Hobby King poor working conditions ? you decide.......

Jeffrey Saelee

Airplane Dope
That's probably typical chinese/hongkong....And I don't think any of those kids are under 14, because asians look younger and smaller than americans....I know because I'm half asian....But that is kinda not-so-good
 

Brian fred carr

Site Moderator
Mentor
mmmmm...Well I have been stood on a roof in howling winds, freezing rain,
blazing sun, just to pay the rent so I suppose it is all relative ...you do what ya gotta do
 

sandblaster

Senior Member
If you notice, #1. it is not a Hobby King Factory, but a factory HK buys the product from. #2. There is a screen that has to be in place before the press closes. It is hooked up to a lock out device that keeps the press from moving until the person is out and closes the screen. Many such lock out type device are very common with machinery. #3. A different world and a different culture. One must be tread careful. The fact being, they have a huge labor source and life there does not have the same value as western cultures. #4. In the US we have only ourselves to blame for all the jobs we no longer have. How many jobs have we lost because of the E.P.A. and O.H.S.A. I told my wife years ago, all the EPA was good for was driven jobs overseas where they do not have deal with all the heavy handed Gov. junk. Just try to find something to buy not made overseas.

Flame suit on and fully engaged.
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
Nope, that's not a bad working condition. It's obviously not optimum, but someone has to do that job...
 

PaulT

New member
Mentor
#3. A different world and a different culture. One must be tread careful. The fact being, they have a huge labor source and life there does not have the same value as western cultures.

Ok. I'll bite.
Are you saying that Chinese culture places a lower value on life that your culture?
Please explain how you logically came to this conclusion.
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
Ok. I'll bite.
Are you saying that Chinese culture places a lower value on life that your culture?
Please explain how you logically came to this conclusion.

I think that Chinese people are content with much less than "american lifestyle" people. As in my country, most people don't have the nicest job, but they do it for their families.
 

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
Mentor
Yeah, this looks like a pretty standard factory process. I've done similar processes making fuel tanks for our locally produced cars (I work in a well paying office job now). Fully automating takes a lot of money in engineering and production. Using people to supplement the more complex processes is much more reliable (everything mechanical breaks down often, no matter how well engineered) and efficient, and builds in a certain amount of QC at the earlier stage of the process.

There are some appalling practices in Chinese (and many developing countries) but this is not one of them
 

bicyclemonkey

Flying Derp
Mentor
That mold looks fine, it's really no different than a cardboard baler in the stock room of any Home Depot or grocery store etc. here in the USA. How much less expensive would USA made products be if we weren't stifled by unions and gov't regulations.
 

jetpackninja

More combat please...
Mentor
This discussion is probably best for somewhere else...
The global economics and lifestyle issues are WAAAYYY beyond the scope of this forum.

That guy who gets to toss all the scrap fuel into the furnace:
I'm sure he's very careful about what he does but I'd be concerned about the guy that handles all that scrap.
Is he wearing safety gloves? Are the sneakers he's wearing going to give him any protection from nails etc?

The guy pulling the planes out of the molds:
Should he be wearing some kind of mask or something when he sprays those molds?

My biggest chance of injury these days is from sitting too long, (back issues no doubt aggravated by a mostly sedentary lifestyle) or slipping in the parking lot.

Large companies are way too willing to outsource manufacturing (and other jobs) to the lowest bidders.
I would guess most often there are not studies done to see that it gets done safely, only the bottom line is considered.

I enjoy getting a 50 dollar plane from China as much as the next guy. But maybe somewhere along the way we ought to think about where these things come from.

Some of these things (not just our toy airplanes) are most likely manufactured under conditions a lot of us would refuse to work under. At the same time, a lot of those people are most likely happy to be employed...
 

SunShine

not crazy, just stupid
the working conditions didn't seem that bad, however there were only a few clips, and no information about how long the work day was, how old the people were or how much they get paid. This process of the manufacturing would probably look the same in most other countries. i would say we cant found an opinion/view just on this video.

However i find this video odd, mostly because its on Hobbykings youtube channel, this can mean 2 things:
1: Someone (probbably some hippies) hacked HKs youtube account and try to make people stop buying stuff from china. (but the working conditions don't seem that bad, so yeah, God work hippies, you did a half ass job.)
2: Hobbyking put this out themselves, (no idea why they would do that, its like if Mc. Donalds would show the slaughter houses... we all know where the ham is coming from, but we rather don't think about it...)

I cant figure out why anyone would upload this video, but until we hear anything from HK about this video, I say we make some crazy conspiracy theories: I mean still, this is the internet.
 
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earthsciteach

Moderator
Moderator
And THAT is why manufacturing is leaving our country. We can't compete with people who are willing to work under poor conditions with low pay (by our standards). Is it bad? Depends on your point of view.
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
Mentor
That video really doesn't surprise me. The machine looks safe enough and just like the ones we use here. I'd only be concerned about the spray if I knew what he was spraying. The furnace guy should be glad he's shoveling scrap wood instead of coal.

OSHA has saved the lives of a lot of Americans who used to work in conditions much worse than that. MSHA has saved the lives of countless miners in America. The EPA tries to keep a leash on the companies who were dumping hazardous materials right into our back yards and poisoning our waters. People love to complain about the government but if they looked at the history of these organizations and what it would be like without them they might not talk so loudly. If anyone has ever worked for a company that didn't care about their safety, they'd be more than happy to have OSHA poking around.
All the things people don't like about that video are things that OSHA and the government have addressed to keep us safe at work.

So yes, if we went back to the days where we didn't care about having clean air to breathe, or when killing people on the job was acceptable, then we could all afford to make 4 dollars an hour to make these things ourselves. But then we wouldn't be healthy enough or have enough money to buy the things and we wouldn't be able to enjoy flying because we would still be working 18 hour days. Too bad those pesky unions got us a 40 hour work week.

That's my piece. I don't come here for this so this will be my last post on the topic.
 

fwa2500

Ramp Rat
i think before this thread gets too political and heated it should be moved to the "behind the shed" section as i think its these kinds of threads that are why it was created.
 

FlyingMonkey

Bought Another Trailer
Staff member
Admin
For those who don't know me, I get to do the admin duties for the forum.

I'll start with the last post first, the "Behind the Shed" section is for either threads that the OP expects to be heated, and wants to post it there. It's also an area for people who want to have a one on one argument, no holds barred, that other people who don't want to see an aggressive debate in the general family friendly forums. In this last case, it could be voluntary, or if there's a problem with some posters, their comments can be moved to the more sheltered section.

This thread, from what I read so far has not crossed any lines. Chad stressed that he wanted something different than other forums. That as long as the users are able to conduct their conversations as adults, then they're welcome to speak on any topic they'd like.

We want to have as limited moderation as possible. So, feel free to converse, debate, and discuss what you will.


That being said, I'm going to take the stance that these are NOT bad working conditions, especially for what we might expect from China. I used to work as a delivery man to several locations, many of them were industrial facilities. This could be any of those places. I don't see gloves, eye protection, or a mask of any sort. But there's plenty of workers here in the states that won't wear them, when the boss or safety officer isn't on their case about it.
 

sandblaster

Senior Member
Ok. I'll bite.
Are you saying that Chinese culture places a lower value on life that your culture?
Please explain how you logically came to this conclusion.

In the mid 60's a group went to San Paulo Brazil on a mission trip. One of the tales that came back was the fact when a person was hit and killed in there traffic, the body was pushed beside the road. At the end of day a truck would come by and pick up the bodies.

That tale stayed with me, even haunted me. Took me years to understand such behavior, then it came to me, human life does not mean the same to them as it does in my country. I believe it is the same in many poor, over populated countries. In China when a worker gets injured on the job, they are fired and a fresh body is brought in. The injured is left to beg on the street with no re-course on the company and no social program to aid them. Makes for cheap price on a human life and suffering. The suicides they have from there factory worker also says humans are a cheap commidity. The poison products they have made says the same thing.

To me what elevates the price on human life is the fact a very innocent person died willing in a very curl way for me, now He calls me brother. Yes, human life is very valuable to Him. That makes it more valuable to me and His followers.
 
Work offshore on a drilling rig on the deck floor, in the winter, in the rain, and mud and countless other chemicals with tons of heavy equipment swinging around and over you and then decide if what was shown in that factory video looks so bad.
 

Pilot-294

Senior Member
honestly these conditions don't look bad at all IMHO, its clean, its not terribly dangerous, and I WOULD personally work there.

the kids looked to be about 16 from when i could actually see the face long enough to make a conclusion. definitely no young child.

using scrap wood is actually a pretty good idea.

i don't see where the ginormous problem seems to lie here. its an honest job, there where not hundreds of 5 year old chinese boys in a line sweating their balls off working like dogs, these kids seemed to be enjoying themselves, taking their time, and it seemed like there was no huge dangerous deathtraps.

P.S. just MY OPINION i haven't seen a lot of flame wars in flite test yet LETS KEEP IT THAT WAY I'm not trolling or trying to start ANYTHING just my honest to god, provided honest opinion.

good post and thread so far