Although it is one of America's most prestigious brands, nearly all Apple computers and iPods are made abroad, predominantly in China. As you might expect, the workers who assemble them see little of the profit.
The first factory we visited was in Longhua, just 20 miles from Hong Kong. Run by Taiwanese company Foxconn, it is the original and largest plant to be built in mainland China.
It's a sprawling place where 200,000 people work and sleep, meaning this iPod City has a population bigger than Newcastle's.
Arriving at the gates, the visitor is initially struck by the giant billboards inviting anyone over 16, the legal working age here, to apply for jobs.
Workers live in dormitories on the site, 100 to a room, arriving with a few possessions and a bucket to wash their clothes. The accommodation may be free, but it comes at a cost. No one outside the plant is allowed to visit the workers. Security is high everywhere, but especially in the five-story E3 factory which makes the Nanos. Police, not security guards, are stationed on all gates, studiously checking those entering and leaving the site to thwart rivals intent on industrial espionage.
Zang Lan, 21, from Zhengzhou in central China, has worked on the Apple assembly line for a month. Her 15-hour days earn her £27 a month about half the wage weavers earned in Liverpool and Manchester in 1805, allowing for inflation.
This is low, even for China, but Zhengzhou is a particularly poor region so workers would accept even less.
'The job here is so-so,' Zang Lan says. 'We have to work too hard and I am always tired. It's like being in the army. They make us stand still for hours. If we move we are punished by being made to stand still for longer.
The boys are made to do push-ups.' Every morning the workers, in beige jackets to denote their junior status, are taken up to the factory roof for a military-style drill.
'We have to work overtime if we are told to and can only go back to the dormitories when our boss gives us permission,' says Zang Lan. 'If they ask for overtime we must do it.
After working 15 hours until 11.30pm, we feel so tired.' Foxconn, one of the world's biggest IT companies, is currently investing £31million in plants in Beijing and Suzhou to take advantage of China's cheap workforce.
A fifth of Foxconn's million-strong workforce is deployed here, working on other Apple products, including computers. Only a tiny proportion of workers are allowed to make iPods.
The second iPod plant we visit, in the industrial area of Suzhou on the borders of Shanghai, belongs to the Asustek company. Here workers produce more than two million motherboards and 150,000 laptops a month, as well as the popular iPod Shuffle.
The site, as large as eight football fields, is surrounded by barbed wire. It employs 50,000 workers and its six gates are manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with particular attention paid to gate five which leads to factory eight, the home of the iPod Shuffle.
Here the dormitories are outside the plant, and we spoke to some of the workers at the end of their working day. Although the proximity to Shanghai means they are better paid than their Foxconn counterparts, earning up to £54 a month, they have to pay for dormitories and food, which takes up half their salaries.
Working up to 12 hours a day, their only freedom is the half-hour walk to and from work.
One 26-year-old security guard, who would not reveal his name, earns £ 80 a month.
'Factory eight is mostly made up of women as they are more honest than men,' he tells us. ' The iPod Shuffle is very easy to steal because it is so small.' The guard is virtually the only person we interviewed in the communist run country who understood the implications of China's cheap labour force.
'Payment is lower because the boss wants to reduce our costs,' he says. 'Prices need to be competitive to get orders from abroad.' Which is exactly why Apple makes its products in China.
Will Sturgeon, managing editor of IT website silicon.com, said such global operations are now commonplace."Apple are only one of thousands of companies manufacturing their products in the same places and in the same conditions,' he said. 'It's the nature of big business today to exploit any opportunity that comes their way.'
James Kynge, author of China Shakes The World, argues that despite Westerners' perceptions about working conditions in factories, the wages are a godsend that are transforming rural China. 'The money sent back to farming families from the workers now exceeds the amount made from agriculture,' he says.
'Because China has no independent unions, subcontractors like Foxconn are able to keep wages artificially low. Workers will be lucky if they make two per cent of the profit from an iPod. Foxconn will make less than ten per cent. Far more money is spent by Apple on marketing the product than making it.'
China misses out on this lucrative market because its poor global reputation means it has not been able to build its own worldwide brands.
'Even if the Chinese made their own version of the iPod and sold it at a fraction of the price, no one would buy it,' says Kynge. 'Consumers respond to the Apple logo, not the people in Chinese factories making the products.' Apple declined to comment last night.
1. How are Chinese factory workers in the 21st century similar to British factory workers from the 19th century?
2. Are these iPod factories helping or hurting China?
A.Q.
ReplyDelete1. Chinese factory workers in the 21st century are similar to British factory workers in the 19th century by their working conditions. Both groups have to work long hours during the week and they have to work overtime is the boss says so. In the article, one of the Chinese workers said that she has to work 15 hours a day but earns £27 a month which is half the wage of a British workers back in the 1800s. Also both groups don’t have any free/ leisure time because they work so many hours. In addition to, both groups didn’t really have an official minimum wage because the boss decides how much money the workers get. In the article, it says that China doesn’t independent unions so Foxconn is able to keep the wages really low. Lastly, workers are punished if they don’t continue doing their jobs.
2. These iPod factories are helping China because in the article it says “…the wages are a godsend that are transforming rural China. The money sent back to farming families from the workers now exceeds the amount made from agriculture.” This shows that iPod factories are helping people in China make money so they are being benefited. Even if the wages are low, the people still accepts it. These iPod factories is hurting China in a way because they are making apple products and they are not being recognized for it. Also, China should make their own worldwide brands to market so they can benefit themselves instead of making products for another country.
1. Chinese factory workers in the 21st century is similar to British factory workers from the 19th century. The Chinese factory workers and the British factory workers both have few possessions. Also they both are not allowed to go outside to do whatever they want.
ReplyDeleteThe wages for both the Chinese and British were low. In the text, Zang Lan from her 15-hour days earn her 27 a month. The working conditions were also bad. In China, boys had to do push ups every morning.
2. I believe the iPod factories are hurting China but at the same time helping China.
The iPod factories are hurting China because the workers are being treated with no respect and have no freedom once they work. The workers are also earning little money which will not earning a living. At the same time, the iPod factories are helping China because even though the workers are being treated badly, more products will be produced and it will help China.
DC
H.J
ReplyDelete1. Chinese factory workers in the 21st century and the British workers in the 19th Century are similar in many ways. First is that China is still considered the slow developing nation due to the communism that existed between them. Now they are developing which other countries have already finished doing. Th working conditions in both factories were very similar. The two important factors that lead up to one big factor are long hours of work and less pay. The people are also forced by themselves to work because they have no other way out of this. They have to make money by whatever means to support themselves and their families.
2. The iPod factories in China are both helping and hurting China. First to say that many people consider in to become a Super Power soon due to its massive trade and economy growth. I think its helping China more than its hurting it. Its hurting because they have poor global reputation and are unable to make their own god products. This is helping because later when their economy will rise, they will make their own brands and be the World Super Power and will be known even nowadays they're made products are almost everywhere.
1. Chinese factory workers in the 21st century are similar to British factory workers from the 19th century in the sense that both had harsh working conditions. In the 19th century, workers were forced to work in unsafe conditions such as working in the vicinity of dangerous machines. They also had to work in unsanitary locations. To make matters worse, workers had incredibly low wages. Although working conditions have improved over the past two centuries, Chinese factory workers still face some similar conflicts as those faced by British factory workers in the 19th century. For example, according to the article, Chinese factory workers who work for Foxconn work for 15-hours daily and make approximately $34. They are also forced to work in a very tense environment, where if the workers fail to stand still, they are forced to stand still for a longer period of time. In addition, workers are taken to the factory roof every morning for a military-style drill. Regardless of how working conditions have improved over the years, it is evident how some parts of the world, especially China, are still home to harsh and unfair working conditions.
ReplyDelete2. Despite the fact that Westerners consider the working conditions in China to be unethical, the workers themselves are grateful for these factories. Though $34 seems like a very low wage to someone living in a first-world country such as the U.S, that amount is actually a well amount. According to the article, Chinese factory workers consider these wages "as a godsend that are transforming rural China. 'The money sent back to farming families from the workers now exceeds the amount made from agriculture." As a result, these factories are helping to improve China and its economy.
-K.R.
1) Chinese factory workers in the 21st century are similar to British factory workers from the 19th century because this girl named "Zang Lan, 21, from Zhengzhou in central China, has worked on the Apple assembly line for a month. Her 15-hour days earn her £27 a month about half the wage weavers earned in Liverpool and Manchester in 1805, allowing for inflation." The wage she earn in a month which is £27 in U.S money thats 43.44 US Dollars. That's below China's minimum wage and America. You couldn't barely buy anything with that money.
ReplyDelete2) These iPod factories are hurting China in a way because its ruining their reputation."China misses out on this lucrative market because its poor global reputation means it has not been able to build its own worldwide brands.'Even if the Chinese made their own version of the iPod and sold it at a fraction of the price, no one would buy it,' says Kynge." While it's helping Apple because they earn a lot of profit basically China pays their worker minimum wages and people don't like that which hurts China's reputation while Apple pays less to make an iPhone, buts earns a lot of profit from selling it. So it helps Apple but hurts China in a way.
-- AN
A.K
ReplyDelete1- They are similar because they work up to 12 hours a day which is like half the amount British factory workers worked in the 19th century. The only freedom they have is to walk to and from work for a half an hour. Basically, they work in the factories without any breaks. They have to stay in the factory for as long as their duty is which is like the British workers in the 19th century who had no freedom and worked for even longer. But the concept is still almost the same.
2- I believe they are hurting China because it states in the article, "China misses out on this lucrative market because its poor global reputation". These iPod factories are hurting China because they haven't been able to build their own worldwide brands. The consumers only want the Apple logo, (official Apple products) not the products the Chinese make in the products. China's iPod factories haven't become famous all over the world yet that's why they don't have a strong reputation yet.
1. Chinese factory workers in the 21st century are similar to british factory worker in the 19th century because both worked in harsh conditions. The Chinese and the British both worked in assembly lines where they had to stand still for hours doing the same task and job over and over again.
ReplyDelete2. The iPod factories are both benefitting china and hurting it. They benefit the Chinese because the factories are located in poor areas of china where the people would work and get paid to feed their families. This is also hurting the Chinese people who work in those factories because they are thinking about stealing and quitting. The factories are locking the workers inside their plants for more than 15 hours a day and make them stand without moving doing the same task over and over again. G.M.
The Chinese factory workers in the 21st century is similar to British factory workers from the 19th century by it's long hours and work week. The Foxconn puts the worker in an endless and extreme exhausted working condition.Most of the worker have to work between 12-15 hours for the massive production that can satisfy their boss. The wages for the Foxconn employees are pretty low, it's only 27 pounds, which is extremely hard to make livilihood in China. Flash back to 19th century in Britain, there are also a massive group of people suffered from over-working and getting unfair wages.
ReplyDeleteFrom my personal opinion, the IPod factories is helping China. Although it's working condition is very hard and unimaginable. However, all of these iPod factories are at least helping China from unemployment. These factories needs a large amount of people to keep the factory functioning inorder to take the workers and machine to the maximum production. I also believe that these iPod factories can be considered as one of those steps for China's transformation. Before Foxconn, more than millions of the young Chinese who had very limited education work on farming, cleaner, or maybe a nanny. But Foxconn had explore an oppourtunity to those who are lack of choice for working.
WH
1) Conditions in which these Chinese factory workers work in are some what similar to those of British factory workers during the 19th century. The Industrial Revolution was occurring during this time period where machinery was developing and children were forced to work in harsh conditions. They worked for about 12-15 hours a day and were paid low wages. These Chinese factory workers are similar due to the fact that they work for about twelve hours to fifteen hours a day and have no free time. This articles state how 100 are put to a room, arriving with a few possessions and a bucket to wash their clothes. Workers are lucky if they would make even 1-2 % of the profit from selling these products. Both facts similar towards back then since people made very little money and lived in poor conditions. Although now in the present day, we have had machinery and corporations for quite a while so it is some what different and now you have to be over 16 to work instead of in the 19th century where kids hads body parts torn off due to how unsafe these machines were.
ReplyDelete2) I feel as if these Ipod factories hurt China since it definitely doesn't benefit it. Many workers due to the conditions they deal with such as the crowded rooms as well as earning very little each month makes them leave for better opportunity elsewhere. The articles states, "Foxconn, one of the world's biggest IT companies, is currently investing £31million in plants in Beijing and Suzhou to take advantage of China's cheap workforce.
A fifth of Foxconn's million-strong workforce is deployed here, working on other Apple products, including computers. Only a tiny proportion of workers are allowed to make iPods." This can majorly affect China if outside workforces invade China's.These conditions in the factories should smoothen for more money to be made and for China to not be taken advantage of.
1. The Chinese factory workers in the 21st century are similar to British factory workers from the 19th century because they work in sweatshops. They work for low wages in horrible working conditions. This is due to the fact of a lack of labor laws in China. Since there are hardly any labor laws factory owners are able to keep the wages down while maximizing their profit.
ReplyDelete2. The iPod factories are a necessary evil in China. The workers are paid very little and work in horrible condition. However it helps strengthen Chinas economy. This is due to the fact that it allows for a lot of business involving these apple devices to occur.
M.R.
Chinese factory workers in the 21st century are similar, in many ways, to British factory workers from the 19th century. Both had a horrible working conditions and long-hour work time. Workers in Chinese factories had to stand through their 15 hours of work everyday. They were paid the minimum wage, with £27 earned per month, according to the article. Only enough to live the most basic life.
ReplyDeleteIPod factories, in my opinion, are helping and hurting China at the same time. Due to the overpopulation in China, these factories provided job opportunities for those who needed. However, the conditions in these factories are hurting the lives of these workers. With that kind of condition, they aren't paid enough but had to accept it because for some, it's the only job they can find.
SC
Modern Day Industrial Revolution
ReplyDeleteChinese factory workers in the 21st century are like those British factory workers of the 19st century because they both get little pay for working long stressful hours assembling products such as IPhone. Similar to those British factory workers they did not have what is called a “Union” which is like insurance or regulations to protect them from unhealthy, unsanitary labor. The text states that, “we have to work overtime if told so and cannot go back to our dorms until we are allowed to.” Depicting the harsh long, tiring hours of work they have to face daily.
These IPod factories are hurting China because it makes it miss out on the lucrative market because its poor global reputation means it has not been able to build its own worldwide brands. This makes China look and seem non-modern where China relies on Apple to make its profits on the market thus, showing that it can’t build or handle its own companies. One of the workers states, “Even if China made its own version of the IPod, no one would buy it. Consumers respond to the Apple logo not to people in Chinese factories making the product." (Kynge)
WGA
1) Chinese factory workers are very similar to the British during the Industrial Revolution. Workers worked very long hours, and received very little pay. The company Foxconn is taking advantage of the cheap work force that China provides and exploiting them. The workers' jobs are similar in China and in Great Britain during their I.D. because workers are not only pain low wages for long hours of work but they also repeat the same exact repetitive boring tasks they are required to do again and again.
ReplyDelete2) This factory might be a phase in China's journey to industrialize and it is inevitable when it comes to industrializing because industrialization takes exploitation, and exploitation will show the need to make reforms. After reforms are made, the wages and work hours will be regulated and there will be higher standards when it comes to working conditions, work hours, wages, etc.
W.C.