Earlier today, new criticism of Foxconn has been brought forward. The Chinese media reports that students are conscripted to work on the assembly line for the Apple supplier. Otherwise, the new iPhone 5 which is expected on Sept. 21st, would not be ready in time. Chinese students raise serious allegations against Apple's hardware shop, Foxconn. Apparently, in the Foxconn factories around 10,000 workers are need for production for components of the iPhone 5. Similar reports of this situation have been given by China Daily, Shanghai Daily and China National Radio (CNR).
A student named Song reported to "China Daily" today saying,
"Even though many of my classmates are reluctant to go to Foxconn, our teachers still asked us to work there starting in August."
Reportedly, the professors advised the students to go to Foxconn in order to "learn the corporate culture." Precisely because of this corporate culture Foxconn has been under fire for months. This "internship" does not appear to be worthy of the name. The students work twelve hours a day, six days a week on the assembly line for production of the new iPhone 5 components. If the schedule is not met, overtime had been arranged.
Yesterday, Shanghai Daily wrote that a number of students of five other colleges confirmed that they were conscripted. Fearing later disadvantages in their studies and careers, most would not have fought back. The students would be employed as full-fledged workers, which is contrary to Chinese law, the newspaper said. The radio station CNR reported that some schools have even suspended classes in order to send students to the factory. Such instruction has also come from local government agencies to support Foxconn.
According to research by The Verge, around 35,000 people work in the Foxconn factory in Huai'an. However, iPhones are not completed there, only the components for Apple phones. The final assembly takes place in the much larger factory in Zhengzhou.
These allegations are not new, in 2010, the association Sacom was trying to protect students from exploitation in the workplace by writing an open letter (PDF) to Apple CEO Tim Cook. In the troubling letter, it cites a series of suicides among the workers. Apple has not commented on these allegations so far.
Source : examiner[dot]com
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