Words and Images by Travis Beard
Some names have been changed to protect worker’s identities.
THE wail of the siren that marks the start of the working day in the
Foxconn factory in Longhua, China is certainly not music to the ears of
the men and women who work there making components for Apple’s iPods.
Production lines run 24 hours a day at Foxconn and the 167 000-strong
workforce are encouraged to do overtime in the operational division,
meaning they may have to stand for up to 20 hours Workers have fainted
from exhaustion under these conditions where the average wage for a
seven-day week of twelve-hour shift is just CNY¥375 (AUD$62) per week.
The situation in the Foxconn factory may not necessarily be news to
you. These conditions were exposed in an article by journalist Nick
Webster in the UK’s Mail on 11 June 2006. In a subsequent article in
UK’s The Mirror, Webster said, ‘They [the workers] are
guaranteed jobs, but under strict rules and discipline, and often work
seven days a week, forgoing many freedoms and pleasures western workers
take for granted’. He described the workers there as ‘robots’.
Apple returned fire on 13 June 2006 in a statement which read: ‘Apple
is committed to ensuring that working conditions in our supply chain
are safe, workers are treated with respect and dignity, and
manufacturing processes are environmentally responsible,’ adding that
they are ‘currently investigating the allegations regarding working
conditions in the iPod manufacturing plant in China. We do not tolerate
any violations of our supplier code of conduct which are posted
online’.
As a follow up, Apple investigated the factories in August 2006,
stating ‘We found no instances of forced overtime. We did, however,
find that employees worked longer hours than permitted by our Code of
Conduct, which limits normal workweeks to 60 hours and requires at
least one day off each week’. Their audit of the factory’s records
found that in the past seven months, the hours-per-week limit was
exceeded 35 per cent of the time, and employees worked more than the
maximum days-per-week 25 per cent of the time.
During interviews with a cross-section of the workforce, Apple’s
investigators also found two employees who reported that they’d been
made to stand at attention for disciplinary reasons.
‘While we did not find this practice to be widespread, Apple has a zero
tolerance policy for any instance, isolated or not, of any treatment of
workers that could be interpreted as harsh,’ the company said. The
employer launched a manager and employee training program to quash such
behaviour.
What has changed in the six months since these conditions were
initially reported? When I visited the factories in November 2006 and
interviewed workers, I still found the conditions questionable. The
Foxconn factory is a concrete metropolis; sterile and cold. I was
refused entry to the factory and while taking photographs outside the
perimeter, a policeman tried to confiscate my memory cards and detain
me for questioning.
My interpreter and I also observed workers being made to stand at
attention, while supervisors inspected their stance. One worker, Mr Wu,
told me ‘these drills are sometimes used on workers as a disciplinary
measure’.
While Foxconn makes the nano iPod, the iPod Shuffle is put together by
a company called Asustek in Suzhou, two hours outside Shanghai at
another sprawling site which I visited. Asustek is contracted by Apple
and Sony and employs 50 000 people. It is surrounded by barbed wire to
deter intruders and according to a guard, who wishes to remain
anonymous, ‘they have security on the gates and metal detectors at the
exits to check for stolen property’.
When I asked Asustek worker Mr Chong why all these people were queuing
outside the entrance, he told me the people were quitting after their
first trial day. ‘After every shift and average of 200–300 people leave
the factory, vowing never to return.’ According to him ‘the rate of
interviewees that leave is about 50 per cent per day. Most employees
are sourced from the [poorer] rural provinces. Locals won’t do this
work because of the conditions … and health insurance is taken out of
their pay’.
According to Foxconn spokesman Edmund Ding, the factories have been
fitted out with many new facilities for the workers. But I was told by
one worker, Mr San, ‘While these new facilities were in place, things
like the library and sporting facilities are apparently only open for
two months a year’.
Mr San also told me ‘before Apple started its contract with Foxconn,
conditions here were a lot worse. Apple is very strict on rules of
conduct and policies for full-time workers; temporary workers have
fewer rights in comparison to full-time workers. Foxconn employs mainly
temporary workers so they can utilise this loophole and exploit temp
worker conditions’.
It is said there is a saying among Foxconn workers:
‘work harder than a
donkey, eat worse than a pig, get up earlier than rooster, finish work
later than a prostitute’.
To add insult to injury, staff must pay CNY¥50 out of their own pockets
for a comprehensive medical plan, which funnily enough includes a free
annual medical exam. Some workers claimed that this examination is a
ploy to collect blood from Foxconn workers to treat Foxconn CEO’s ill
younger brother.
As the sales of iPods skyrocket, more and more people from the
provinces are being employed at the factories to meet the demand. The
fences around the factories are covered with signs offering employment
and in Longhua I noticed a lot of construction. When I asked a worker
about this construction, I was told the company was building more dorms
to keep up with the rapid expansion of the factory, an increase of 46
per cent in the following four months.
While Apple has certainly been in the spotlight since Nick Webster’s
article and U2’s Bono’s controversial promotion of his ‘Red’ iPod, it’s
important to remember that they are just one of thousands of companies
that now use Chinese facilities to manufacture products. China’s low
wages, long hours and industrial secrecy make the country attractive to
business, especially as increased competition and consumer expectations
force companies to deliver products at lower prices.
When will the iPod’s market price reflect the cost to manufacture it in
China? Basically, Westerners are demanding more of them, we don’t mind
paying exuberant prices and the Chinese workforce is willing to work
for peanuts. Only the companies employing Chinese manufacturers can
change this unbalanced equation.
Travis Beard is a Melbourne born international photojournalist and is
represented by PictureTank in Paris. He has travelled the world with
his camera and has taken photos of everything from drug deals in Mexico
City, the female Olympic shooting team in Iran and hot dog eating
contests in the US. He is currently in Kabul, Afghanistan voluntarily
teaching photojournalism to Afghans at the Aina Media Centre.
www.picturetank.com/travis
www.argusphotography.com
www.argusphotography.blogspot.com
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