Apple report reveals child labour increase

Apple's annual report says 91 children worked at its suppliers in 2010, and 137 workers were poisoned by n-hexane
Tania Branigan in Beijing
The Guardian, Tuesday 15 February 2011

Photo caption: Apple said it had strengthened its checks on age because of concerns about falsification. Photograph: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

Apple found more than 91 children working at its suppliers last year, nine times as many as the previous year, according to its annual report on its manufacturers.

The US company has also acknowledged for the first time that 137 workers were poisoned at a Chinese firm making its products and said less than a third of the facilities it audited were complying with its code on working hours.

Apple usually refuses to comment on which firms make its goods, but came under increased scrutiny last year following multiple suicides at electronics giant Foxconn, one of its main suppliers.

Last month, anti-pollution activists accused the firm of being more secretive about its supply chain in China than almost all of its rivals.

The report says Apple found 91 children working at 10 facilities. The previous year it found 11 at three workplaces.

It ordered most to pay the children's education costs but fired one contractor which was using 42 minors and had "chosen to overlook the issue", the company said. It also reported the vocational school that had arranged the employment to the authorities for falsifying student IDs and threatening retaliation against pupils who revealed their ages.

Apple said it had strengthened its checks on age because of concerns about the falsification of ages by such schools and labour agencies. It also audited 127 facilities last year, mostly for the first time, compared with 102 in 2009.

The report shows a marked decrease in compliance on working hour requirements of a maximum 60-hour week with one day off. In 2009, only 46% met the standard; last year that fell to 32%.

Only 57% were compliant with its code on preventing working injuries and 70% or fewer met standards on air emissions, managing hazardous substances, and environmental permits and reporting.

But there were some signs of improvement in other areas. Compliance on wages and benefits improved from 65% in 2009 to 70%.

The report also says that 137 workers at a Suzhou supplier were poisoned by n-hexane, a hydrocarbon, last year. Previous reports had indicated 62 employees were affected and Apple had declined to answer repeated queries about the incident.

A spokesperson said it had "provided more transparency" regarding the company and Foxconn given recent concerns.

The report said Apple was "disturbed and deeply saddened" by the Foxconn deaths. Apple's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, and other executives went to Shenzhen to see the facilities and the firm commissioned an independent review of conditions.

"I think it is positive that after such a long delay Apple has finally acknowledged the [n-hexane] problem," said Ma Jun of the Institute for Public and Environmental Affairs, one of the organisations that criticised the US firm last month.

But he added: "This report shows that Apple is still not ready to accept public scrutiny ... We have listed the names of some Apple suppliers but there is no mention of them [here]."

Debby Chan, of Hong Kong's Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour campaign, said there was no way for others to monitor the behaviour of suppliers because Apple would not identify them or even say how many it had.

"I regard this report as a means of image-building rather than ensuring compliance with labour rights," she added.

Apple said that immigrant workers in countries such as Malaysia had been reimbursed $3.4m (£2.1m) in "exorbitant" recruitment fees since 2008 thanks to its checks. It has also increased efforts to crack down on the use of potential conflict minerals and expanded social responsibility training.

It is unusual in publishing its audit report and said 40% of the facilities audited last year said Apple was the first company to check them for social responsibility compliance.

The report also said that 99% of facilities met its freedom of association requirements.

But independent unions are not allowed on the Chinese mainland and Geoff Crothall, of Hong Kong's China Labour Bulletin, said: "It is Henry Ford-style freedom of association: You can have any union as long as it is [in] the Associated Federation of Trade Unions."

Last month, Apple reported record profits of $6bn for the fourth quarter of 2010.

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/feb/15/apple-report-reveals-child-labour

Deconstructing Foxconn

Deconstructing Foxconn from Jack Qiu on Vimeo.

Exclusive Look: Where The Workers Who Made Your iPhone Sleep At Night

From Gizmodo, posted Nov 2, 2010 10:00 AM
By Joel Johnson



Foxconn's factory in Shenzhen, China, is home to about half of its 420,000 workers. They make many of our gadgets and computers, then walk to dormitories on the 2.1-kilometer-square campus. I got to look inside.

I traveled to China to report on Foxconn and Shenzhen as part of a special feature for WIRED, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the magazine. In the meantime, here's a small glimpse of some of the things I saw while in Shenzhen.


This dorm is one of the older ones on campus, built near the beginning. It's a men's dorm—women have separate facilities—and populated mostly by entry-level workers.


Since a spate of eleven suicides earlier this year, every building on the Foxconn campus is draped in netting. It is morbid but seemingly effective; there have been no suicides since the nets were installed in May.


Hallways remain institutionally empty, kept dim to save energy, keep the temperature down, and to allow workers who keep a late schedule to sleep with less interruption during the daylight hours.


A dorm room. Eight workers sleep in four bunk beds in a room about the size of a two-car garage.


Toiletries kept on a shelf in mugs.


A television viewing room is available on each floor. I joked with the Foxconn executive who was with me that of all the places in the world that could probably manage to get bigger television screens installed, it was probably here at Foxconn, who make televisions for the world's largest brands.


Workout equipment in the spaces between buildings.


In a newer dorm, a sink is shared on the balcony, where workers can wash their clothing and themselves. Management of the living quarters has recently been outsourced to a local operations company in an attempt to address concerns about an employer managing living conditions of its workers. It's unclear how outside management will fundamentally alter the nature of on-campus living.

This special report is a partnership between Gizmodo and WIRED Magazine.

Camera and lens rental from BorrowLenses.com.

Send an email to Joel Johnson, the author of this post, at joel@gizmodo.com.

URL: http://gizmodo.com/5678732/exclusive-look-where-the-workers-who-made-your-iphone-sleep-at-night

Strikes in China signal end to era of low-cost labour and cheap exports

By Jonathan Watts in Beijing
The Guardian, Thursday 17 June 2010

China's rulers make statements supporting workers rights as series of high-profile strikes suggest economic turning point

Photo caption:
Shoe sole in a factory in Jinjiang, China. Demographic and social changes have slowed the influx of low-cost labour from the countryside. Photograph: San Lang/EPA

The Chinese Communist party called on employers to raise salaries and improve training for workers today, as Toyota became the latest foreign firm to be hit by a wave of high-profile strikes.

The People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling party, warned that the country's manufacturing model faced a turning point as demographic and social changes slowed the influx of low-cost labour from the countryside.

Coming a day after the premier, Wen Jiabao, made similar comments, the editorial suggests the authorities may be encouraging businesses to restructure the economy by putting less emphasis on cheap exports and more on higher-value goods and domestic consumption.

For most of the past 30 years, China's economic growth has been fuelled by low-cost migrant labour. This has helped raise national competitiveness, attract foreign investors and keep consumer prices lower across the world. But members of a new generation of migrants are less willing to endure hardship and many have successfully gone on strike to demand better conditions.

Without mentioning strikes, the People's Daily said China should adjust to a tighter labour market by improving skills, creating more service-sector jobs and giving workers more cash to spend. This echoed a speech a day earlier by Wen, who said a new generation of migrant workers should be given improved conditions .

"Your work is glorious and should be respected by society at large. Migrant workers should be cared for, protected and respected," he told workers at the construction site for the No 6 subway in the capital. "The government and the public should be treating young migrant workers like their own children."

According to labour activists, there have been numerous strikes in recent years, though few get reported in the media. Chang Kai, professor of labour relations and law at Renmin University, said the number had increased by 30% per year.

Their impact has grown as the "one-child" family planning policy starts to thin the bulge in the working-age population. This demographic change in the balance of labour supply and demand has added to improved worker organisation and greater activism at high-profile foreign firms.

Japanese firms have disproportionately been the focus of the reported strikes. The Toyoda Gosei car parts plant, in Tianjin, was shut down by a strike this week until the management promised to negotiate higher wages.

Three Honda plants in Guangdong have been affected, along with a Hyundai factory in Beijing and a Taiwanese rubber products manufacturer in Shanghai. According to Xinhua news agency, the fast food franchise KFC has conceded to a union demand for minimum monthly pay of 900 yuan (£90), up by 200 yuan.

In most cases, however, workers have organised outside the unions, which are seen as close to management and the party. This has sparked commentaries in local media urging unions to mediate more effectively between workers and employers.

Having seen how the Solidarity movement in Poland helped to overthrow a communist government that stopped representing its interests, China's leaders do not want to alienate the labour force. So far, there is no sign of any mass, nationwide protests. This week's statements of support for workers' rights suggest the politburo wants to keep on the right side of the activists.

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/17/china-strikes-economy

Undercover Report From Foxconn's Hell Factory

From Gizmodo, posted May 19, 2010 02:00 PM
By Chris Chang


Chinese newspaper Southern Weekly sent 20-year-old reporter Liu Zhi Yi undercover in Foxconn's factory in Shenzhen, China. For 28 days, he experienced dreadful conditions that the factory's 400,000 employees endure, churning out iPods, iPads, and iPhones for Apple nonstop.

There's no doubt about it. The Foxconn suicides were caused by job stress. Within half a year, there have been nine suicides attempts with seven confirmed deaths at Foxconn's Shenzhen factory. In the last month, that number suddenly increased to 30 new suicide attempts, prompting the company to hire counselors and even Buddhist monks to free the souls of the suicidal from purgatory.

Foxconn is one of Apple's main manufacturer contractors. Thousands of Mac minis, iPods, iPhones and iPads are assembled daily in the Shenzhen factory, which runs 24/7. The company also produces some products for Intel, Dell, and HP, among others.

After the sixth suicide attempt in April, Southern Weekly—described by The New York Times as China's most influential liberal newspaper—sent a young reporter to sneak into the factory as a worker. At the same time, they sent a senior reporter to talk with Foxconn's executives. Their mission: To discover what's really going on in that factory, and find out the true reasons behind the suicides.

During his 28 days of investigation, Liu Zhi Yi was shocked to discover how the factory workers live in a sort of indentured servitude. They work all day long, stopping only to quickly eat or to sleep. They repeat the same routine again and again except on public holidays. Liu surmised that for many workers, the only escape from this cycle was to end their life.

Liu, a graduate student, was chosen because of his young age, since the factory only hires workers in their twenties. He was hired without issue. He signed only one special document: An overtime working agreement that says the company is not responsible for their long hours of working. According to Liu, this voluntary agreement overrules Chinese state regulation.

Foxconn workers only smile on the 10th of every month. That's the day when they get their salaries. That day, the ATM machines inside the factory are crowded with workers. Their monthly salaries start at 900 Chinese Yuan—about $130.


The stress room at Foxconn

Most of the workers had nothing to say about the popular Apple products they assemble. Most can't afford to own an Apple product. Their salaries can only buy them knockoff versions. While gadget aficionados worldwide discuss which iPhone they should buy, Foxconn workers debate the merits of differing knockoffs.

Tales from the factory

Liu had his most interesting chats with other workers during meals. Some told him that they envied workers who are sick. They get leave approvals and can get some rest. They also discussed about accidents in the factory: One worker got his finger cut-off during production. A few workers think that the machines are cursed. They believe it's dangerous for them to use the machines.

Another worker spoke about one of the favorite activities in the factory lines: He likes to drop stuff on the floor. Why? Workers spend achingly up to eight hours standing up, so they feel that squatting down to grab a fallen object is the most restful moment of their working day.

Workers call their warehouse trolleys their "BMWs". While pulling them around, stacked high with tons of goods, they imagine the real BMW they hope to one day own.

According to one worker, they can't live without these dreams. They dream of becoming rich one day. Some spend part of their salaries buying lottery tickets and betting on horse races.

There are other kind of dreams too. Liu says that some of them complain about their love lives. They just can't find lovers in that environment, so they have to find alternatives: In some internet cafes—hiding in restaurants outside the factory—young men can buy access to clandestine porn videos. However, the men say that the movies get boring after long periods of time.


Workers eat in the on-site cafeteria.

Many wouldn't talk of the suicides. Others joked about it. One of the problems may be the lack of communication and friendships between work colleagues. Many workers don't even know the names of the people working next to them. In fact, according to Southern Weekly, the workers find difficult to relate to each other because they are always wearing identical work uniforms and performing the same tasks everyday. They have no interesting topics to chat about because all they do is work. If an employee becomes too stressed, they often have no one with which to share their feelings or to approach for help solving their problems.

Perhaps the 100 counselors hired by Foxconn will help. I wish they had movie theaters and shopping malls inside to help them relax. But, at the end, the most important thing is that Foxconn really needs to be more human and be concerned about the health—mental and physical—of their workers, instead of treating them like dogs.

Chris Chang originally posted about Liu Zhi Yi's Southern Weekly reports on M.I.C. Gadget, a site featuring life, gadgets, and subculture in China.

The author of this post can be contacted at tips@gizmodo.com

URL: http://gizmodo.com/5542527/undercover-report-from-foxconns-hell-factory