Two days ago I told you that the Fair Labor Association, an agency specialized in checking working conditions in factories and manufactures, will carry out an analysis of the environment in which Foxconn employees who assemble iDevices for Apple work. The company from Cupertino ordered this audit and those from Foxconn were surprised when they heard that they would be investigated, although I think that in reality they knew very well what was going to happen. Auret van Heerden, the president of the FLA, visited several Foxconn factories in the last few days and concluded that there the working conditions are much better than those of other similar factories and far above those of the clothing factories in China.
I was very surprised when I walked onto the floor at Foxconn, how peaceful it is compared to a garment factory. So the problems are not the intensity and burnout and pressure-cooker environment you have in a garment factory. It's more a function of monotony, of boredom, of alienation perhaps. You have a lot of young people, coming from rural areas, away from families for the first time. They're taken from a rural into an industrial lifestyle, often quite an intense one, and that's quite a shock to these young workers. And we find that they often need some kind of emotional support, and they can't get it," he added. Factories initially didn't realize those workers needed emotional support.
In the inspections carried out in the last few days, he discovered very well-equipped factories from all points of view, and he believes that the recent suicides that took place there have nothing to do with the working conditions in the factories. He says that the employees resort to suicide because of the very busy schedule, the monotony, the boredom and the fact that they have been away from their families for a long time. Auret van Heerden claims that many of the employees come from poor families in the country and the change they go through when they work in such a factory has a strong emotional impact, which unfortunately can push them to commit suicide.
Those from FLA have over 30 employees who will organize an opinion survey in three Foxconn factories on 35.000 employees, that is, approximately 10% of the total number of people who work there. For now, everything I have told you above represents preliminary opinions, but I have a feeling that the final report will not offer new things.
