms? We've only ever joked about sleeping in the parking lot after really long days. I thought those went out of style here centuries ago.

* Workers burn out really fast here, too. But we have Workman's Comp for those who get injured and MSDS sheets & safety gear for anyone handling dangerous chemicals. The Chinese are getting completely screwed here if they're getting injured and tossed aside.

* "One man got his hand crushed in a metal press at Foxconn. Foxconn did not give him medical attention." That sort of thing does happen here, except that you get medical attention. Oddly enough, I gave someone medical attention for almost the same injury not too long ago. His hand just needed a few stitches. He did return to work on light duty the next day, though.

* Here, they just send you home if you're getting too much OT and they complain about how long things take, even if their estimates were totally unreasonable. I've never seen anyone get blacklisted or anything like that.

In short, we have it a lot better here, but there are quite a few things that need improvement. The Chinese are really getting screwed on the safety side of things. I don't know if factories are ever truly safe, but you can do a lot better than that.

There are companies that are committed to manufacturing in the US, despite the effect on their profit margin.

Every Mag Instrument flashlight, no matter where in the world it ends up, comes from a factory located in the U.S.A. and staffed by American workers

http://www.maglite.com/mag_commitment.asp

While the working hours are ridiculous, a couple things to keep perspective:

- It's sensational to focus on an absolute value of 70 cents while ignoring the buying power of 70 cents in China. This still isn't a very good wage, but the cost of living differences are huge; 70 cents should probably be likened to the minimum wage in the U.S. (i.e. think "equivalent to a few dollars an hour" not "pennies" as the article might have you believe). You can Google several cost-of-living comparisons between China and the U.S.

- A huge number of tech companies rely on Foxconn; this is not unique to iPhones nor is it new. So mention of the iPhone is, again, sensational; this manufacturing issue is pervasive.