Karl Marx discusses the concepts of alienation and exploitation of labor. Alienation is a person’s experience of feeling alien or foreign in the work place. In the article “Estranged Labour”, Marx says, “he is at home when he is not working, and when he is working he is not at home. His labour is therefore not voluntary, but coerced; it is forced labor (74).” People feel separated from work, the product of work, coworkers, and their self. People are one way at the workplace and another when they go home. Exploitation happens when the owner of production decides the amount of hours a person works and the amount they receive in wages are unequal.
Horrible conditions that employees ensue at outsourced factories are an example of the effect of alienation and exploitation. In the year 2010, iPhone makers in China that worked in the Foxconn technology group factory had a series of workers that committed suicide by jumping from the top of the building. The workers felt that they had no other escape from the conditions they were put in at work. Workers spend almost twenty four hours on their feet working in the same spot while not allowed to speak to fellow coworkers, and barely have any rest areas.
Two years later conditions in these factories show that nothing has really changed. In the CNN article “Apple manufacturing plant workers complain of long hours, militant culture”, by Chi Chi Zhang, explains that even after two years of the horrific incident, the work environment had not changed. Zhang interviews a worker named Chen, who had never even seen the finished product of the iPad. This worker already knows that she has no chance of being able to afford the price of the iPad for the amount of money that she makes working at the factory. The worker is being exploited in the work place. The routinization of the work makes the worker not feel like a human being. Chen says “everyday is like: I get off from work and I go to bed. I get up in the morning, and I go to work. It is my daily routine and I almost feel like an animal” (Zhang, 2012). There is no relation to the product. It is simply a job for the workers, and as long as they follow the rules they will not be penalized. Foxconns policy is that if they do not like working there they can leave. Even though workers do not like working there, the need for the job means that they are under the control of the company. Chen is a college student who is working at the factory temporarily. She cannot wait to leave the factory and continue on with her studies. What about the others who do not have the luxury of leaving? Although Foxconn says that they have added counseling and made the factory a better work environment, the alienation and exploitation is clearly still there. The workers will have to continue working there to make whatever living they can make in order to survive.
Zhang, C. C. (2012, 02 06). Apple manufacturing plant workers complain of long hours, militant culture. CNN. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/06/world/asia/china-apple-foxconn-worker/index.html
Horrible conditions that employees ensue at outsourced factories are an example of the effect of alienation and exploitation. In the year 2010, iPhone makers in China that worked in the Foxconn technology group factory had a series of workers that committed suicide by jumping from the top of the building. The workers felt that they had no other escape from the conditions they were put in at work. Workers spend almost twenty four hours on their feet working in the same spot while not allowed to speak to fellow coworkers, and barely have any rest areas.
Two years later conditions in these factories show that nothing has really changed. In the CNN article “Apple manufacturing plant workers complain of long hours, militant culture”, by Chi Chi Zhang, explains that even after two years of the horrific incident, the work environment had not changed. Zhang interviews a worker named Chen, who had never even seen the finished product of the iPad. This worker already knows that she has no chance of being able to afford the price of the iPad for the amount of money that she makes working at the factory. The worker is being exploited in the work place. The routinization of the work makes the worker not feel like a human being. Chen says “everyday is like: I get off from work and I go to bed. I get up in the morning, and I go to work. It is my daily routine and I almost feel like an animal” (Zhang, 2012). There is no relation to the product. It is simply a job for the workers, and as long as they follow the rules they will not be penalized. Foxconns policy is that if they do not like working there they can leave. Even though workers do not like working there, the need for the job means that they are under the control of the company. Chen is a college student who is working at the factory temporarily. She cannot wait to leave the factory and continue on with her studies. What about the others who do not have the luxury of leaving? Although Foxconn says that they have added counseling and made the factory a better work environment, the alienation and exploitation is clearly still there. The workers will have to continue working there to make whatever living they can make in order to survive.
Zhang, C. C. (2012, 02 06). Apple manufacturing plant workers complain of long hours, militant culture. CNN. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/06/world/asia/china-apple-foxconn-worker/index.html