There’s been a lot of attention paid recently to the rights of workers at Foxconn factories in China. Foxconn is one of the biggest suppliers and manufacturers of Apple iPhones and iPads. There’s been a This American Life, Mike Daisy did a whole Broadway show about Steve Jobs that includes a trenchent commentary on the working conditions in Shenzhen. Now the mighty New York Times takes a microscope to factory life (and really, workers live inside the factories, which are like small bustling cities.)
Here is the saddest and most poignant description I read:
He had been promoted quickly at Foxconn, and after just a few months was in charge of a team that maintained the machines that polished iPad cases. The sanding area was loud and hazy with aluminum dust. Workers wore masks and earplugs, but no matter how many times they showered, they were recognizable by the slight aluminum sparkle in their hair and at the corners of their eyes.
While the description is almost poetic, the “twinkling dust” can be deadly.
Dust is a known safety hazard. In 2003, an aluminum dust explosion in Indiana destroyed a wheel factory and killed a worker. In 2008, agricultural dust inside a sugar factory in Georgia caused an explosion that killed 14.
So the factory explodes, and Lai, who had moved to Chengdu to be able to afford a wedding to a beautiful nursing student, was lying on the floor of the factory.
Eventually, his family arrived. Over 90 percent of his body had been seared. “My mom ran away from the room at the first sight of him. I cried. Nobody could stand it,” his brother said. When his mother eventually returned, she tried to avoid touching her son, for fear that it would cause pain.
“If I had known,” she said, “I would have grabbed his arm, I would have touched him.”
“He was very tough,” she said. “He held on for two days.”
After Mr. Lai died, Foxconn workers drove to Mr. Lai’s hometown and delivered a box of ashes. The company later wired a check for about $150,000.
That’s not an insignificant amount. Lai made $22/day, or $6864 annually if he’s pulling the 6 day workweeks that are common, and not taking any weeks off. That’s easily a lifetime of money for his family. But it doesn’t change the fact that the process of assembling all the gadgets that we love so very much (not just Apple) is a painful and laborious one done by workers who make less in a week than the cost of said gadget.
This NYTimes story doesn’t even get into the infamous suicides at Foxconn that caused the company to put up a mesh net around its periphery. for that, go watch Mike Daisey’s The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs or listen to This American Life’s episode on the turmoil within the plants, and why some workers would rather take their lives than continue working on the assembly lines.
A majority of people don’t know where Apple makes its products, nor do they really care, according to a recent poll. So I’m glad the issue is gaining traction and getting attention, because in order for these processes to change, the consumers are the ones who have to be aware and be willing to hold Apple accountable, the way that activists held Nike and Gap accountable. Apple recently released a list of their suppliers, but they still aren’t letting activists into their plants to examine the conditions. I’m not saying we shouldn’t own cell phones and tablets, just that we should be mindful of where they come from.
–Caroline
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