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A bell clangs to signal the end of the work shift. Your replacement is standing behind you, waiting to take over and obediently steps in without missing a beat of the production flow. You walk a short way down an alley and into a massive dorm that is home to 210,000 of your coworkers, half of the existing workforce. You walk down a sterile, dim hallway to your room that is the size of a garage and shared with 7 others, one of which shares your bed since there are only 4. You might watch TV in a stark community room or wash your clothes and yourself on a balcony set up for that purpose. Then, back to work you go after sleeping on a barely 1 inch thick pad for a bed.
That is what it’s like to work for electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn in China, the makers of our beloved iPhone. Wired.com sent a team there to take photos for an upcoming feature focusing on the worker’s conditions and reported abuse allegations along with the unprecedented 11 suicides that have occurred there.
Article comments point out that the conditions photographed at Foxconn aren’t all that bad compared to other places in China, and I suppose it wouldn’t even be in our sights at all if it wasn’t the birthplace of the wildly popular iPhone.
But here is an example of the extreme exploitation of people at the hands of capitalism, found throughout Asia and any other third-world or newly industrialized country.
I love my iPhone and extend my thanks to those that suffered to make it.
