workers

As the Fair Labor Association handed down results from its audit of Foxconn facilities yesterday, the Chinese manufacturer promised reform. But not all employees are so sure those reforms will benefit them.

Speaking to Reuters in interviews published today, a host of workers for Foxconn, which makes gadgets for technology giants ranging from Apple to Hewlett-Packard, said they're concerned the sweeping changes--including cutting hours--will cause them to earn less income.

"We are worried we will have less money to spend," Foxconn worker Wu Jun told Reuters. "Of course, if we work less overtime, it would mean … Read more

The average Foxconn worker logs at least 56 hours a week, finds the factory stressful, has seen an accident, wants better air conditioning, and plans on a tenure of about two years. That worker also wants better food in the canteen.

Welcome to Apple's supply chain.

After logging 3,000 staff hours while investigating three factories since February, the Fair Labor Association finally released its very detailed report about labor rights violations going on within the factories of Apple's largest supplier, Foxconn. What has emerged from the report is a composite sketch of the day in the life … Read more

The Fair Labor Association's scathing report of workplace abuses at three Chinese factories of Apple-supplier Foxconn was met with some skepticism by at least one labor-rights watchdog.

The violations in wages and overtime are hardly new, nor are they surprising. After all, Apple itself has documented many of these problems for years on its Supplier Responsibility Web site.

Much of the new report (PDF) acknowledges what's already known -- that workers at three Foxconn factories put in excessive overtime and get paid wages that don't often cover basic needs. But the report lays out no consequences for … Read more

Apple CEO Tim Cook has visited a Foxconn factory in China where iPhones are manufactured as the company grapples with criticism over its handling of working conditions in its supply chain.

Cook inspected a newly constructed facility in Zhengzhou, China, that employs 120,000 people, Apple spokesperson Carolyn Wu told Bloomberg. Wu declined to discuss what Cook has planned for the remainder of his visit or how much longer he's expected to be in the country.

Earlier this week, Apple's chief executive was spotted in the Joy City Apple Store in Beijing, looking over his company's products … Read more

Apple says it's making progress on working conditions in supplier facilities.

The company recently issued its monthly report on "excessive work hours" in supplier factories around the world, saying that 89 percent of workers were in compliance with a 60-hour work week. In January, 84 percent of the employed workers were found to be in compliance.

According to Apple, the typical factory worker was on the job for 48 hours each week in February.

"That's a substantial improvement over previous results, but we can do better," the company wrote on its Supplier Responsibility page. &… Read more

The workers who produce iPhones have the ability to pay for one just like anyone else, so long as they don't have even the slightest interest in buying anything else over a six-month period.

Recent reporting from ABC's Nightline revealed some of the basic numbers that define the simple and monotonous existence of the Foxconn factory line workers who assemble Apple's iPhones and iPads, Amazon's Kindles, and a slew of other devices from all sorts of recognizable brand names. Here's the number that sticks in my head, though: $1.78--that's how much one of … Read more

Two former Wintek employees who say they suffered permanent health problems while assembling iPhones in 2009 have come out in support of a petition asking Apple to demand better working conditions at overseas factories.

In a statement today, Guo Rui-Qiang and Jia Jing-Chuan, who were among those who suffered health problems as a result of exposure to n-hexane, a toxic chemical that was being used in a China factory as a cleaning agent, are asking more people to sign the petition ahead of Apple's annual shareholders meeting tomorrow.

"We have been pressuring Apple, and its new CEO Tim … Read more

The facilities at Chinese factories manufacturing iPads and iPhones are better than other factories in the country, the head of the labor rights organization tasked with inspecting the plants told Reuters.

With his iPad in hand, no doubt.

The nonprofit Fair Labor Association (FLA) was asked by Apple earlier this week to investigate conditions at Foxconn facilities in China following reports of unsafe working conditions and a significant uptick in worker suicides. The FLA expects to make its Foxconn audit results available on its Web site next month, with inspections of Apple suppliers Quanta and Pegatron to follow.

"The … Read more

With the working conditions at overseas factories still in the public eye, Apple says it's picking up the pace on when we'll see the results of its first third-party audits.

Earlier today, the company said that the Fair Labor Association (FLA), a nonprofit labor rights group Apple joined last month, is already in China doing its first round of auditing at Foxconn factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China.

The first results from those audits will go up on the FLA's site next month, with reports on additional suppliers used by Apple and other technology companies to follow … Read more