26 Facts About the Awful Conditions Where Your Gadgets are Made

4th February 2012

By Lois Becket –  alternet.org

Breaking down what we know about Foxconn, the massive factory in China where workers manufacture popular products like iPhones and iPads.

An  investigative series by the New York Times and a performance piece by  Mike Daisey featured on  This American Life have put the spotlight on  Foxconn, the Taiwanese company whose massive Chinese factories manufacture some of the world’s most popular consumer electronics.

As well as working with companies like Dell, Motorola, Nokia and Hewlett-Packard, Foxconn assembles popular Apple products like the iPhone and iPad.

Here’s a quick look at what we know about Foxconn. (The company  disputes workers’ accounts of abusive conditions. In a 2010 company  report, Foxconn said it promotes “employee respect, an atmosphere of trust, and personal dignity.”)

Working for Foxconn

1.2 million: number of  workers employed by Foxconn in China, according to the New York Times.

40: Estimated percent of the world’s consumer electronics manufactured by Foxconn.

7: seconds it takes Foxconn’s workers to complete  a single step of their work, according to a survey cited by the New York Times.

12: Hours in a typical work shift, according to  interviews with  Foxconn employees.

83.2: Average hours of  overtime worked each month, according to a 2010 survey of Foxconn employee.

13: age of a Foxconn employee  Mike Daisey interviewed outside the gates of a Foxconn plant in Shenzhen.

91: cases of underage labor found by  Apple’s audits of its suppliers in 2010, the year Daisey visited China.

3,000: number of workers Foxconn could hire overnight, according to  Apple’s former worldwide supply demand manager.

10-20: percent  estimated monthly turnover in Foxconn’s workforce.

$7,500: amount founder Terry Gou used to start the anchor company of Foxconn Technology Group in 1974,  according to the company website.

$5.7 billion: Terry Gou’s estimated net worth as of March 2011.

Living Conditions

230,000: number of  workers at “Foxconn City” in Shenzhen, according to the New York Times.

13: tons of rice prepared each day at the central kitchen at Foxconn City.

$0.65: meal allowance for  dinner at the Foxconn City canteen in 2010.

2: number of  free swimming pools there, according to The Telegraph, which noted that the pools “are said to be quite dirty.”

70,000: number of workers at Foxconn’s Chengdu plant who  live in company dorms, according to the New York Times.

20: number of employees sometimes  packed into a three-room apartment.

200: Reported number of police officers who responded to a  Foxconn dormitory riot.

Deaths

17: Number of  reported suicides of Foxconn workers in China between 2007 and February 2011, according to Wired. Eleven workers died after jumping off buildings in the Foxconn Campus in Shenzhen, which were then draped with preventive netting. (Wired noted that the rate actually seems to be below China’s national averages.)

70: number of  psychiatrists employed by Foxconn to prevent suicides, according to a 2010 announcement by CEO Terry Gou.

100: Estimated number of employees at a Foxconn factory in Wuhan  who stood on the roof of a factory building this month to protest working conditions and wages. Several threatened to commit suicide, according to the New York Times.

$450: monthly salary a worker involved in that protest said  employees had been promised for moving from the Foxconn campus in Shenzhen to one in Wuhan.

34: continuous hours a Foxconn employee worked in 2010 before he  collapsed and died,  according to media reports.

About the Author

Lois Becket has reported on changes in the news industry for the Nieman Journalism Lab. She was a 2010 Village Voice Media Fellow at the SF Weekly. She has written for the Times of India, the Accra Daily Mail, and the Reading Eagle, among others. She graduated from Harvard College with a degree in Social Studies.