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Apple: Foxconn Progress
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Fair Labor Association Checks on Foxconn
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“A work week shall be restricted to 60 hours, including overtime, and workers shall take at least one day off every seven days.”
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Tim Cook, Apple CEO
“We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we’ve asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers. The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope, and we appreciate the FLA agreeing to take unusual steps of identifying the factories in their reports.” -
FLA Discusses Foxconn Factories' Working Conditions
FLA (The Fair Labor Association)
- evolved from a group originally convened by Bill Cintion in 1996- goals include reducing sweat shop labour around the world
- includes executives from Nike and Adidas
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Observations
- working conditions considered better than garment factories or other facilities in the country
- beginning a study of Apple's top 8 suppliers in China following reports of worker suicides, plant explosion, and slave-like conditions
- “Apple didn’t need to join the FLA. The FLA system is very tough, it involves unannounced visits, complete access, public reporting”
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Auret van Heerden, President of the FLA
“The facilities are first-class; the physical conditions are way, way above average of the norm.” “I was very surprised when I walked onto the floor at Foxconn, how tranquil it is compared with a garment factory,” he said. “So the problems are not the intensity and burnout and pressure-cooker environment you have in a garment factory. It’s more a function of monotony, of boredom, of alienation perhaps.” -
Observations Cont.
- “Apple didn’t need to join the FLA. The FLA system is very tough, it involves unannounced visits, complete access, public reporting”
- “If Apple wanted to take the easy way out there were a whole host of options available to them. The fact that they joined the FLA shows they were really serious about raising their game.”
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Foxconn Raises Pay
- 15-16% per month
- raised for a junior level worker from 900 yuan to 1,800 yuan per month and could be above 2,200 yuan
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“We will provide more training opportunities and learning time, and will continuously enhance technology, efficiency and salary, so as to set a good example for the Chinese manufacturing industry.”
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Working Hours Reduced
- 49 per week including overtime
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Concerns of Change
“We have just been told that we can only work a maximum of 36 hours a month of overtime. I tell you, a lot of us are unhappy with this. We think that 60 hours of overtime a month would be reasonable and that 36 hours would be too little,” - Wu, a 23 year old employee -
Pay Increase
- an employee earns a bit over 4,000 yuan a month
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Comparison to Other Factories
"Safer, cleaner, and offer more recreation sites than smaller, mainland-owned factories." - Workers -
Foxconn's Continuous Promise
- promises to continue to increase worker salaries and cut hours of work
- Apple and Foxconn made an agreement that tens of thousands will be hired, eliminate illegal overtime, improve safety protocols, and upgrade housing and other amenities
- Plan to disversify to other Asian markets
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Progress on Working Conditions????
- barely improved despite pledges to halt labour violations
- due to visits made by Labour Watchdog Student and Scholars against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) of several Foxconn factories and 170 worker interviews, they have found rights violations to remain the norm
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"Too big, too complicated" - Geoffrey Crothall of China Labour Bulletin
- another group which monitors Foxconn
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"We are still being pushed very hard." - Wang, an employee
- has been working for Foxconn the past 2 years
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3,000 - 4,000 workers go on strike
- occurs in central China's Zhengzhou city
- why it occurred:
- increased quality control demands
- having to work during an extended national holiday (China's National Day Golden Week holiday)
- required to work from Sept 30 - Oct 7
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Foxconn's Argument
- employees working during the holiday were voluntarily
- were being paid 3 times normal pay in accordance with Chinese labour laws
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Improved Labour Conditions, But A New Problem
- workers are still unhappy
- the new policy which follows the Chinese Labour Laws makes it difficult for employees to earn a living
