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Behind slick Apple products lurk gritty facts about human costs

Thu, 01/26/2012 - 13:27 — Dave Culver
Section(s): 
Business
Labor

  • The workers in China who assemble iPhones, iPads and other Apple devices often labor in harsh conditions; problems are as varied as onerous work environments and serious — sometimes deadly — safety risks.
  • Vast, fast factories overseas is why Apple can't make iPhones here

Charles Duhigg and David Barboza,  New York (NY) Times

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The parents of Lai Xiaodong, a Foxconn Technology worker who was killed in a May explosion at an iPad factory in Chengdu, China, hold a photo of their son, in Xinsheng township. Their 22-year-old son, a college graduate, was fatally burned in the blast triggered by aluminum dust. As Lai's mother said, her son was tough: "He held on for two days" before he died. Ryan Pyle / New York (NY) Times

The explosion ripped through Building A5 on a Friday last May.
When workers in the cafeteria ran outside, they saw black smoke pouring from shattered windows. It came from the area where employees polished thousands of iPad cases a day.

Two people were killed immediately, and more than a dozen others were hurt. As the injured were rushed into ambulances, one stood out. His features had been smeared by the blast and scrubbed by heat until a mat of red and black had replaced his mouth and nose.

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Related:

Vast, fast factories overseas is why Apple can't make iPhones here, Charles Duhigg, Seattle (WA) Times
When President Obama joined Silicon Valley's top luminaries for dinner in California last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for the president.
 

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