Microsoft Mice Made in Chinese Youth Sweatshops?

An anonymous reader writes "The National Labor Committee offers an in-depth look into working conditions in Chinese sweatshops producing hardware (mice, etc.) for Microsoft, complete with pictures. Apparently, so called 'work study students,' 16 and 17 years of age, work 15-hour shifts, six and seven days a week, for around 65 cents per hour. Microsoft said it is taking the claims seriously and has 'commenced an investigation.'"

Re:Well natch MS is looking into it

[TheRaven64]

It would be really helpful to put this in perspective. In some parts of India, $1 will pay for cheap accommodation and food for a day. In other parts, it will just about get you a cup of tea. This works out to just under $10/day, which seems a pitiful amount compared to prices where I live, but how does it compare to prices there? Are they able to save enough to go to university after a couple of years, are they barely able to afford food, or is it somewhere in the middle?

Re:66 cent compared to what?

[dskzero]

Not necesarily. A chocolate bar here in Venezuela can cost 3 BsF, which is around 50c. (Of course, there is this whole deal with the exchange control, but that's another thing altogether). And packs of cigarrete cost15 BsF, which is slightly more than two dollars. 66c an hour is around 5 BsF: more or less minimum wage in Venezuela. That could mean that the whole enchilada isn't really all that alarming. Not good, but hardly different than most other companies.

Re:More companies too

[CharlieMurphy]

Unfortunately workers are often "forced to" stay at work as the employers withhold salaries to ensure the workers stick around. The workers poor education and government corruption mean there is not much the workers can do about it. There was a very well done documentary about a young girl working in a jeans factory in China which showed the terrible working and living conditions, I wish I could recall the name of it.

Re:Fact of life...

[Peganthyrus]

Robots?

Re:What?

[asdf7890]

I see pictures. I see many pictures. All contain images of smiling, happy workers, joyously engaging in their labor. What is problem?

The problem is that just out of shot is a manager who has just told them that if they don't look happy for the photos they, and anyone from their family/friends, will be sacked and never again employed by that factory or any other that the owner has connections to the owners of.

We are all to blame, let's not act surprised.

[slashsloth]

Do we have to keep pretending to be surprised every time evidence of this sort sort of a abuse is reported or published? Isn't it a fact of life that these companies are exploiting cheap labour & couldn't care less as long as we can all have cheap crap toys for half nothing? The tech industry, the textile industry, it's all built on exploitation. There's no other way we could be getting these products at the prices we do unless the labour costs were approximately 0. On top of which, these industries & their practices are as damaging to the environment as they are to the humans involved. We are all guilty here unless we demand something be done about it & that would mean stopping our mindless consumption of cheap junk.

Re:More companies too

[rsilvergun]

These are computer mice. They are useful in the production of food, shelter and other necessities of life. They are not absolutely essential to the vast mass of people. They do not need to be manufactured in the kind of quantities that require these working conditions to be profitable. You're losing site of the bigger picture, which is raising everyone's standard of living.

The hard part is looking past the indoctrination you received in grade school. Capitalism is not always right.

Re:More companies too

[t33jster]

Ok, wages are a piece of the puzzle here, but for a moment, take wage out of the equation, and consider the working conditions from TFA.

"We are like prisoners," one worker told the NLC. "It seems like we live only to work. We do not work to live. We do not live a life, only work."

I can relate to that from time to time, but when it's gotten really bad, I've been able to spruce up my resume & find a new (often better-paying) job with the skills that I've learned while 'imprisoned.' That's not the case here:

The workers - mostly women aged 18 to 25 - work from 7:45 a.m. to 10:55 p.m. They eat horrid meals from the factory cafeterias. They have no bathroom breaks during their shifts, and must clean the toilets as discipline, according to the NLC. They sleep in factory dormitories, 14 workers to a room. They must buy their own mattresses and bedding, or else sleep on 28-inch-wide plywood boards. They "shower" with a sponge and a bucket. And many of the workers, because they're young women, are regularly sexually harassed, the NLC alleges.

Add in a rich industrialist who adopts one of the spunky factory workers, sprinkle in a few production numbers, and we have Annie. Seriously though, I've worked as many hours for a week or two on end, but hey, I'm salaried, and sometimes I have to suck it up.
If they were paid whatever a reasonable wage is, then the rest of this crap wouldn't be going on. If it was a reasonable wage, then they could save up, send themselves to college & make a better life for themselves, and the factory would eventually run itself out of labor. Sweatshops don't retain employees with morale-boosting team activities or high wages. Instead employee loyalty is had by paying them just enough to maintain their state of poverty.

Re:More companies too

[dkleinsc]

It should be pointed out that the National Labor Committee's standard MO is exposing the use of foreign sweatshop labor, so that there's a significant PR cost to continuing to use this sort of labor. Sometimes they're successful in embarrassing companies into doing the right thing. Sometimes they're not. Often they're more successful in embarrassing companies into appearing to do the right thing but continuing their sleazy practices behind the scenes. Or often the company that the American firm they're embarrassing gets promised "no, no, of course we don't use sweatshop labor" by the foreign contractor, who proceeds to use sweatshop labor anyways knowing that the American firm will never check on it.

Their work is illuminating on how the push towards free trade has impacted the poorer areas of the world. It's worth thinking about when you're at Walmart, at an economics lecture, or in the voting booth.

Re:not always

[Runaway1956]

You, sir, want shadowstats.com

The real unemployment rates exceed 20%. Low figure would be ~22%, while my own figures would be closer to 30%.

Re:not always

[gtall]

Ah, the old "it's a conspiracy" theory. The problem for the U.S. isn't the conspiracy you are so certain exists. The problem is Business School Product that make local decisions to outsource, insource, wtf-source to increase their particular bottom line. The macro effect is hollowing out the middle class in the U.S. while it is helping to create a middle class in China.

The fatcats are not out to break the middle class, there is nothing in that attitude for them. They are breaking the middle class out of sheer stupidity and immediate gain for themselves without realizing that in the end, it will take them out too.

The result might be the same, but you need to readjust the tin-foil a bit and learn how economies work.

Some numbers for everyone

[poity]

I worked in a small city in China last year (Shaoxing - a leading textile manufacturing area south of Shanghai)
Exchange rate with USD is 6.8 at the moment.
So 0.65USD x 6.8 x 9hr/day = about ¥40 a day. Times 6 days a week is about ¥950 per month, which is typical.

Typical income for a local office worker is ¥1500 to ¥2000 per month, ¥800-1200 for a migrant or factory worker.
Compare that to a relative of mine who owns an export business in the city, he makes around $20000 per month (USD and 4 zeros) after deducting office wages, expenses, and bribes -- which are partially offset by the 13% tax return he gets as subsidy for his branch of export.
He's still a small player compared to the larger business owners in the city.

Some numbers on the cost of living (relevant as of february of this year):
Average apartment (the minimum quality that a city local would tolerate) - ¥1000
Shitty apartment (the min quality that a migrant worker would tolerate - bare concrete, at least 5 to a bathroom)- ¥500
Domestic rice - ¥4/kg bulk
Imported oatmeal - a little under ¥30/kg packaged
Domestic oatmeal - under ¥20/kg packaged
Cabbage - ¥1.5 per half kilo (1.1lbs)
Bokchoy - ¥3 per half kilo
Tomatoes - ¥3.5 per half kilo
Eggs - ¥3.5 per half kilo
Pork - ¥6 to ¥18 per half kilo depending on cut
KFC (the most popular fast food) - ¥6 per piece of fried chicken, ¥15 for sandwich combo meal with small drink and fries
Chinese-style fast food meal (cafeteria style food that office people get during lunch) - ¥12 for a hygienic place (maybe pass inspection if in the USA), ¥6 for a place that at least wipes the tables, ¥1.50 for rice and cabbage.
You typically have to buy your own health insurance, and even then a hospital checkup would cost ¥40 to ¥100.
City buses are ¥1, or ¥0.8 if you buy a pass.
Cheap cell phone plan is about ¥100/month

As ratios of monthly income, it's apparent that comfortable wages for the average citizen have a long way to go.

what you said

[zogger]

Sure, if it gets ultra bad wherever they are at some time, even with their tame armed lackey protectors, official badged or private, they go to their other mansion in nation x,y or z. They are internationalists, not particularly loyal to any nation or people, they just don't care, psychopathic. Other humans to them are *prey animals", they go to where the human hunting and exploitation is the easiest, and they have the most "legal" protection, as in, the local warlord/governmental goofball/some authority figure is in their pocket, etc. And that's what helos and business jets are for, just in case they need to flee someplace else. "Laws" mostly apply to serfs and slaves after all.