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The truth behind Apple’s iPad
Dr. Jenny Chan
Sociology & China Studies School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies
16 September 2015Dynamics of Virtual Work
Estonia
A Chinese worker blog post (May 2010)
Perhaps for the Foxconn employees and employees like us
The use of death is simply to testify that we were ever alive at all
and that while we lived, we had only despair.
(Translated by Jenny Chan & Ngai Pun, 2010)
Suicide in China
• 18 worker suicides at Foxconn factories in 2010
o 14 died
o All were rural migrant workers, 17-25 years old
o The “suicide express”
Suicide as protest?
Safety management: can the safety nets really help save lives?
A survivor, 17 (born in 1993)iDPBG, integrated Digital Product Business Group, assembling Apple’s products at a Foxconn factory
TIAN Yu, her village home in central China
Apple, Foxconn, and Chinese Workers
Chinese rural migrant workers
• “Investigative Report on the Monitoring of Chinese Rural Migrant Workers in 2014”
274 million rural migrant workers China
• A series of government reports since 2009 (following the 2008 global financial crisis)
Source: government statistics, 29 Apr 2015
Job ads
• “There’s no choosing your birth, but here you will reach your destiny. Here you need only dream, and you will soar!”
• “You can expand your knowledge and accumulate experience. Your dreams extend from here until tomorrow.”
• Terry Gou (1950-), Foxconn founder and CEO• Founding year: 1974• Headquarters: Taipei, Taiwan(Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.) • FORTUNE Global 500 companies 32nd (2014), US$133 billion31st (2015), US$139 billion
Taiwanese-invested Foxconn: the world’s largest industrial employer more than 1 million employees in China alone
Foxconn’slocations in
Greater China
(1974-2015)
Invested in Shenzhen city, south China,1988
Foxconn (1974-present)Company name: to produce connectors at nimble “fox-like” speed
In Chinese: “wealthy and healthy”
Longhua town, Shenzhen city, Guangdong
Foxconn: the world’s largest electronics manufacturer (more than 50% of the global market share)
40% of Foxconn revenues are from Apple
The World’s Most Valuable Brands
2014 Name Country Brand Value (US$ Millions)
1 USA 104,680
2 Korea 78,752
3 USA 68,620
Source: Brand Finance (2014)
Apple leapfrogged Google in 2012 and Samsung in 2013
“buyer-driven” supply chain• Apple dictates price-setting and the timing of
product delivery
• Intense pressures for Foxconn workers
On the factory floor• Achieve goals or the sun will no longer rise.
• Value efficiency every minute, every second.
• Execution is the integration of speed, accuracy, and precision.
• There is no best way, but always a better way.
• The devil is in the details.
Distribution of value for the iPad
Apple's gross profits30%
Distribution and retail
15%
Suppliers' gross profits
17.4%
Raw materials31%
Non-China labor (to manufacture
components)5%
China labor (for components and
assembly)1.6%
Source: Adapted from Kenneth L. Kraemer, Greg Linden and Jason Dedrick, 2011, p. 11.
The Truth of the Apple iPad (YouTube)
Foxconn, Chengdu city, Sichuan Province, southwest CHINAInside “iPad City”, 2011
Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (Hong Kong)
Hong Kong student protestors role play Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Foxconn injured workers (Hong Kong, May 2011)
Student labour150,000 student-workers (summer 2010)
The Education Department directs students to intern at Foxconn
End to iSlavery
Hong Kong Apple Store, International Finance Center, opening day, 24 Sep 2011
How does Apple respond to worker exploitations in its supply chain?
“I want you to know that more than 1,400 of Apple employees are stationed in China”
(Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, Dec 2014)
• Apple-funded investigations at Foxconn, 2012-13
• Compliance with Apple Supplier Code of Conduct
Apple: joined Fair Labor Association (FLA) as member
A new generation of Chinese workers
• Better-educated (high school; vocational training)
• Urban outlook, city smart
• Less tolerant of injustice and abuses
• Highly motivated to demand higher wages, better working conditions, and welfare benefits
“Legal activism”
• Labor Contract Law (2008; revised 2013)
• Labor Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Law (2008)
• Social Insurance Law (2011)
o Rising rights consciousness of Chinese workers
o “Use the law as your weapon!” (Ching Kwan Lee; Mary Gallagher; Benjamin Liebman)
Arbitrated Labor Disputes in China, 1996-2012
0
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
700,000
800,000
0
200,000
400,000
600,000
800,000
1,000,000
1,200,000
1,400,000
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
CasesPersons
Laborers Involved in Arbitration (Persons)
Arbitrated Labor Disputes (Cases)
Source: 2013 China Labor Statistical Yearbook (2014)
Threatening to jump from the factory’s roof while demanding a fair wage (Jan 2012)
(Photo: Foxconn workers)
• Beverly Silver (2003) Forces of Labor: China as an epicenter of world labor unrest
“In a tightly integrated production supply base,
such as China,
‘the potential geographical ramifications of disruptions’ can be extensive.” (Silver 2003: 6)
• Struggle over the rights to production and social reproduction
• From local struggles to broader social transformation
SACOM (Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior)www.sacom.hkHong Kong
global solidarity actions
The Chinese dream: the rise of China
Realize the great Chinese Dream
Construct a middle-class society together
Consolidate the Party’s foundation
Build a harmonious society
(a government banner, 2013, my translation)
A Foxconn worker committed suicide on 30 Sep 2014
A screw fell to the groundIn this dark night of overtimePlunging vertically, lightly clinkingIt won’t attract anyone’s attentionJust like last timeOn a night like thisWhen someone plunged to the ground.
(Translated by Friends of the Nao Project, 2014)
Dying for an iPhone(in Spanish)
2014
PUN NgaiJenny CHAN
Mark SELDEN
2015
潘毅 PUN Ngai陳慧玲 Jenny CHAN
馬克．塞爾登Mark SELDEN
(in Chinese)
2015
PUN NgaiJenny CHAN
Mark SELDEN
