Nickname: piaairline

Review: There's another high-tech sweatshop in the U.S. - the Universities. Foreign students who come to the U.S. for post-graduate studies or postdoctoral are usually paid by the professor. Their visas are 'sponsored' by the professors. In some situations, the professor would pressure the student/postdoc to work up to 60-80 hrs per week. If the student refuses to cooperate, the visa will not be renewed or the assistanship will be voided. The universities are not monitoring such abuse carefully, since more work translates to more papers published, ultimately benefiting the universities.

Date reviewed: Oct 6, 2009 7:51 AM

Nickname: ManInChina

Review: Instead of reading a hundred books, it is better to walk a thousand miles . . .so the Chinese said. Today's China is fluid and agile. Worker turnover is fast and fiery. The days of docile pleasant's workers are over. Three months of working in sweatshops to familarize themselves with city life and they will be gone to a better life. Wages are rising at compound rates. Do not judge through your looking glass so far.

Date reviewed: Jun 27, 2006 7:44 PM

Nickname: oooo

Review: This is not a human rights advocating website. I don't see any relationship between this news and business. Organ transplant was reported in China, aimed at calling a stop to those behaviors. The Chinese were surprised too that such things exist. If you wanna comment on it, don't say, this country, that country. Do you like anybody saying America is too dangerous because I saw onTV a student killed his classmates with a gun? It's nothing related to the country. It's personal behavior.

Date reviewed: Jun 19, 2006 3:10 PM

Nickname: China Law Blog

Review: Forget whether Apple was paying minimum wage (I don't know one way the other). The wage Apple appears to have been paying is quite a bit less than is commonly paid by Western companies in that part of China. Quite a bit less.

Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 8:56 PM

Nickname: Martin A.

Review: It's not just the factories. "Corporate globaliztion" reaches the peasant farmers in yet another shocking way that I learned about in a draft of a new book, "The World is Flat?" which is a critical analysis of Thomas Friedmans cheerleading for "corporate free trade" versus fair trade that accounts for the workers and environment as well. Its authors, Ron Aronica and Mtetwa Ramdoo, provide some real eye openers.

Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 3:52 AM

Nickname: glim

Review: Just want to say that this story is not a surprise at all. With a government like China, the safety and welfare of his people are the least of their concerns as long as the officials are making tons of money to send their kids overseas and live like nobles. When companies like IBM, Apple and HP expand into China, they already have sacrifice the local people and jobs. I know someone is going to say that companies need to be competitive to stay in business, however, what value do you put on human lives and livelihood. A country like China does not care about everybody else. Just look at the CNN report recently about how they have created a new industry of supply organs to people who needs transplant by selectively killing off criminals and turn their organs to whoever can afford to pay.

Date reviewed: Jun 16, 2006 7:39 PM

Nickname: egological monk

Review: Knowing these details is the growing ethical necessity for the responsible consumer. A "global village" view includes, as was mentioned, the effects on both those abroad and ourselves. When we begin to purchase and live with this new sort of understanding, by a logic of long-term and long-distance effects, we will be ushered appropriately into the opportune phenomenon called glocalization. I'm happy to see such awareness, including my own, spreading this way.

Date reviewed: Jun 16, 2006 5:41 AM

Nickname: BeijingMan

Review: This is not only about Chinese workers. Local management often use their situation to catch that big fish. More http://beijingman.blogspot.com

Date reviewed: Jun 16, 2006 3:12 AM

Nickname: Steve

Review: Mr. Burrows, I enjoyed your story on high tech sweatshops. Not only do they exist, but they are thriving. And there is no shortage of workers eager to fill a vacant bed in that 100 person canteen, however inhumane it might seem to us. The issue I have with your story, is this one sentence, "Most are focused on helping suppliers and manufacturers improve working conditions, rather than on punishing them by withholding contracts, which, after all, hurts workers most of all." It misunderstands the basic economic principle of manufacturing in China, which is that you make money through volume. So how is it fair to threaten to pull contracts and make expensive demands on the factories when it is they who take the profit? It only paves the way for blackmail.

Date reviewed: Jun 16, 2006 2:21 AM

Nickname: Harry

Review: Thanks for the tip! I plan to put these downsized sweatshop people in China to work for me.

Date reviewed: Jun 15, 2006 9:26 PM