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Manufacturing (General issues)

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71 Articles and Resources. Go to: [Next 21]

Date	Fairness.com Resource	Read it at:
Mar 04, 2013	List Price = Joke Price: 4 Examples of How Original Prices Are Meaningless QUOTE: ...JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson came clean about how the store’s original prices were fake prices cooked up mainly to make the inevitable markdowns seem more impressive and tempting to shoppers. The strategy is known as “price anchoring,” and it’s standard practice....While the new system sounded great to many consumer advocates, it proved to be a failure with shoppers...	Time Magazine
Dec 01, 2012	As Companies Seek Tax Deals, Governments Pay High Price QUOTE: states, counties and cities are giving up more than $80 billion each year to companies. The beneficiaries come from virtually every corner of the corporate world, encompassing oil and coal conglomerates, technology and entertainment companies, banks and big-box retail chains. The cost of the awards is certainly far higher....A portrait arises of mayors and governors who are desperate to create jobs, outmatched by multinational corporations and short on tools to fact-check what companies tell them....Many of the officials said they feared that companies would move jobs overseas if they did not get subsidies in the United States. Over the years, corporations have increasingly exploited that fear, creating a high-stakes bazaar where they pit local officials against one another to get the most lucrative packages.	New York Times
Aug 14, 2012	Factory owners: Federal prisoners stealing our business QUOTE: Unicor is a government-run enterprise that employs over 13,000 inmates -- at wages as low as 23 cents an hour -- to make goods for the Pentagon and other federal agencies....If Unicor wants a contract, it gets it.	CNN/Money Magazine
Mar 18, 2012	Apple and the Daisey affair QUOTE: The show, which cast a harsh light on the working conditions in the Chinese factories....We now know, thanks to follow-up reporting by Rob Schmitz at American Public Media's Marketplace, that Daisey's monologue -- as he reluctantly admits -- was a piece of theater, not a factual report.	CNN (Cable News Network)
Jan 25, 2012	In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad QUOTE: workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labor in harsh conditions, according to employees inside those plants, worker advocates and documents published by companies themselves. Problems are as varied as onerous work environments and serious — sometimes deadly — safety problems....More than half of the suppliers audited by Apple have violated at least one aspect of the code of conduct every year since 2007, according to Apple’s reports, and in some instances have violated the law.	New York Times
Nov 13, 2011	Disruptions: The 3-D Printing Free-for-All QUOTE: People can download plans for an object, hit print, and a few minutes later have it in their hands. Call it the Industrial Revolution 2.0. Not only will it change the nature of manufacturing, but it will further challenge our concept of ownership and copyright.	New York Times
Sep 02, 2011	Group Says It Has New Evidence of Cisco’s Misdeeds in China QUOTE: An advocacy group that accuses Cisco Systems of aiding the Chinese government in monitoring and apprehending members of the banned Falun Gong organization said Friday that it had new evidence to suggest that Cisco specifically tailored its technology for that purpose.	New York Times
Jul 12, 2011	Rush to Defend Tax Rule on Inventory and Profits QUOTE: the LIFO proposal — supported by the president’s deficit-reduction commission — would simplify the tax code and establish a standard method of calculating the cost of items that a company sells....at first glance the LIFO proposal looked like “an easy source of revenue.” But, he said, “it taxes illusory income, phantom profits that result from inflation.”	New York Times
Apr 20, 2011	Concern Grows Over Window Blind Safety QUOTE: Critics of the industry complain that manufacturers have dragged their feet on addressing safety hazards for decades, making minor tweaks or putting the onus on parents to shorten cords or buy tie-down devices... “What they are really trying to do is reach a low price point.”	New York Times
Jul 01, 2010	The ignominious fall of Dell: Dell may never recover from the revelation that it sold faulty PCs -- and then blamed its customers QUOTE: what we've learned about Dell recently doesn't qualify as an understandable mistake. Only a rotten company sells defective computers and lies about it.	InfoWorld
May 27, 2010	F.D.A. Weighs Penalties in Drug Recall QUOTE: [The FDA] is considering further actions against McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the Johnson & Johnson unit, after a pattern of violations in manufacturing and quality control practices led to a number of recent recalls...	New York Times
May 20, 2010	Groups spar over car black boxes as Congress mulls auto safety bill QUOTE: A proposal to equip all new cars with "black boxes" to record crash data...But automakers and safety advocates disagree over the extent of the data the devices should collect and over the extent they should be able to survive the worst of crashes.	Washington Post
Feb 04, 2010	Revolving Door: From US Safety Agency to Toyota Representative: Federal Investigations of Runaway Toyotas Excluded Most Serious Cases After NHTSA Official Is Hired by Car Company QUOTE: Federal safety investigators agreed to exclude reports of the most serious cases of alleged "runaway Toyotas" after the intervention of a former safety official hired to be a Washington, D.C. representative of Toyota...	ABC News
Sep 19, 2009	Plugged-In Age Feeds a Hunger for Electricity (By Degrees) QUOTE: efforts to cover consumer electronics [in electrical efficiency rules] like televisions and game consoles have been repeatedly derailed by manufacturers worried about the higher cost of meeting the standards.	New York Times
Dec 20, 2008	Some Say UAW's Sacrifices Look More Like Surrender QUOTE: But with the announcement of the federal loan deal yesterday, the union found itself being forced into concessions that some described as tantamount to surrender....But with the announcement of the federal loan deal yesterday, the union found itself being forced into concessions that some described as tantamount to surrender....	Washington Post
Dec 12, 2008	Auto Bailout Talks Collapse as Senate Deadlocks Over Wages: Without a Deal, Carmakers Face Bankruptcy Threat QUOTE: The legislation would have provided emergency loans to General Motors and Chrysler, which have said they face imminent collapse without federal help. The high-stakes talks broke down over when the wages of union workers would be slashed to the same level as those paid to nonunion workers at U.S. plants of foreign automakers...	Washington Post
Dec 09, 2008	Car Dealers Brace for Closings, or for a Fight, as Detroit Seeks Help QUOTE: It is possible fights could erupt between some dealers and the auto companies. Virtually every state has stringent laws that make it difficult for manufacturers to alter dealer contracts, even when they abandon brands, as General Motors is talking about doing. These laws have been a big impediment to auto companies in the past as they sought to cut their dealer networks.	New York Times
Nov 26, 2008	Dumb And Dumber--And Dumbest QUOTE: the inexplicably callous, clueless and trust-destructing behavior we have recently seen from so many big businesses that have been central players in this unprecedented economic meltdown.	Forbes
Jul 03, 2008	The Struggles of Detroit Ensnare Its Workers QUOTE: Their pickups and sport utility vehicles are not selling, and now General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler have to pay thousands of auto workers not to make them. With more than 15 of their assembly plants across the country set to be idled or slowed because of shift cutbacks, the Detroit automakers will temporarily lay off upward of 25,000 auto workers this summer and fall. Because of their union contracts, G.M., Ford and Chrysler are obligated to pay workers more than half of their regular take-home wages, plus health benefits, with state unemployment benefits picking up a portion of the rest.	New York Times
May 25, 2008	Safety Lapses Raised Risks In Trailers for Katrina Victims: Formaldehyde Found in High Levels; 17,000 Say Homes Caused Illnesses QUOTE: Today, industry and government experts depict the rushed procurement and construction as key failures that may have triggered a public health catastrophe among the more than 300,000 people, many of them children, who lived in FEMA homes.	Washington Post
Apr 27, 2008	Studies on Chemical In Plastics Questioned: Congress Examines Role Of Industry in Regulation QUOTE: Despite more than 100 published studies by government scientists and university laboratories that have raised health concerns about a chemical compound that is central to the multibillion-dollar plastics industry, the Food and Drug Administration has deemed it safe largely because of two studies, both funded by an industry trade group.	Washington Post
Feb 25, 2008	This Pill Not To Be Taken With Competition: How Collusion Is Keeping Generic Drugs Off the Shelves QUOTE: ...one simple approach could save consumers billions of dollars annually: stopping pharmaceutical companies from colluding with competitors to keep lower-cost generic alternatives to prescription drugs off the market	Washington Post
Feb 21, 2008	Supreme Court Shields Medical-Device Makers: Decision Rules Out State Lawsuits Over Products That Meet FDA's Highest Standards QUOTE: The Supreme Court yesterday protected the makers of medical devices that have passed the most rigorous federal review standards from lawsuits by consumers who allege that the devices caused them harm.	Washington Post
Jan 31, 2008	Tainted Drugs Linked to Maker of Abortion Pill QUOTE: A huge state-owned Chinese pharmaceutical company that exports to dozens of countries, including the United States, is at the center of a nationwide drug scandal...Chinese drug regulators have accused the manufacturer of the tainted drugs of a cover-up and have closed the factory that produced them.	New York Times
Oct 02, 2007	For U.S. workers, anxious times: The UAW contract struggled with thorny issues facing the entire workforce. QUOTE: The central problem remains the same one that launched the labor movement in the first place: whether workers are getting their fair share of a growing economy.	Christian Science Monitor
Sep 27, 2007	GM, Union Agree on Contract to End Strike: Deal Seen as Model Across Industries QUOTE: The 1950 deal set relations between the UAW and Detroit's Big Three for the second half of the 20th century. It established a blue-collar middle class but became increasingly oppressive to automakers faced with floods of cheaper, popular imports. At the core of the new deal is the transfer of retiree health-care payments from GM to the UAW. GM will pay an estimated $35 billion into a trust designed to appreciate in value and pay health-care benefits for retired workers for at least the next 80 years, the union estimated. In return, GM is able to unload a $51 billion burden in retiree health-care obligations from its books...	Washington Post
Sep 04, 2007	Biggest waste producers in state get best fee deal: Hazardous materials program called unfair QUOTE: Companies that make chemicals, oil, paint, paper and airplanes must pay a Hazardous Waste Planning Fee for the toxic substances that they pump into the air and water or send to landfills. But because the fee is capped, the top five producers pay less than $8 a ton for their dangerous waste, whereas companies producing smaller amounts can pay up to $250 a ton.	Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sep 01, 2007	The Way We Live Now: Not in Whose Backyard? QUOTE: Countless federal laws have been written to preserve far-flung wilderness that Americans rarely visit (the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, for instance) and endangered species that we scarcely see (from longhorn fairy shrimp to piping plovers). Yet no legislation has been tailored to protect a landscape that is perhaps the most vulnerable: the low-income communities that shelter most of America’s polluting facilities.	New York Times
Jul 26, 2007	Toymaking in China, Mattel’s Way QUOTE: The recent wave of recalls and warnings from China has ignited worldwide...[and] companies are trying urgently to figure out how to do business here, without risking their reputation, consumer trust, or customers’ lives. Mattel may have some of the answers.	New York Times
Jul 23, 2007	Hard bargaining ahead in Detroit: As talks begin over autoworkers' contracts, the industry's generous benefits are under scrutiny. QUOTE: In this summer's negotiations, the companies and the union are considering a way to lessen this load without abandoning legions of retirees.	Christian Science Monitor
Jul 19, 2007	Safety Falters As Chinese Quiet Those Who Cry Foul QUOTE: The case of Zhang [Zhijian] and other would-be whistleblowers opens a window into the weaknesses of China's regulatory system, which in recent months has come under global criticism after a string of recalls of unsafe pet food, toothpaste, toys, tires and seafood.	Washington Post
Jul 17, 2007	After Years of Labor Gains, Autoworkers Face Losses QUOTE: The Detroit automakers, which collectively lost $16 billion last year, and investors are demanding ... a transformational labor contract that would slash costs and free up cash ... Some union members ... say they would rather give up some of their historically generous benefits than risk losing them if one or more companies go out of business.	Washington Post
Jul 16, 2007	The Toxic Republic: For Profit's sake, China's people are getting poisoned QUOTE: In 1906, ordinary Americans' outrage over unsafe medicines and foodstuffs...led to passage of the landmark Pure Food and Drug Act. Right now, though, most Chinese are busy earning a living.	Newsweek
Apr 30, 2007	Filler in Animal Feed Is Open Secret in China QUOTE: For years, producers of animal feed all over China have secretly supplemented their feed with the substance, called melamine, a cheap additive that looks like protein in tests, even though it does not provide any nutritional benefits.	New York Times
Apr 19, 2007	Melamine in pet food may not be accidental QUOTE: The most common way to test protein levels in the grain industry is to test for nitrogen, a major component of protein. Adding melamine, with its high amount of nitrogen, to wheat gluten would give the illusion of a higher protein content...	USA TODAY
Jan 09, 2007	Minimum-Wage Bill Stirs Controversy in Pacific Islands: Democrats Aim Raise for Northern Marianas but Not Samoa QUOTE: Democrats have long tried to pull the Northern Marianas under the umbrella of U.S. labor laws, accusing the island government and its industry leaders of coddling sweatshops and turning a blind eye to forced abortions and indentured servitude....But Republican leadership aides accused the Democrats of using a double standard by imposing the higher minimum wage on a government with a Republican representative to the United States while continuing to exempt a territory with a Democratic delegate. American Samoa and the tuna industry...	Washington Post
Aug 22, 2006	IPod Factories: No Unions QUOTE: Although Apple cleared its Chinese contractors of gross labor violations, factory work is a miserable way to make a living, and the Chinese workers are still denied their most important liberty -- the right to organize...the ban on unions isn't Apple's dictate, nor it's contractors. It's the Chinese government's.	Wired
Jul 28, 2006	Chinese Workers Protest at Factory Making Toys for McDonald’s QUOTE: a riot by more than 1,000 workers protesting low pay and poor living conditions at the factory in the industrial city of Dongguan...distributor for the factory said the unrest was not about wages or conditions but was instead prompted by a disgruntled worker who had been laid off.	New York Times
Jul 25, 2006	Summer sport: Inflatable raft flies ... into controversy: A brand of tube-kites was recalled this month after two riders were killed and several others injured. QUOTE: tube-kites, or inflatable flying watercraft, are also flying headlong into controversy, as deaths and injuries mount and the Army Corps of Engineers bans them from federally managed waters...The government action and SportsStuff's decision to recall the product raises questions about what role the US government should play in restricting behaviors that involve some degree of risk.	Christian Science Monitor
Jul 24, 2006	FDA Demands Lead-Free Lunchboxes QUOTE: The Food and Drug Administration is urging makers of soft vinyl (PVC) lunchboxes to stop marketing any products that contain lead. The move is an abruptly different course than the one taken by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which has said that vinyl lunchboxes don't pose a health risk.	Washington Post
Jun 30, 2006	Tire co. charged with unfair practices QUOTE: The National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint against Continental Tire North America Inc. for engaging in unfair labor practices in labor negotiations with the company's union, dating back to last October.	Charlotte Observer
Jun 16, 2006	Sweatshop Conditions at IPod Factory Reported QUOTE: The Mail on Sunday reported that a Chinese factory that manufactures iPods employs 200,000 workers who live in dormitories where visitors are not permitted. Workers toil for 15-hour days for as little as $50 per month, according to the article. As Mac fan sites buzzed with debate over the report, Apple issued a statement saying it is investigating the matter.	Washington Post
Apr 17, 2006	Boeing Parts and Rules Bent, Whistle-Blowers Say QUOTE: Whether questionable parts ended up in hundreds of Boeing 737s is the subject of a bitter dispute between the aerospace company and Prewitt and two other whistle-blowers.	Washington Post
Jan 31, 2006	Environmental group contends drivers, passengers are breathing dangerous chemicals found in car interiors; calls for new regs. QUOTE: ...part of the so-called "new car smell" is toxic, and that the interior of an automobile has dangerous levels of various chemicals....PBDEs, used as fire retardants, and phthalates, used primarily to soften PVC plastics, are found in dangerous amounts in dust and windshield film samples.	CNN/Money Magazine
Dec 26, 2005	Sticker Shock: Even consumer advocates are complaining about warning-label overkill. QUOTE: caught between lawsuits claiming they failed to protect consumers from "hidden" hazards--is there really any mystery about what can happen when you stand on the top of a ladder?--and the impossibility of making their products idiot-proof, manufacturers slap warning labels on everything but the kitchen sink in order to ward off liability.	Forbes
Dec 22, 2005	Senators Vote to Kill Trade Law: Byrd Amendment Illegal, WTO Says QUOTE: A festering trade dispute between the United States and several major trading partners appears set to subside after the Senate voted yesterday to repeal an anti-dumping law that was ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization.	Washington Post
Dec 11, 2005	Hospitals Save Money, But Safety Is Questioned QUOTE: A growing number of U.S. hospitals, including at least eight in the Washington area, are saving money by reusing medical devices designated for one-time use, ignoring the warnings of manufacturers, which will not vouch for the safety of their reconditioned products.	Washington Post
Nov 15, 2005	An E-Cycling Nightmare QUOTE: Under the guise of bridging the digital divide, affluent nations are using developing countries as toxic waste dumps for their unwanted electronics.	Nation
Oct 23, 2005	Nanotechnology's Big Question: Safety: Some Say Micromaterials Are Coming to Market Without Adequate Controls QUOTE: ...report urged manufacturers and regulators to evaluate the properties of nanomaterials in laboratory tests, adding: "There is a strong likelihood that the biological activity of nanoparticles will depend on physiochemical parameters not routinely considered in toxicology studies."	Washington Post
Aug 30, 2005	Dell Won't Recall Defective Motherboards QUOTE: In most businesses, when a product is discovered to have a defect that's likely to cause it to fail, the manufacturer issues a recall for the affected units. Is there any reason that shouldn't be true in the computer industry as well? That's what many IT mangers with large installations of Dell Optiplex GX270 systems have to be wondering right now.	InfoWorld

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