Foxconn Undercover Report on Working Conditions
An inside story.
It's no secret that working conditions at the Chinese factories that produce our beloved electronic goods are ones that we would deem in our western culture as unacceptable, but such is life for those at a Foxconn factory that makes products for Apple, Intel, Dell, HP and other computer companies.
Chinese newspaper Southern Weekend sent in 22-year-old undercover reporter Liu Zhiyi to work at Foxconn for 28 days to learn what it's like for workers at the factory.
Engadget has published a human-translated version of the three-part report. Here are a few clips from the telling story.
Their most sumptuous day is the 10th each month -- pay day. That day, all the ATMs and themed restaurants are packed with long lines, and consequently the ATMs are often drawn empty. The salary's made up of the ¥900 ($132) local minimum wage and the variable overtime pay.
Each employee would sign a "voluntary overtime affidavit," in order to waive the 36-hour legal limit on your monthly overtime hours. This isn't a bad thing, though, as many workers think that only factories that offer more overtime are "good factories," because "without overtime, you can hardly make a living." For the workers desperate for making money, overtime is like "a pain that can breathe:" without it, the days without money make them "suffocate;" with it, the restless work would only add more "pain" to the body, thus aging quicker. Most of the time they staunchly choose the latter, but even the right to choose such isn't available to all. Only those with the seniors' "trust," with good connections, or those in key positions, can often get to work overtime.
[…]
When chatting with them, I often struggled to respond, as I felt I was ridiculously fortunate. They actually envied those who could take a leave due to work injury, while casually joking about how their station's been toxicated. When talking about their colleagues' suicidal jumps, there was often a surprisingly calm reaction, and sometimes even a banter would be made about it, as if they were all outsiders.
[…]
If you ask the workers what their dream is, you'll often get the same answer: start a business, make money, get rich, and then you can do whatever you want. In the warehouse, they humorously name their hydraulic trolleys "BMWs." They, of course, would rather own actual BMWs, or at least "BMW" kind of wealth.
Here is a translated news report detailing the recent problems at Foxconn.

The simple fact is we wouldn't be able to buy all of the cool high-tech gadgets we love if it weren't for them being manufactured cheaply in other countries. So we conveniently forgot about how the product is made when we bring it home and play with it. That's just the way it is. If the way the people that make your products are treated bothers you, then don't buy the products.
The world and humanity can be ugly. Americans and Europeans have it made in comparison to most of the world. Anything less or different than what we see every day is considered by many to be wrong. It’s just different. Most of all, it’s just the way it is! What are you going to do about it? Whining doesn’t help.
But then again, this is expected. Even a $5 increase per month in min. wage is HUGE for a country with 1.3 billion people, and these workers are the ones who weren't smart enough to get through high school/get into university.
This applies to most other developing Asian countries, which is still considerably better than conditions in some Middle Eastern/Eastern Europe/African countries.
Cheap labor is the contemporary slavery. Whenever immigration reform is discussed in America, the conservatives say "well, who's going to pick your strawberries for $4/hr, the prices of fruits and vegetables will skyrocket". You know, I'm sure the proponents of slavery said the same thing, and if memory serves, the economy didn't collapse when we ended slavery.
I disagree. In most cases, those people have to quit the school due to financial problems/need to help their parents who don't have enough cash to feed the whole family.
That's funny, I think you got marked down for being wrong. There was very little reality in your statement.
Well, untill you get countries that will purposely devaluate their own currency to gain a huge share of world manufacturing, take huge sacrifices from their citizens in attempt to "modernize" their country, and then allow minimal rights to the afforementioned citizens.
Maybe I'm just jaded from the insane profit margins as a byproduct of overseas manufacturing. It's boggling sometimes. On a lighter note, at least foxconn has tried to rectify the problem by bringing in a priest to do exercisms and set up an agression room.
Oh wait....
The simple fact is we wouldn't be able to buy all of the cool high-tech gadgets we love if it weren't for them being manufactured cheaply in other countries. So we conveniently forgot about how the product is made when we bring it home and play with it. That's just the way it is. If the way the people that make your products are treated bothers you, then don't buy the products.
The world and humanity can be ugly. Americans and Europeans have it made in comparison to most of the world. Anything less or different than what we see every day is considered by many to be wrong. It’s just different. Most of all, it’s just the way it is! What are you going to do about it? Whining doesn’t help.
Show me what's wrong. All talk no action.
That country was almost 100% third world in the 1980s. So it isn't that bad when you consider OUR working conditions in the industrial revolution. Nothing is free in this world. Hard work is much better then starvation, unemployment, civil wars and epidemics.
Don't fool yourself, China is tomorrows enemy.
We should stop importing from China, not because it would help them but because it would help us.
None of these employees are held at gunpoint, all of which actively seek employment with the company. Stop 'thinking with your heart' and try to reason it out with economic logic. If they didn't think the tradeoff was fair, they wouldn't be there.