Foxconn, the worlds largest maker of computer components, has announced that it plans to have a million robots within the next 3 years. Here’s the real kicker though. The Chinese components maker currently has one million employees. See anything a little fishy here?
Employees working on the assembly line at Foxconn in Shenzhen, China in this May 26, 2010 photo (Qilai Shen/Getty Images)
Foxconn might be a large company, but chances are you have no idea who they are. Some of their products have made it into brands such Apple, Nokia, as well as Sony. If you own an IPhone, or even a Dell Laptop, chances are good that it has passed through a Foxconn plant. The firm is baed in Taiwan, and Western companies often turn to it because of it’s cheap labor.
Foxconn has taken a lot of flak over the last couple of years for the conditions with which their employees work under. In the first half of 2010 alone, 10 suicides were reported at the companies Shenzen location. Many of you might have seen it on the television, as the suicides were becoming an epidemic. It was later discovered that many workers were putting in extremely long hours for very little pay.
The company’s found and chairman announced Friday night that things at Foxconn would change. It is presumed that the robots will be taking over some of the more menial tasks, such as soldering and packaging.
The company presently has 10,000 robots operational, with another 300,000 planned to be running by next year. For such a high-tech company, Foxconn is described as a low-tech operation. Workers perform such menial jobs as closing cases, adding decals, and all for what most westerners would consider sweatshop wages. Last year after the large number of suicides, the company announced it would be raising salaries by 70% “to safeguard the dignity of workers.” This still only amounts to about $290 a month for the average assembly-line worker.
Much of the companies employees are young migrant workers under the age of 25, coming from rural areas at the lure of the big factory jobs. “We were not allowed to talk during work,” Ma Li Qun, a 22-year-old Foxconn worker in Shenzen, said last year after his 19-year-old brother killed himself after just 73 days with the company. “We weren’t even allowed to look around. Our superiors used a stop watch to time us. We were fined for any mistakes we made.”
Yet, even despite these conditions, we still pour millions of our hard earned dollars into funding companies like this. If you think you’re not part of the problem, then stop shopping at Wal-Mart, Target, or any other big name retailer. Start inspecting all of your packaging to make sure it wasn’t made in China. Chances are that you will have a very hard time finding anything that hasn’t worked it’s way through China.
Perhaps we should start fining companies who have operations that treat employees this way. Tell them to either straighten up and offer decent working conditions, or receive heavier fines. We as consumers can also use our voice, and stop buying these products. Don’t like the way that Foxconn has treated it’s workers? Then don’t buy that new IPhone, IPod, or laptop. We as consumers don’t realize just how much power we have, much like how we as voters have power too.
If you have problems with NOT buying these products, then send their parent western companies an email, or drop them a phone call asking them to give their workers more rights. Yeah, they will probably just laugh at you, but if enough people do it, it will get down right annoying, and they will eventually have to do/say something.
I know for a fact that we westerners refuse to be treated in this manner, so we should stand up and protect those who are. Otherwise, we are no better than the slave traders of our ancestors generation. Profiting from unsafe working conditions, exploitation of workers, as well as child labour is wrong, and we really should feel ashamed of ourselves for allowing it to happen.
-Original story courtesy of 
