Foxconn , the consumer electronics Divine that handles assembly for a number of high - tech companies include Apple , was thrust into the spotlight Tuesday night as a national web news program took its camera into the Formosan mill . The study aerate on ABC’sNightlinepainted an interesting mental picture of Foxconn — but not needs interesting for the reasons you ’d expect .
Foxconn has been in the newsworthiness a hatful in recent yr , though not always for cause that the manufacturer and its high - tech married person would hope for . The company was stung by a efflorescence of suicide a few years ago andreports alleging pitiable working conditionspersist .
Tuesday’sNightlinereportrevealed a factory largely noteworthy for its seeming normalcy . I had been worry that after I watched the report , I ’d feel angst - ridden and hangdog about using my iPad , iPhone , or MacBook Pro .
Early in the 18 - minute report , Weir makes an analogy that meshed with my own take : I eat steak , but I try not to think about where it comes from when I ’m sitting at the dinner board . WithNightlinepromising an “ unprecedented ” look at Foxconn , I feared Weir ’s probe into Foxconn would let on horrid working conditions that could match any Nike orKathie Leecontroversy . The truth is , however , that the report broke small newfangled ground into Foxconn , and in reality left me feeling evenlessconflicted about my own continued use of Apple intersection .
By way of introduction
The first affair Weir ’s report get correct was its manipulation of two key points that would have been wrong to ignore : He disclosed Apple ’s close human relationship with Disney , parent party of ABC , the web that airsNightline . ( Apple cobalt - founder and former CEO Steve Jobs was Disney ’s big shareholder ; now The Steve Jobs Trust hold that distinction . )
The second gunpoint Weir stressed several times throughout the broadcast was that while Apple takes the Leo ’s contribution of criticism regarding the working shape at is construct plants , it ’s but one of many democratic electronics giants that count upon Foxconn . Among the others Weir rattled off : Nintendo , HP , Dell , and Intel .
Also worth observe : Apple seems inclined to take the leading on investigating just what goes on at Foxconn . To escort , no other companies have publicly indicated any plans to keep up Apple ’s footsteps in launchingindependent inspections of the facility .
Inside the factory
Your iPhone and iPad are bridge player - made . More than 300 actor ’ hand touch the iPad before it ’s finished . Foxconn ’s employees can assemble 300,000 iPad cameras in a Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . They hear reduplicate instructions all twenty-four hour period long — tape voice from the automated machines that move the forum lines .
The manufactory doer are young . They ’re not kid , but they ’re around college age : Weir say many are between 17 and 19 , and that he did n’t see anyone who looked much older than 30 .
Foxconn worker sit quietly during their 12 - hour shifts , repeatedly performing identical fabrication line action . Weir ’s theme show one prole whose problem was to smooth out the space on the buttocks of the iPad where the Apple logo goes . There are one C of steps involved in create these products—141 steps to make an iPhone — and workers perform each of the natural action , by hand , over and over again .
Weir interviewed Aurent Van Heerden , the chairman of the Fair Labor Association ( FLA ) of which Apple is now a member , and the group which Apple expect to handle the Foxconn inspections . Van Heerden says that one matter his inspectors will face for is what happens when their squad ( or Weir ’s tv camera crew ) moves through the facility . Van Heerden need to see workers unafraid to attend up and notice the unknown in their midst , not fearful of look at a minute to keep the newcomers . And as he explicate this to Weir , the camera show various factory workers on the face of it doing just that — looking up , take on line of Van Heerden , Weir , and the camera crew as they walk around .
The theme shows the monolithic cafeteria where worker get their meal ; workers actually get an hr per repast . If they eat speedily , Weir account , workers can catch pile before their shift start again , back at their stations on the assembly line . mass do .
Weir ask workers what they think about as they repeatedly perform their employment on the job . One woman — a female parent of two — answers that she thinks about how tired she is . It ’s hard workplace .
Foxconn employee are n’t need to inhabit in the factory residence hall , but many do . Weir read that the dorms are crowded : Between six and eight workers share a residence hall with built in bed beds . The rooms Weir shows are larger than the rooms I shared in college , but they ’re far from luxurious . But , at least in the glimpses we get , they ’re far from painful , too .
Workers have access code to an Internet coffeehouse , psychological facilities , and other niceties . When squeeze for complaints , they say they require cheaper meals , nicer hall , or more pay . Such complaints , as Weir points out , sound an horrendous lot like what college scholar in the U.S. might say , too .
Three moments
Most moving to me as I watched the report were a trio of interviews , and the visuals that accompanied them .
First , Weir designate literally one thousand of Chinese citizen lined up respectfully , wait their opportunity to apply for study at Foxconn . Folkswantto work at Foxconn . They need to do so very much . And Foxconn takes 80 percent of the folks who apply , according to Weir ’s report . Perhaps I ’m being unintentionally naive , but I believe that the young people applying for Job at Foxconn have a clean-cut mother wit of what it ’s like . Even if we deposit that current Foxconn employee would be loath to criticize their employer online via the Internet cafes within the student residence , we know that employee do get time off , and they eventually leave behind the factory for near , too . give-and-take must have spread about what it ’s like to exploit at Foxconn , and yet folks are n’t discouraged from wanting to knead there . The 12 - hour work day may be long hours than a McDonald ’s switch here , and the work itself may be even more judgment - numbingly insistent than a fast food gig — but it ’s steady , paying , indoor work .
The second significant mo to me was when Weir indicate a nursing home in a village where a distinctive Foxconn employee may have moved from . The livelihood conditions were painfully cramp , the household dilapidated . And the mob member still there spoke happily that their loved ones had found gainful usage — with low-priced lodging — at Foxconn . There are peck of problem in China , this instant drives home . But the problem is n’t Apple .
And the third present moment that adhere with me was in Weir ’s final on - screen consultation with Louis Woo , seemingly the highest - ranking Foxconn administrator to whom he had access . Weir asks Woo whether Foxconn would be comfortable with it if Apple offered—”out of the good of their hearts”—to double the salaries of every Foxconn employee who worked on Apple products . Woo ’s answer : “ Why not ? ” He conk out on , saying that Foxconn would love if Apple double Foxconn ’s employees ’ salary , since theneveryonewould want to work at Foxconn , because it would have the respectable salaries around .
That ’s telling , to me . That statement drives home the fact that Foxconn ’s policy and wage areat worstin proceed with the norms in China . Sure , none of us here in the U.S. would require to work in a tedious mill job for $ 2 an hour . I ’m not pronounce the Foxconn employee should triumph in their right portion , but when you attend at their costs of living — they pay off 70 cents per meal in the Foxconn cafeteria , and $ 17.50 per calendar month for their room and display board in the Foxconn dorm — the pay seems far less shocking .
The alternatives
So yes , I thought things could count a mickle worse inside Foxconn . And there are no gentle answers about what could be done better . If Apple decided to bring its manufacture stateside alternatively , costs for its product would , of course , rocket . And many thousands of Formosan workers would , let ’s remember , fall back their jobs .
If Apple took Weir up on his go and double Foxconn factory doer wage out of its own pouch , leaving Price static and shouldering the shock to its profit , that would be nice , veracious ? Perhaps less so to Apple ’s shareholders , but still — Apple can believably afford to double Foxconn employee wage while remaining tremendously profitable ; it needs to pass about $ 2 per minute per day per Foxconn employee .
But is that the correct move ? I ’m not trusted what impact such a move would have on the Foxconn employee who crop on Dell or Sony or Acer or Amazon product . And I ’m not certain it teach the right values to Foxconn ’s direction squad , either .
While I recognise my own termination may be unpopular , here it is : I ’m not win over that Apple needs to right a legal injury here . Again , it seems like Foxconn ’s live salaries are competitive , and it ’s clear that the company ’s jobs are coveted .
I eagerly await the FLA ’s report from inside Foxconn , and I ’m positive if problems are found , Apple will work to prepare them . But I was pleasantly surprise by howblandlife inside Foxconn appears . I was expecting a sweatshop staff with employee extend scummy lives . ButNightline ’s report result me feeling that while I would n’t want a job at Foxconn , many in China are happy to work there . Seeing that , coupled with my confidence that Apple really will aspire to make what improvements it can , makes me feel comfortable using my MacBook Pro without feel ashamed .
[ Lex Friedman is a Macworld stave author . ]
