Foxconn Workers Protest Wages, Threaten To Jump Off Roof

TAIPEI, April 27 (Reuters) - Workers at a Chinese factory owned by Foxconn, Apple Inc's main manufacturer, threatened to jump off the roof of a building in a protest over wages just a month after the two firms announced a landmark agreement on improving working conditions.

The protest happened in the central city of Wuhan at one of Foxconn's plants. The company employ some 1.2 million workers in China assembling iPhones and iPads, among other products.

It involved some 200 workers, the Hong-Kong based activist group Information Centre for Human Rights said.

A spokesman for Hon Hai Precision Industry, the listed unit of the Foxconn group, said the protest concerned workplace adjustments and involved workers new to the plant. He said it was not a strike.

"The dispute has already been settled after some negotiations involving the human resources and legal departments as well as the local government," the Taipei-based spokesman, Simon Tsing, said.

Foxconn, China's largest private-sector employer, and Apple agreed to tackle violations of working conditions and improve working environments.

The deal was agreed almost two years after a series of worker suicides at Foxconn plants focused attention on conditions at Chinese factories and sparked criticism Apple's products were built on the backs of mistreated Chinese workers.

On Tuesday, Apple reported that its fiscal second-quarter net income almost doubled after a jump in iPhone sales, blowing past financial market expectations.

Tsing declined to say how many employees were involved in the latest dispute. He said no-one had actually jumped off any building.

The Information Centre for Human Rights said one of the complaints of the workers was that they earned less in Wuhan than they had in their previous jobs. They returned to work after police intervened, it said.

Global protests against Apple swelled after reports spread in 2010 of a string of suicides at Foxconn's plants in southern China. Apple agreed to an investigation by the independent Fair Labor Association to stem criticism that its products were built in sweatshop-like conditions.

Although Apple and Foxconn agreed to lift workers' salaries, wages have been rising quickly. The 159 million migrant workforce saw an average salary increase in 2011 of 21.2 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

Take a look at the slideshow (below) to see some of the most surprising discoveries made by an ABC correspondent during an investigative report at a Foxconn factory in China earlier this year.

Loading Slideshow

• Handmade Gadgets

  On February 21, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/22/nightline-apple-supplier-foxconn_n_1293393.html?ref=technology" target="_hplink">ABC aired a "Nightline" segment featuring Bill Weir's visit to a Chinese Foxconn factory</a> responsible for making some of Apple's popular devices. During a tour of the factory, Weir says he "expected more robots" but in fact most of the gadgets at Foxconn are made the old-fashioned way: The high tech parts are put together by hand. For example, iPhones are assembled by hand in 141 steps. One iPad takes five days to assemble and passes through 325 sets of hands.

• Insane Output

  Two shifts of workers toiling in 12 hour shifts can make 300,000 iPad camera modules in one day, not to mention shape sleek iPads out of "raw hunk[s] of aluminum" at a rate of 10,000 per hour. <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/watch/nightline/SH5584743/VD55173552/nightline-221-apples-chinese-factories-exclusive" target="_hplink">Image via Nightline</a>

• 7 To A Room

  Many workers live at the factory, where they pay $17.50 per month to live 7 to a room in Foxconn dormitories. <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/connieguglielmo/2012/02/22/nightline-goes-inside-apple-factories-in-china/" target="_hplink">The average starting salary is $285 per month,</a> and workers must pay for their food. <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/watch/nightline/SH5584743/VD55173552/nightline-221-apples-chinese-factories-exclusive" target="_hplink">Image via Nightline</a>

• No Free Lunch

  Workers get two hour-long meal breaks during each 12-hour shift. They eat together in a cafeteria where they pay $.70 a meal. This is about a quarter of their hourly wage. <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/watch/nightline/SH5584743/VD55173552/nightline-221-apples-chinese-factories-exclusive" target="_hplink">Image via Nightline</a>

• Tim Cook Investigated Suicides

  In 2010, after a spate of suicides at Foxconn's Shenzen plant, then COO Tim Cook flew to China to investigate the matter. <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/watch/nightline/SH5584743/VD55173552/nightline-221-apples-chinese-factories-exclusive" target="_hplink">According to Nightline,</a> Cook put together a team of psychiatric experts to examine the issue. It was at that team's suggestion that the infamous nets were installed between the buildings to prevent suicides. There have been 18 worker suicides at Foxconn since 2010. <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/15/us-china-apple-idUSTRE81E1FQ20120215" target="_hplink">According to Reuters' interview with Fair Labor Association president Auret van Heerden, the group's initial findings from its audit of Foxconn</a> suggested that the suicides could have been "a function of monotony, of boredom, of alienation perhaps."

• Young Workers

  Weir said he was surprised to see how young the workers were. He said many were in their late teens and no one looked like they could be over 30. Many had left their hometowns, oftentimes in the countryside, in order to get jobs at Foxconn. Weir also toured Chengdu and spoke with the relatives of workers who had left for jobs at Foxconn. According to Cult of Mac, <a href="http://www.cultofmac.com/147878/foxconn-employees-say-underage-workers-were-hidden-before-fla-inspection/" target="_hplink">Foxconn may have hidden underage employees</a> when the Fair Labor Association conducted its inspections. While Apple allows for workers as young as sixteen to assemble their products, those eighteen and under are afforded "special protections," <a href="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/02/22/factory_workers_claim_foxconn_hid_under_age_employees_before_fla_inspection.html" target="_hplink">according to Apple Insider.</a> These include not being allowed to perform some tasks and working shorter hours than older workers.

• Foxconn Exec Wants To Pay More

  When asked how Foxconn would react if Apple suggested doubling workers' pay, Foxconn executive Louis Woo told Weir that the company would welcome a raise for employees. "Why not?" Woo said. "That would be good for the employees and also definitely good for China and good for us."

• Air Showers

  Workers have to wear static-proof jackets and take "air showers" to make sure the work area remains dust-free. Even one spec of dust could prove ruinous to the iGadgets' delicate innards. <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/watch/nightline/SH5584743/VD55173552/nightline-221-apples-chinese-factories-exclusive" target="_hplink">Image via Nightline</a>

• WATCH A CLIP FROM THE NIGHTLINE SEGMENT

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Comments

[Howard Scott Pearlman 59]

12:44 PM on 04/30/2012

Yes, wages increased by 21 % but, 21% of 10 dollars a day is $2.10 !

And just how much of an increase did the CEO and top management get ?

[Kenz300]

11:19 PM on 04/29/2012

We used to have child labor, forced overtime, no breaks, bad working conditions, no holidays off, work 80 hours a week, no job security and no health insurance in the US.

That is when workers fought for the right to unionize and have collective bargaining rights.

All the benefits we take for granted today were fought for and achieved by people that struggled before us.

[trojoe]

10:41 AM on 04/30/2012

True. ...but in China just saying the word "union" (or it's Chinese equivalent) is a crime punishable by a life sentence.

[Kenz300]

04:55 PM on 05/02/2012

Wages are rising in China every year faster than inflation. Their days of cheap labor are coming to an end. The Foxconn factories are a good example of what is happening all over China. Wages and working conditions are being challenged by workers.

[fltz24]

09:56 PM on 05/10/2012

It surprised me to learn all Japanese auto workers are union as well as Europeans.

[Scurvydog74]

11:21 PM on 04/28/2012

Jump! We'll hire someone else for less.

[farleft1917]

08:26 PM on 04/28/2012

Apple customers do not care about this: when will HP understand? All this hate on the richest tech company in America if not the world? Why?

Apple shows the world what American Capitalism is truly made of: tax cheats and misers.

Written on the last Apple product I'll purchase until they pay taxes and increase wages.

[fltz24]

09:57 PM on 05/10/2012

I'm with you ! I stay out of walmart as well.

[becky bradshaw]

07:24 PM on 04/28/2012

This is not a Foxconn problem. This is not an Apple problem. This is a China problem. China is the last vestige of the Communist wave that values people no more than donkeys.

In 1962, the U.N. condemned the Apartheid regime in South Africa, a regime that treated its citizens as worthless serfs of the state. Later, the United States and Europe chose to boycott all products from South Africa, which quickly led to reform.

[Sartre01]

12:12 PM on 04/29/2012

No, it's actually a capitalism problem.

[nschomer]

02:48 PM on 04/30/2012

I see nothing to validate your claims either that this has anything to do with communism, or that China is the last vestige. When wages get too high in China, we'll see more plants opening up in Bangladesh, or Myanmar, or South Sudan. You're already seeing China outsource jobs to cheaper markets.

[rich maytard]

03:34 PM on 04/28/2012

Here's a radical thought. LOCK THE DOOR TO THE ROOF!!!! Is it really that difficult of a concept?

[gopgotnosoul]

06:58 PM on 04/28/2012

Here is an even more radical thought. Treat your workforce better.

[rich maytard]

10:04 PM on 04/28/2012

They can always quit. Someone who considers suicide as an option isn't mentally stable and should be put in an environment where they're under watch and medication. And again - They can QUIT !!!

[blizzard man robot voice]

02:48 PM on 04/28/2012

http://youtu.be/wlq0lYB3iSM

Great song right guys?

[Terry]

01:03 PM on 04/28/2012

The truth of the matter is that these workers are doing much better than the average worker in China, even though conditions are intolerable. The money is good but it destroys the soul. They have found the Western media to be a useful tool. So let them make their protests, but understand we see one side of the story. In China, people are often driven to emotional outbursts that make no sense to people in the USA, because their lives are very constrained no matter where they work. The pressure from those many constraints add up and then people lose it, if they can get an audience.

The lesson is that we need to let humans be human. Losing your soul putting together an X-Box or an iPhone, should not be required.

[Kenz300]

12:45 PM on 04/28/2012

Wages are starting to rise in China.

It is time for American companies to produce products in America again.

[rich maytard]

03:39 PM on 04/28/2012

Manufacturers will just move to a cheaper source of labor. The only time manufacturing will move back to the USA is when it's cheaper to do here than anywhere else in the world.

[MuchMadness]

10:33 PM on 04/28/2012

Tariffs work, and they should be used. Anyone who says otherwise just wants to justify oppression.

[Wyldstaar]

10:49 PM on 04/28/2012

Sure! All that has to happen for that to occur is that somebody opens a factory in the US that is more flexible, efficient and cost effective than the ones which already exist in China. That should be easy, right?

Who wants to go first?

[hbssl]

12:26 PM on 04/28/2012

You go first! That will really show them. Ok Jump on 3

[gwbsucs1]

12:25 PM on 04/28/2012

i wouldn't own an apple

[GaryNOVA]

04:28 PM on 04/28/2012

apples are nutritious.

[BubblerMac]

12:16 PM on 04/28/2012

This plant makes nothing for Apple. It makes X-Box forMicrosoft. Shame on HuffPo for their shoddy fact-checking!

[liesabouttown]

11:41 AM on 04/28/2012

GERONIMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Wendy Stewart]

11:39 AM on 04/28/2012

Time to treat your employees better Apple. That is outrageous that people threaten suicide in order to make a decent living and work in better conditions, yet Apple keeps making money off the backs of these people. Shame on you Apple!

[princeperry]

11:51 AM on 04/28/2012

You see how it works. They're getting a tax break from us, to create jobs here. They pocket the money and go to China to hire cheap labor. Not are they making big bucks, and they're treating the workers like slaves.

[BubblerMac]

12:19 PM on 04/28/2012

Wendy, your outrage is correct, but aimed at the wrong company. The Foxconn plant in question makes the X-Box for Microsoft, not any Apple products. The plants that make Apple products have increased pay for workers already - at Apple's insistence. Be outraged that Microsoft is not similarly forcing Foxconn to improve conditions and pay for workers.

[vinny67]

11:37 AM on 04/28/2012

Nothing will ever change until people stop trying to be more unique than others by climbing over each other like crabs in a bucket(thanks K-os for that wonderful metaphor!). A corporation is, at it's essense, simply a reflection of the values that hold sway in a culture when you wipe off the shine.