Thread: I'm still buying an iPad 3

Apple Foxconn Factory Hid Underage Workers

Posted on February 23, 2012 by RB

Factory workers making Apple products

The latest development in the Apple factory worker conditions saga is that Foxconn allegedly hid underage workers prior to the Fair Labour Association audit that’s currently in progress. According to one Hong Kong-based NGO Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM), Foxconn was prepared for the inspection and “All underage workers, between 16-17 years old, were not assigned any overtime work and some of them were even sent to other departments”…
Foxconn Workers Make $1.78 an Hour

Apple’s supplier code of conduct does permit workers aged between 16-18 if they’re legally allowed to work under local laws, but there are restrictions on the type of work and how much they can do. Workers at the Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou, China, say they’re now allowed 3 breaks a day while the audits are underway (compared to just 1 normally), and that wages have risen between 16 and 25%.
Despite this, the average monthly wage is just $640 with $17.50 deducted for the dormitory accommodation (which sleeps 6-8 per room) and up to $48 for food. Most workers do 12 hour shifts and work 7 days a week. However, Foxconn has reportedly welcomed calls to double worker salary if demanded by its clients such as Apple; a company executive recently said “why not”…
FLA Audits Apple Supplier Factories

Apple recently joined the Fair Labour Association (FLA) at a cost of $250,000 and is also paying for the audits in China. Apple is the first electronics manufacturer to join the organisation, mainly in response to intense public pressure and scrutiny over factory worker conditions in recent months.
To be fair to Apple, they have worked hard to ensure transparency and issued several public statements especially after the critical NY Times report that highlighted factory worker conditions. Last week, US news channel ABC provided an intriguing glimpse into Foxconn factories. Apparently, it takes 141 steps to make an iPhone and 5 days and 325 hands to make a single iPad, which are perhaps surprisingly assembled mainly by hand.
Foxconn Factories Have “Tons of Issues”

The FLA president Auret van Heerden spoke last week saying that Foxconn factory conditions are “first class” but he also added there are also “tons of issues” that need to be resolved. One would expect the factories facilities to be top-notch – after all, they’re making iPads, MacBooks and iPhones so the technical infrastructure should be superb.
Van Heerden said they expected to be given “a show” by Foxconn but his group is conducting ground-up interviews that should provide an accurate picture of what it’s like to live and work in a Chinese factory making Apple products.
Worker Rights on Agenda at Apple Shareholder Meeting

Apple CEO Tim Cook is expected to discuss worker rights in detail during Thursday’s shareholder meeting at the company’s Cupertino HQ, but activists are already gearing up to use the event to highlight worker issues.
The saga will no doubt continue for a while longer…

I hate the cultural myopia of this type of situation...this story breaks in the west and there's no allowance for local conditions...


They say the workers make $1.78 per hour but they don't say that these jobs are the cream of the crop locally to the extent that I'd wager that they are payed for by many of these local workers...these workers are middle to upper middle class in their communities with a great deal more purchasing power than workers in other factories or those who cannot even get a factory job...