February 22, 2012, 2:11 PM — Foxconn, the consumer electronics maker that handles assembly for a number of high-tech companies including Apple, was thrust into the spotlight Tuesday night as a national network news program took its cameras into the Chinese factory. The report airing on ABC's Nightline painted an interesting picture of Foxconn--but not necessarily interesting for the reasons you'd expect.
Foxconn has been in the news a lot in recent years, though not always for reasons that the manufacturer and its high-tech partners would hope for. The company was stung by a rash of suicides a few years ago and reports alleging poor working conditions persist.
Tuesday's Nightline report revealed a factory largely remarkable for its seeming normalcy. I had been worried that after I watched the report, I'd feel angst-ridden and guilty about using my iPad, iPhone, or MacBook Pro.
Early in the 18-minute report, Weir makes an analogy that meshed with my own take: I eat steak, but I try not to think about where it comes from when I'm sitting at the dinner table. With Nightline promising an "unprecedented" look at Foxconn, I feared Weir's investigation into Foxconn would reveal horrid working conditions that could rival any Nike or Kathie Lee controversy. The truth is, however, that the report broke little new ground into Foxconn, and actually left me feeling even less conflicted about my own continued use of Apple products.
By way of introduction
The first thing Weir's report got right was its handling of two key points that would have been wrong to ignore: He disclosed Apple's close relationship with Disney, parent company of ABC, the network that airs Nightline. (Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs was Disney's largest shareholder; now The Steve Jobs Trust holds that distinction.)
The second point Weir stressed several times throughout the broadcast was that while Apple takes the lion's share of criticism regarding the working conditions at is manufacturing plants, it's but one of many popular electronics giants that depend upon Foxconn. Among the others Weir rattled off: Nintendo, HP, Dell, and Intel.
Also worth noting: Apple seems inclined to take the lead on investigating just what goes on at Foxconn. To date, no other companies have publicly indicated any plans to follow Apple's footsteps in launching independent inspections of the facility.
Inside the factory
Your iPhone and iPad are hand-made. More than 300 workers' hands touch the iPad before it's finished. Foxconn's employees can assemble 300,000 iPad cameras in a day. They hear repeated instructions all day long--recorded voices from the automated machines that run the assembly lines.
The factory workers are young. They're not kids, but they're around college age: Weir says many are between 17 and 19, and that he didn't see anyone who looked much older than 30.
Foxconn workers sit quietly during their 12-hour shifts, repeatedly performing identical assembly line actions. Weir's report showed one worker whose job was to smooth out the space on the rear of the iPad where the Apple logo goes. There are hundreds of steps involved in creating these products--141 steps to make an iPhone--and workers perform each of the actions, by hand, over and over again.
Weir interviewed Aurent Van Heerden, the president of the Fair Labor Association (FLA) of which Apple is now a member, and the group which Apple asked to handle the Foxconn inspections. Van Heerden says that one thing his inspectors will look for is what happens when their team (or Weir's camera crew) moves through the facility. Van Heerden wants to see workers unafraid to look up and notice the strangers in their midst, not fearful of taking a moment to observe the newcomers. And as he explained this to Weir, the camera showed various factory workers seemingly doing just that--looking up, taking note of Van Heerden, Weir, and the camera crew as they walk around.
