No? You lucky one! Your iPhone is hand made by workers how are mostly between 12 and 16y old, girls and boys in Shenzhen/China (a former fisher village with 700 people, now 14 million!). They are working 75 hours a week!!! Where do I know this from? Well, I’ve attended the Mike Daisey show at the Seattle Repitition Theater and I must admit, it made me think! Thinking about our appetite for always having the newest updated version of tech pieces. Did you know that several people died due to work overload (35 hours shift working) in the last phase just before iPhones are rolled out. And what do you think: Does Steve Jobs know about this? Hmmm… what you wreckon? As an part time Apple fanboy, I felt very sad about what’s going on. Mike recommended writing an email to Steve Jobs: sjobs@apple.com and tell him what you think.
It’s not only Apple. It’s also Dell, Samsung, LG and Lenovo manufacturing in Shenzhen (by the way: nearly 50% of all our electronics come from Shenzhen and especially Foxconn).
And recently I’ve read an article on WinFuture – a German tech newspage, about the chinese manufacturer KYE. They are building hardware and doing the software packaging for Microsoft and are know as Genius (trade mark in Europe). Workers are telling stories about their working hours, living circumstances and their payments aof 50 Cent er hour. Interviewed workers are also telling that they were forced to lie when it comes to investigations by Microsoft. Read the article (in German).
Watch this interview with Mike Daisey. The interviewer is Andrew Keen from techcrunch.com. Unfortunately there is no recording of his two hour show available.
[UPDATE] Just today, I’ve found about demosntartions of workers in Taiwan who protested against htc (of course it’s not only Apple).
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPnoB4LzB8g]