It was recently reported by China Daily that Foxconn is investing $210 million into building a new production line in Huai’an City, China. Foxconn plants, known for various questionable practices including employing underage workers, while underpaying and likewise overcharging employees to live in on-site dorms, prompting strikes and mass-suicidal behavior. Now Chinese news site Sina reports that Foxconn is now taking orders for Apple’s TV platform, tentatively called iTV. No word on whether the TV might be manufactured in the new facility.
Below is a mockup of Apple’s iTV:
The report states that the iTV “trial production stage” at Foxconn, regardless of Foxconn’s CEO denying that the company will be producing the device earlier in the month. The Apple TV is rumored to look similar to Apple’s present lot of LED Cinema Displays, though larger. It is also rumored that the TVs will feature Siri integration, a built-in iSight camera that will allow for FaceTime calls and AirPlay integration.
It’s been previously reported that the iTV would launch later this year, though some expect it to launch in sometime in 2014. Still, there has been specualtion that Apple might make an official announcement regarding the device in December.
The iPhone is considered by many to be a magical device. It would almost seem like they’re made inside some kind of Willy Wonka-esque factory full of happiness and sunshine. We all know that is not the case as the Foxconn factories have been well-documented in the news. There have been reports of worker abuse and inhumane working conditions. This has led to worker suicides on multiple occasions, but the company has made great strides in the last year to clean its act up.
M.I.C. Gadget obtained a video of Foxconn CEO Terry Gou and a Chinese reporter taking a tour through the Zhengzhou branch of Foxconn. It’s a fascinating look at the inside of a factory that many people always thought was some kind of internment camp full of human rights abuses. The video clearly shows what looks like a modern factory with everybody working in relative contentment even if it is extremely mundane.
Unfortunately, the video is in Chinese so don’t expect to really understand what’s going on. Fortunately, The Next Web has translated parts of the video. Apparently, the tour consists of Gou talking about expanding the Foxconn plant in a flyover of a desert area. Then the group hits the plant proper where they show the production of the iPhone 4S and its display. Gou also make the claim that his factory is better than any other factory in other major production countries like Germany and the U.S.
Even though I can’t really understand the video, it’s a fascinating look inside of the most infamous factories in the world. It looks much different than I expected it to, but I guess that’s to be expected. After hearing all of the horror stories, it only makes one think of terrible things when it comes to Foxconn. Check out the video for yourself to see the birthplace of your iPhone.
It was recently reported that Apple Inc. has teamed up with Foxconn, the Chinese supplier of iPhone and iPad devices, to improve the labor conditions in its manufacturing facilities. Foxconn is also investing $210 million into building a new production line in Huai’an City, China. Foxconn plants, known for various questionable practices including employing underage workers, and underpaying and likewise overcharging workers to live in on-site dorms, prompting strikes and mass-suicidal behavior. Though, it’s been reported that Foxconn workers might be getting a substantial raise next year.
Foxconn is allegedly planning to double its Chinese factory workers’ salaries by 2013, according to a Chinese newspaper, via M.I.C Gadget. Factory workers presently make roughly $346 a month at Foxconn, and the reported raise would bump up wages to $693 a month, a 100% increase. The aforementioned suicides at the Foxconn compounds prompted the company to raise wages in the past – nearly doubling salaries in 2010 to $315. Workers had been previously paid $141 a month.
The speculation regarding the raise is based on words apparently coming from Foxconn’s CEO during its Shanghai headquarters groundbreaking ceremony. The raise would be great for the migrant laborers at the Foxconn plants, and would affect competing businesses, likely prompting them to add more incentives to retain their own work force.
It was recently reported that Apple Inc. has teamed up with Foxconn, the Chinese supplier of iPhone and iPad devices, to improve the labor conditions in its manufacturing facilities. And now China Daily reports that Foxconn is investing $210 million into building a new production line in Huai’an City, China. Foxconn plants, known for various questionable practices including employing underage workers, and underpaying and likewise overcharging workers to live in on-site dorms, prompting strikes and mass-suicidal behavior.
Here’s a recent clip of a Foxconn production line:
The facility will likely cover 40,000 square meters, and employ 35,8000 workers. Still, this would be smaller than other Foxconn plants, though revenues from the plant are expected to be between $949 million and $1.1 billion annually. Foxconn also opened new plants in Brazil and Zhengzhou last year.
No word on what devices will be produced at the Huai’an City plant, and it is speculated that the newest iPhone will be built at Foxconn’s main Shenzhen plant, which houses roughly 200,000 employees. It was recently reported that Apple’s iPhone 5 saw the late Steve Jobs heavily involved in its redesigned, which should arrive around October.
It turns out the rumors are (finally) true: Apple will be selling a television set in the near future. Terry Gou, Foxconn’s chairman and president, gave an interview with China Daily in which he confirmed that the company, which manufactures Apple’s products, is preparing to manufacture the iTV. Foxconn recently entered into a 50-50 joint venture with Sharp Electronics for a factory in Japan, and Gou confirmed that this was one of the preparations for iTV manufacturing.
Though Gou said no development or manufacturing has begun, China Daily repeated claims about many of the features that are already rumored for the device. The iTV will supposedly resemble current Apple Cinema Displays in design, complete with an iSight camera for video calling. Also, a remote remote that uses Siri voice commands and tight integration with other Apple devices over AirPlay are also rumored.
Apple is usually out in front of new markets, yet it seems it will still be quite a while before consumers will get to sit back on their couches and tell Siri to turn on their iTV. Meanwhile, LG already has plans to debut a TV set running Google TV in less than two weeks. It could be that Apple’s supplier problems got the better of them and delayed the iTV project.
What do you think? Is Apple being unfairly hindered by suppliers who are close with competitors such as Samsung? Or was Apple truly late to the connected-TV market? Leave a comment below and let us know.
While the vast majority of Apple iPhones are assembled in controversial Foxconn plants in China, much of the glass produced for the screens is made in Harrodsburg, a town of 8,014, roughly 30 miles southwest of Lexington, Kentucky. Glass and ceramics manufacturer Corning Inc., has a plant located there that makes Gorilla Glass, which is in turn shipped to China for device assembly. Here is a CNN report on the Harrodsburg plant:
Back in 2007, Steve Jobs tapped Corning to build a strong, yet thin glass for the iPhone 1. Corning had six months to develop a solution, which would evolve into Gorilla Glass. “This glass is pretty strong it can take keys. It’s damage resistant. It can take keys it can take some drops,” according to a Corning spokesperson. Around the time Jobs called, the Corning plant in Harrodsburg was struggling to remain open, suffering the effects of the great recession. Another Corning employee adds, “Late 2008 and into 2009, the world experienced a real crisis. So we were extremely fortunate at that time to have a new business, Gorilla, that was growing and could really help this plant stay viable.”
Now Corning supplies LCD screens to over 30 different manufacturers, and recently announced its Gorilla Glass 2 at CES 2012:
Corning states that it seeks to protect its patented, globally popular Gorilla Glass ingredients. There aren’t many places better to hide high technology than in rural Kentucky – the constitution of the panels can now join Colonel Sanders’ Original Recipe as a well-kept regional secret.
Apple Inc. has teamed up with Foxconn, the Chinese supplier of iPhone and iPad devices, to improve the labor conditions in its manufacturing facilities. Both companies are contributing funds, though its not clear if they are splitting the bill 50/50. Foxconn plants, known for various questionable practices including employing underage workers, and underpaying and likewise overcharging workers to live in on-site dorms, prompting strikes and mass-suicidal behavior.
Foxconn Leader Terry Gou states, “We’ve discovered that this (improving factory conditions) is not a cost. It is a competitive strength – I believe Apple sees this as a competitive strength along with us, and so we will split the initial costs.” The news comes not too long after a reported salary bump of 16-15% for Chinese workers. Junior-level laborers still make next to nothing, at roughly $3,500 per year, but the raises were significant comparatively, and likely a significant PR push. Below is a video describing a Chinese Foxconn plant:
Surely everything was ship-shape for the day of filming, and doesn’t appear to be much different from what goes on in the U.S., except for the discrepancy in pay, where forced overtime can also be the norm. Alas, forced overtime here might not constitue forced overtime in China, where some workers that the Foxconn plants need it just to get by in the dorms. It’s been said that plant workers sometimes work over 60 hours a week, and sometimes for over 11 days in a row.
Still, in a quite sobering slice of real life, there is a legitimate chance that Apple will actually be contributing to the installation of better suicide nets to catch the Foxconn employees who jump, after too many iPad assemblies for next to nothing.
Workers in Foxconn’s factory in Jundiai, Brazil are threatening to strike over poor working conditions, according to recent reports. The workers claim that Foxconn has not made adequate adjustments to its infrastructure in light of the recent hiring of over a thousand new workers.
According to Brazilian site Tech Guru (Google Translation), over 2,500 workers at the Jundiai plant are upset about working conditions. They say that buses into the factory are overcrowded, water supplies inside the factory are too limited, and the quality of the food in the cafeteria is bad.
According to the labor union, the problems are a result of Foxconn’s recent hiring spree. They recently added 1,000 new workers, but made no efforts to improve the factory’s infrastructure. While the union claims to be confident that the situation can be resolved without a strike, they have given the company until May 3rd to respond. On that day, the union will meet with representatives of the company to determine if conditions have been resolved to the union’s satisfaction.
Apple, the company that’s considered to be many consumers’ favorite gadget maker, is under fire for what’s happening at its Foxconn factories in China. Aside from numerous reports of suicide and suicide attempts, The New York Times, in January, revealed specific details about the working conditions in the factories, which sparked a lot of controversy over the tech company.
In The New York Times report, Charles Duhigg and David Barboza wrote: “the 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.”
Is Apple responsible for the poor working conditions in Foxconn’s Chinese factories? Why or why not?
Ever since this article was published, both Apple and Foxconn have gained extensive criticism. Many groups, including the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), are speaking out against Apple claiming it should take full responsibility.
“Apple is certainly to blame because Apple is in control of the situation,” Ross Eisenbrey, the Vice President of the Economic Policy Institute, said to WebProNews.
The EPI, along with Students and Scholars against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), the Workers Rights Consortium, and others, recently held a forum to raise awareness of these issues. Their research, as Eisenbrey explained to us, found that Foxconn’s Chinese factory employees work 60-70 hours per week, are exposed to dangerous chemicals, experience explosions from uncontrolled aluminum dust, and are under a military-style of management.
In addition, a large part of the workforce consists of 16-18-year old individuals that serve as “interns” from local vocational schools. Eisenbrey, however, told us that these individuals do not even work in the areas in which they are hoping to obtain training in.
He pointed out that many of these conditions break Apple’s Code of Conduct as well as Chinese laws.
“Apple has the capacity, because it makes such a big profit, to offer a better margin to Foxconn,” said Eisenbrey.
“They have the power to do that – they’ve just chosen not to do that,” he added.
According to him, the problems date back to 2005. At that time, Apple made a commitment to enforce improvements. But, Eisenbrey told us that he doesn’t believe Apple’s commitment was strong enough since the issues remain several years later.
The debate around Apple its Foxconn factories came even further into the spotlight after Rob Schmitz, Marketplace’s China correspondent in Shanghai, had the opportunity to visit the Foxconn Longhua facility:
Interestingly, Foxconn’s plants in Brazil also produce Apple products, but the working conditions are very different from China’s. Under Brazilian law, workers are required to have union representation. As a result, workers have better wages, transportation, and benefits.
Since Brazil shows that Foxconn and Apple can abide by such mandates, Eisenbrey thinks the companies are more than capable of facilitating similar practices in China.
Last month, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) conducted an investigation of Foxconn’s plants in China in response to the widespread scrutiny of both Apple and Foxconn. Since the audit found multiple violations, the companies are required by the FLA’s remediation policy to make changes.
The improvements involve reducing worker overtime, giving workers a stronger voice, and reforming the “internship” program. While these provisions would help the current circumstances, Eisenbrey and others see a problem in the fact that the changes won’t begin until June of 2013.
“We get a report that basically puts off changes for more than a year and doesn’t really promise anything more than Apple and Foxconn promised in 2006,” he said.
“They made commitments 6 years ago, and here we are again 6 years later and nothing has changed,” he continued.
Although Eisenbrey is skeptical given the comapanies’ past actions, he told us that he hopes Apple will step up, take responsibility, and do what’s right.
“People have believed Apple’s commitment in the past, and if they go on making commitments and breaking them, sooner or later, that’s gonna penetrate the buying public,” he said.
“Apple is a very efficient, powerful organization that, when it wants to get something done, can get it done,” he said. “They haven’t gotten this done.”
Could all this scrutiny result in Apple becoming a less valuable company? What do you think?
In Jundlai, Brazil you can now take a stroll down Steve Jobs Avenue, or in Portuguese, Avenida Steve Jobs. The city offering tribute to the late venture capitalist is home to a Foxconn plant, which is located not far from the newly dubbed avenue.
Mayor Miquel Haddad finally passed the name change in a city council meeting last month, Apple Insider is reporting. The name change was first proposed the day after Steve Job’s death.
Haddad chose the particular street because it feeds into the Anhanguera Highway, the street on which a Foxconn facility is located. The manufacturing plant produced iPhones and is rumored to have started making iPads to be sold later this year.
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Time Cook has said the Brazil will experience “major growth” in the next few years. Brazil, a major Apple consumer, has notoriously high import tariffs. Having a plant in a domestic locale may be a key component in keeping prices low. It also helps that the manufacturer has been granted tax reductions and exemptions by the government to keep production local.
Apple Insider notes that a lot of posthumus awards have been given to Jobs recently, including a slightly larger than life size bronze statue dedicated by Hungarian software company Graphisoft, for whom Jobs was a huge benefactor.
In the wake of the This American Life debacle, Foxconn, the company in Shenzhen, China that manufactures Apple products, has been on quite a PR kick to show that their working conditions are humane. This past month Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook visited Foxconn facilities in China. In the same week, workers at Foxconn were given assurances their wages would grow and they would work less hours.
Foxconn has even allowed a reporter onto their factory floor, only the second ever. Rob Schmitz recalls his journey through the sprawling factory-city, on American Public Media’s Marketplace:
The first misconception I had about Foxconn’s Longhua facility in the city of Shenzhen was that I’ve always called it a ‘factory’ — technically, it is. But after you enter the gates and walk around, you quickly realize that it’s also a city — 240,000 people work here. Nearly 50,000 of them live on campus in shared dorm rooms. There’s a main drag lined on both sides with fast-food restaurants, banks, cafes, grocery stores, a wedding photo shop, and an automated library. There are basketball courts, tennis courts, a gym, two enormous swimming pools, and a bright green astroturf soccer stadium smack-dab in the middle of campus. There’s a radio station — Voice of Foxconn — and a television news station. Longhua even has its own fire department, located right on main street. This is not what comes to mind when you think “Chinese factory.”
Schmitz goes on to talk about the netting that surrounds the roofs of the complex, placed there to deter suicides. He interviews workers, who say the conditions aren’t as bad as some Americans seem to believe. They do have complaints, but they don’t strike me as too much different than the complaints employees at a large Walmart in the Midwest U.S. might have.
The most fascinating part of Schmitz’s report is the video he shot of an iPad being constructed. The most surprising thing, to me, is that the iPad is almost completely handmade. It makes the $500 price tag look pretty good when you see the care that is taken to assemble all of those expensive components:
Another day, another rumor about the upcoming iPhone. What’s particularly interesting about this one is where it comes from, as well as the fact that a similar source said something completely different just last week. Thus is the nature of iPhone rumors, however. It’s only April and I think I’ve already run out of salt.
The lastest rumor comes to us from Apple product manufacturer Foxconn. Based on a report in the South Korean “Maeil Business Newspaper” (Google Translated version), Apple’s new iPhone (iPhone 5, new iPhone, new new iPhone – who knows?) will launch in October.
The paper asked the head of Human Resources at Foxconn’s Taiyuan factory about the device, to which he replied, “We just got the order. It [the release] will be around October.” When asked again about the specific release date, he once again said it would hit some time “around October.”
If you follow the saga that is speculative iPhone release rumors, you’ll know that this sounds odd considering that we heard just last week that the new phone would be hitting the shelves much sooner – in June. That date was given to us by none other than a Foxconn recruiter, who slipped the June release date into a recored interview regarding the company’s recruiting initiative.
The June theory hinges upon the belief that Apple will be holding their annual Worldwide Developers Conference during that month. Previous new versions of the iPhone have been announced at that conference.
But not last year. The iPhone 4S announcement was pushed back to October, and the headlining new product at WWDC 2011 was iOS 5.
An October release date for the new iPhone would make sense, as it would give Apple that important one year window between versions of the same product. Plus, with a significant redesign expected for the new iPhone, releasing it only 9 or so months after an incremental update like the iPhone 4S might really piss off everyone that bought that device in October.
But, as the world turns, new iPhone rumors will pop up from every corner of the globe. This one was just particularly interesting: sources related to the same company giving vastly different responses within a week of each other – nothing could be more indicative of the madness of the iPhone rumor season.
The changes come after inspections from the Fair Labor Association discovered poor working conditions and numerous violations of Chinese law within the factories. Foxconn was found to have employees working more than 60 hours a week, sometimes more than 11 days in a row. In a survey of over 35,000 workers, the FLA discovered over two-thirds of the workers said their compensation “does not meet their basic needs.” Workers at one plant start out at about $285 a month, with average wages around $426 to $455 a month.
The same survey revealed that 43% had experienced or witnessed an accident, and many said Chinese unions do “not provide true worker representation.” The group found that in the past workers were prepped to give false information when asked questions by auditors. They even discovered a cheat sheet that provided workers false answers to give to fair labor agencies. Workers that did not comply were threatened with cuts in hours or termination.
Apple recently joined the Fair Labor Association and asked the group to conduct the inspections, amid an ongoing outcry over poor labor conditions at their factories. Numerous protests and petitions have been held to call attention to the matter, culminating in a collection of advocacy groups writing an open letter to Apple calling on the company to “ensure decent working conditions at all of its suppliers.”
In response, Apple has released the names of all of its 156 suppliers, information they had previously withheld. They have also begun posting regular reports on the number of hours worked by Foxconn employees. Since there involvement with the FLA, Chinese workers have seen pay increases of up to 25 percent.
Since widespread reports from the media and Apple joining the FLA, Foxconn has vowed to have no employee working more than 49 hours per week by July of next year. They have said pay will not decline, despite hours being cut, meaning pay raises across the board. Foxconn will likely have to hire tens of thousands of new workers and pay increases will likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Unless Apple is willing to accept lower profit margins, this will likely translate into higher prices on iPhones and iPads in the future. Foxconn also manufactures for Dell and Amazon, in fact, they hold contracts to supply over 40% of the world’s electronics. A rise in the cost of production at Foxconn could mean a price hike in electronics everywhere.
Promises have been made by Foxconn in the past, and have not been followed through. In 2006, a similar policy was enacted by the company that promised to enforce weekly overtime limits imposed by Chinese law. Only time will tell if the company is still blowing smoke. With a promise to be in compliance in over a years time, they could be just waiting for the added attention to blow over.
Bloomberg reports that Apple CEO Tim Cook visited Foxconn’s newly built manufacturing facility at Zhengzhou Technology Park yesterday in China. Apparently he was there to view the new iPhone production line at the plant. His trip also included a meeting with Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong on the 26th and a separate meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang on the 27th.
Bloomberg provided this video of Cook’s visit to Foxconn:
Meanwhile, Sweden is investigating the limitations of the new iPad, and Apple’s claims about its 4G capability. Apparently, the device only works on 4G networks inside the United States and Canada despite manufacturer claims that it connects to sources worldwide.
Many Australian buyers of iPad generation 3 have already received refunds based on limitations of the device under the countries 4G mobile data network. Apple has agreed to include an advisory of the device’s shortcomings in regard to the network for future Australian buyers.
Officials from the Swedish Consumer Protection Agency are still investigating claims in regard to the new iPad and 4G limitations, but I expect we will see a similar outcome for buyers in that part of the world. We’ll keep you posted as new information becomes available.
Popular public radio show This American Life is retracting an episode it aired back in January which condemned major electronics companies Apple and Foxconn. The retraction follows a revelation that the episode’s chief source, Mike Daisey, invented and embellished facts cited on the program.
This American Life’s creator and host announced the retraction in a blog post today, citing “significant fabrications” discovered in the story. The program’s host notes that the story was not commissioned by This American Life, but rather was an excerpt of Daisey’s (a performance artist) one-man show “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.” In the show, Daisey tells how he visited a factory owned by Foxconn that manufactures iPhones and iPads in Shenzhen China. His show highlights a number of labor and human rights violations he encountered in visits to Apple factories.
Glass noted that Daisey lied to him and producer Brian Reed during pre-broadcast fact-checking, but he was quick to accept responsibility for airing the show. “That doesn’t excuse the fact that we never should’ve put this on the air. In the end, this was our mistake,” he wrote. As a part of the retraction, this week’s episode of his show will include an entire hour dedicated to detailing the errors of “Mr. Daisey Goes to the Apple Factory.”
“We’re horrified to have let something like this onto public radio,” Glass continued, “Many dedicated reporters and editors – our friends and colleagues – have worked for years to build the reputation for accuracy and integrity that the journalism on public radio enjoys.”
“[W]e should’ve killed the story,” remarked the host, in reference to a fact-checking incident in which Daisey claimed he was no longer able to reach his Chinese translator, “But other things Daisey told us about Apple’s operations in China checked out, and we saw no reason to doubt him. We didn’t think that he was lying to us and to audiences about the details of his story. That was a mistake.”
The response to the original episode, “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory,” was significant. It quickly became the single most popular podcast in This American Life’s history, with 888,000 downloads (more than 130,000 more than the average) and 206,000 streams to date. After hearing the broadcast, listener Mark Shields started a petition calling for better working conditions for Apple’s Chinese workers, and soon delivered almost a quarter-million signatures to Apple. As a consequence of the scrutiny, Apple announced its plan to allow for the first time a third-party auditor to review working conditions at the company’s manufacturing plants. It also released a list of its suppliers.
Daisey was found out in part by American Public Media’s Marketplace China Correspondent Rob Schmitz, who noticed inconsistencies in his own journalistic experiences and Daisey’s claims. Schmitz developed extensive first-hand knowledge of the issues surrounding Apple and Foxconn’s manufacturing practices while reporting for Marketplace. A report by Schmitz will be included in this weekend’s This American Life. In it, Schmitz confronts Daisey and Daisey admits to fabricating events and characters. He also expresses regret:
“I’m not going to say that I didn’t take a few shortcuts in my passion to be heard,” Daisey tells Schmitz and Glass. “My mistake, the mistake I truly regret, is that I had it on your show as journalism, and it’s not journalism. It’s theater.”
Glass announced that both and audio download and a transcript of the program will be available online Friday night. The show typically airs on Sunday.
Apple’s new New iPad has been set loose upon the world today, giving consumers to think about something other than Apple’s dubious labor practices. Meanwhile, in the world of companies that have a high standard for the quality of life of employees, Texas Instruments, makers of amazing toys of my youth but now mostly a manufacturer of notable graphing calculators, has been named one of the world’s most ethical companies by the Ethisphere Institute for the sixth year in a row.
“Ethical behavior and decisions are about how we expect one another to behave in this world — about being competitive and accountable and making sure our values are at the heart of the culture we want to have. This culture has served TI well for more than 80 years and has the ability to be the longest term competitive advantage we have. It’s the way we do business,” said Rich Templeton, Texas Instrument President and CEO. “TI is just as good as all of us behave as individuals.”
This is the sixth year Ethisphere has published the “World’s Most Ethical Companies” rankings. The Ethisphere Institute reviewed hundreds of companies and evaluated a record number of applications using its propriety methodology through in-depth research and multi-step analysis, naming the companies that surpassed their industry peers to this year’s list. The 2012 list features companies in more than three dozen industries, including 40 companies headquartered outside the United States. The full list will appear in Ethisphere Magazine’s first-quarter issue.
“We take ethical leadership and corporate citizenship seriously at TI, and we’re honored to be included again on this year’s list,” said David Reid, Texas Instrument Vice President and Director of Ethics. “TI understands that ethical practices not only support a stronger and more solid business overall, but they benefit the community and raise the bar for ethics and integrity within the industry.”
The full list won’t be available until May so we’ll have to wait till then to find out how less scrupulous tech companies that manufacture our most revered gadgets are busily destroying the lives of their workers.
It costs Apple $250,000 to join the Fair Labor Association (FLA). ABC News’ Bill Weir was in China for the first ever FLA audit of Apple’s production floor inside Foxconn and it wasn’t surprising what he found. But, before I get into that, I think it’s interesting to mention that Apple had plans to partner with the FLA long before the ominous New York Times article was published featuring the so called, unsafe working conditions inside Foxconn.
So what did Bill Weir show us inside Foxconn? Actually what we saw was what you would see if you took a tour of any modern production facility in the United States. The tour began with visitors putting on static-grounding devices (what Bill referred to as bunny suits) and entering a particulate controlled environment. Electronic components are extremely sensitive to the electric charges that our bodies generate as we go through our daily motions. The charges must be grounded or they will be sent through the electronic hardware of Apple devices and destroy them before they are even complete.
Next we saw regular assembly line work taking place; people deburring metal cases, others cleaning screens, some snapping small components together, groups pushing carts, all kinds of activities that are common place in any production outfit. Judging from the video, I didn’t see anything unique or wildly out of place at the factory. This is not to say that abuses aren’t taking place, but abuses take place in every manufacturing facility, in China, The U.S., or elsewhere.
What was unique was that many of the workers lived in nearby dorms. The employees report that the dorms are overcrowded, the pay is low, and the hours are long. By the way, most employees are working twelve hour shifts which feature two hours of breaks. This sound remarkably similar to production shifts in America. Workers at Foxconn are being compensated at a rate of two to three dollars per hour for regular shifts. In America, workers make between nine and fifteen dollars per hour for similar work. Aside from living at the dorms, everything sound fairly common.
I think it is interesting that Apple fans have become so frantic over the working conditions in China when there are so many labor abuses right here in the United States. Tim Cook, Apple CEO claims that they keep tighter reins on safety than most others in the industry and I think we will find that those are not just shallow platitudes.
FLA president, Auret van Heerden, made some commentary on what he first saw at Foxconn before the audits were started:
“I was very surprised when I walked onto the floor at Foxconn, how tranquil it is compared with a garment factory. So the problems are not the intensity and burnout and pressure-cooker environment you have in a garment factory. It’s more a function of monotony, of boredom, of alienation perhaps.”
So I agree that manufacturing can be boring and devoid of mental stimulation, it is a legitimate way to earn a living, and in China, it is probably one of few ways to guarantee a steady income. Is it a sweatshop? Yes, it probably is, but where else and how else can mass production take place? I think it would be great if we could pay Foxconn employees more, but are Apple consumers ready to have the costs passed on to them?
I hope we find that the FLA’s audit is merely a formality to ensure future safety and that Foxconn is on the up and up with production safety, but my impression from what we have seen so far is that the FLA will find evidence of some abuse. What we should keep in mind is that China and Foxconn are growing at an unbelievably fast rate and that some issues will be ignored and overlooked. All and all, I think Apple, Foxconn, and China are headed in the right direction.
You remember those audits of Foxconn facilities that took place last week? According to one labor rights activist, we should really take the initial reviews with a grain of salt.
Of course, many were already skeptical of any report that labeled working conditions inside a Foxconn factory as “satisfactory” after all of the stuff we’ve heard about them in the past few months. But Student’s & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM)’s Debby Sze Wan Chan, Foxconn deliberately manipulated factory practices in order to sway the inspections.
She told Apple Insider that Foxconn workers told her that “All underage workers, between 16-17 years old, were not assigned any overtime work and some of them were even sent to other departments.” Another worker went on to say that around the time of the audit, she was allowed three breaks a day – triple her usual one per day.
Sixteen to Seventeen-year-old workers aren’t illegal, according to Apple’s policies, but there are strict guidelines about overtime and breaks.
On February 13th, Apple release a statement outlining their partnership with the Fair Labor Association. They said that they would be conducting special audits of final assembly suppliers – including Foxconn plants in Chengdu and Shenzhen. The FLA team set out to interview workers, inspect conditions on the floor & the dormitories, and review procedural documents.
A couple of days later, FLA president Auret van Heerden shocked some when he said that the initial review of the Foxconn plant proved the facilities to be “first class.” He went on to say that “physical conditions are way, way above average of the norm.” But he did also recognize that Foxconn might put on a show for the inspectors. According to SACOM, that was definitely the case.
Chan talked about the typical day of a Foxconn worker:
The workers always tell us they resemble machines. Their regular day at Foxconn is waking up, queuing up for baths and work, work and go back to the dormitory and sleep. They do not have a social life and they are doing the same monotonous task in the factory for thousands of times a day. If they are not efficient enough or they make some mistakes, they will be yelled at by their supervisor or punished.
Late last week we reported that Foxconn had raised worker wages anywhere from 16% to 25%. This means that a junior level worker is making around $290 a month – definitely not what most people would call a living wage. Chan told Apple Insider that this was not even close to enough:
“In Zhengzhou, the basic salary of new workers is CNY 1350 ($214),” Chan said. “And there is a deduction of CNY 150 ($24) for the dorm. If a worker eats inside the factory, there is another CNY 200-300 ($32-48) to pay. It is far from the living wage standard. Without overtime premiums, a worker can hardly support his/herself.”
We’ve been covering the unfolding saga of Apple and their supplier Foxconn and the supposed worker abuses at their plants in China. We have covered everything from worker suicides at the plants, to petitions from concerned citizens, to inside interviews with Foxconn employees. Most recently we reported that Apple has partnered with the Fair Labor Association to conduct audits of operations in China and that workers compensation was increasing. Now, we are able to bring you exclusive footage from inside Foxconn’s walls. ABC News and Nightline bring us the following video:
As the video shows in the Nightline preview, Bill Weir traveled inside China and inside Foxconn in hopes of discovering evidence to support accusations of abuse by the Apple supplier. Perhaps the tour is an effort by Apple to illustrate their commitment to enhancing working conditions in China. On the other, hand it could be a contrived production put on by Foxconn to appease outraged consumers and to minimize any damage caused by the recent negative press. Either way, on tuesday you can view the entire Nightline story as they go into Foxconn and out on the production floor. I’ll be watching to see what they find and reporting back to you.
Apple’s manufacturing arm in China is making a PR push, saying on Friday that they have raised the wages of their workers by 16-25% this month.
“As a top manufacturing company in China, the basic salary of junior workers in all of Foxconn’s China factories is already far higher than the minimum wage set by all local governments,” the company said in a statement. “We will provide more training opportunities and learning time, and will continuously enhance technology, efficiency and salary, so as to set a good example for the Chinese manufacturing industry.”
A junior level worker in a Foxconn factory has been raised to 1,800 yuan a month, which is about $290. They say that the salary can even be raised to 2,200 yuan a month if the worker “passes a technical examination.”
Apple has been under fire recently due to some troubling reports about working conditions at Foxconn. First, there were reports of worker suicides and narrowly-avoided suicides at some plants. Then, investigations into the treatment of workers at the plant by some, including the New York Times, noted long working hours without breaks, safety issues, and other concerns for worker health. A former Foxconn manager spoke out, saying that “Apple never cared about anything other than increasing product quality and decreasing production cost.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook denied that Apple condoned the mistreatment of workers, saying that “any suggestion that we don’t care is patently false and offensive to us. As you know better than anyone, accusations like these are contrary to our values. It’s not who we are.”
Apple announced earlier this week that they were partnering up with the Fair Labor Association to begin conducting a series of audits into Foxconn facilities. Surprisingly, initial reports from the FLA suggest that the conditions at some part of the factories at least were “above average.”
So Foxconn raised wages by quite a bit – I mean, a 25%(or even 16% for that matter) raise is gigantic. But for a low-level worker, $3,500 a year is not exactly rolling in it.
We reported earlier this week that Apple joined with the Fair Labor Association to perform independent audits on the Foxconn facilities where iPads are manufactured. The preliminary results are in and it may surprise you.
Reuters reports that the FLA president, Auret van Heerden, made some initial comments regarding his visit to the Foxconn facility. He found the facility to be “first class” and that the “physical conditions are way, way above average of the norm.”
“I was very surprised when I walked onto the floor at Foxconn, how tranquil it is compared with a garment factory. So the problems are not the intensity and burnout and pressure-cooker environment you have in a garment factory. It’s more a function of monotony, of boredom, of alienation perhaps.”
We reported last month that there was a mass suicide threat at one of the Foxconn facilities that caused quite a ruckus. This event and other reports of worker abuse led to the petition that may have had a part in Apple joining the FLA.
The FLA has seen worker suicides from China since the 1990s. The cause seems to stem from culture shock more than anything:
“You have lot of young people, coming from rural areas, away from families for the first time. They’re taken from a rural into an industrial lifestyle, often quite an intense one, and that’s quite a shock to these young workers.”
He added that these workers require an emotional support that the factories do not provide them.
The FLA staff will be visiting two Foxconn factories in Shenzhen and one in Chengdu. Over the next three weeks, about 35,000 workers will be asked questions about their working conditions. In either an ironic or patronizing twist, the questionnaires will be filled out on iPads.
All joking aside, the iPads will be used to upload and compile the data instantly so they can get the audit results out to the general public at some point in March.
Apple did a good thing by joining the FLA. Let’s hope their supply lines are just as good.
“Apple is certainly to blame because Apple is in control of the situation,” 
