Posted in Economics & Globalization, Technology & Science, tagged advantage, affluence, Americans, animals, Apple, auto industry, best practices, bottom line, brand-name, buying power, capitalists, CEOs, China, Chinese, Coach handbags, coffee, conscious consumerism, consumer, controversy, corporations, cost effective, cost savings, country of origin, deindustrialization, Dollar, dysfunctional, Economics & Globalization, efficiency, electronics, exploitation, export, factory, fair trade, Forbes, Foxconn, free trade, globalism, goods, Green, Honda, human rights, import, industrial policy, investment, iPad, iPhone, labor, level the playing field, local, loss, made in America, manufacturer, mark-up, market, marketplace, markup, MBAs, middle class, myth, name-brand, New York Times, non-GMO, outsource, overseas, PC, perils of a service economy, policy, premium, price hikes, private enterprise, products, profitability, profitable, protectionism, race to the bottom, rational self interest, reconceptualize, relocalization, renegotiate, responsibility, shame, shifts, shop, shrinking, slave, social contract, solutions, Southeast Asia, standards, Steve Jobs, store-brand, suicides, sustainable, sweatshop, symbiotic, target market, taxes, Technology & Science, Third World, Toyota, trade, underpaid, US, vanity pricing, wealth, workers, zoo on January 31, 2012|
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The secret is out: Apple has a worm inching its way through its corporate flesh. January was a tough month on the Cupertino, California company venerated for its innovation and vision.
The controversy emerged when an Apple contractor in China, a manufacturing facility known as Foxconn where many brand-name electronics are assembled largely by hand, made headlines when dozens of workers threatened to jump to their deaths over a labor dispute. Foxconn’s solution? Erect netting beneath roofs and windows.
It doesn’t end there. For 12-hour shifts, six-days-per week and a live-in lifestyle workers allegedly earn just $17, the New York Times reports. Forbes and PC Magazine added their own angle to the news. One such detail described a high-level manager who, at a Chinese zoo, asked a zookeeper to provide advice on how to deal with his workers, drawing a direct comparison between factory workers and undomesticated animals. It gets worse. A NYT piece, “In China, Human Costs are Built into iPad“, refers to two dozen accidental worker deaths that have occurred as a result of unsafe working conditions. Finally, in “This American Life” the narrator of “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory” recounts a first-hand meetup with underage Chinese workers, among scores of others who suffer permanent neurological tremors and ticks as a consequence of over-exposure to a chemical toxin.
For all the outrage, many argue such are the inescapable growing pains of a Third World labor force “coming up”. At one time, the United States, too, was known for worker exploitation, a chief reason child labor laws gained traction and unions became a bulwark against corrupt and abusive management practices. And yet, even at the height of the union movement in the US such organizations represented only a fraction of the workforce. Nonetheless, what began as labor negotiating with management to build a viable American middle class has transformed in recent decades to its polar opposite: a perception that unions destroy American prosperity.
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Posted in Economics & Globalization, Media & Social Media, tagged academic costs, advice, agency, ailing economy, American, Americans, analysis, Ann Pace, back to school, Belle Wheelan, campuses, career, career change, cashier, cashiers, child, college, commission, competitiveness, continuing education, cost of going to school, create jobs, credential, critical, curriculum, Curt Eysink, customer service agents, degree, diminish, director, editorial, education, educational loans, electrician, employ, employment insecurity, engineering, fields, fluke, forecasts, foreign, foreigners, Forgotten MiddleSkill Jobs, future, genius to succeed, globalization, governor, grad students, grades, Great Recession, growth projections, growth sector, H-1B, H1B, hands-on, higher education system, hire, home health aids, hope for, income, industry, inshore, insource, internationalize, invest, IQ, Jan Moller, Jindal, Joe the Plumber, labor, labor department, lobby attendants, loss, Louisiana, Louisiana Workforce Commission, low wage, machinist, math, mechanic, middle class, middle skill jobs, national outlook, New York Times, nobel winners, not enough, occupation, offshore, options, outsource, outweigh benefits, panacea, Ph.D, plumber, politically correct, prospects, public, reality check, reforming, report, representatives, requiring, right decision, rude awakening, schools, science, secretary, security, seeing red, seekers, service, service sector, should I return to school, silver lining, skilled, skilled labor, Skills2Compete, skillset, social contract, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, stability, standard of living, states, statistics, STEM, student lending, student loan bubble, students, study, survey, Susan Hockfield, technical, Technology & Science, the bell curve, ticket-takers, Tom Friedman, too few, too many, too many four year graduates, trade, trends, truth about, U.S., undercut, unemployable, unemployed, United States, university, unpopular view, untouchables, visas, vocational, wages, where are the jobs, workers, workforce, Workforce Alliance, worthwhile on November 9, 2009|
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Curt Eysink is an unpopular man.
Less than three months after assuming his post as executive director of the Louisiana Workforce Commission, he told a panel charged with overhauling the state’s higher education system: “We’re producing a workforce that we cannot employ in Louisiana.”
The problem? Too many four-year college grads and not enough low-skill and vocational trade workers.
Where is the job growth?
The service industry.
“[O]ccupational forecasts that show the state will produce 10,312 more four-year graduates than there are jobs to fill between 2008 and 2016, while at the same time there are 3,892 more jobs available requiring associates’ or technical degrees than there are people to fill them, ” reports Jan Moller of the Times Picayune.
Fairly or not, such news equates in Americans’ minds with sub par wages. And low-wage prospects make Americans see red.
“If I saw the strongest growth area was ushers, lobby attendants and ticket-takers, I’d leave Louisiana too,” said Belle Wheelan, president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
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