Foxconn

Before I address major global issues brought on by Foxconn practices, get this:

Foxconn DOES supply electronic goods to a large number of international corporations (Apple, Microsoft, Sony and Intel to name a few) in a variety of nations, but they mostly focus on assembly work, NOT manufacturing. The actual construction of many of the electronic components used in creating something like an ipod (like the screen, case and capacitors) are done elsewhere. Foxconn has these 'base' materials shipped to their various plants where they are then assembled into a final product and delivered to the company commisioning the work. Lovely.

 

A map illustrating Foxconn's coverage.

This means that my research has gotten a little bit tricky. I've been trying to source Foxconn's suppliers for things like raw silicon, aluminum and glass but the information is proving difficult to verify. It's not too hard to nail down main world suppliers of these materials, but there is little to no connection between them and Foxconn as a buyer. I'll be making another post later tonight outlining the situation, but I doubt I'll make much headway.

Anyways, back to our topic.

There has been a huge media focus on the working environment in Foxconn facilities. If a person were to take a look at the Foxconn Technology website, the initial impression of the company's "campuses" would likely be positive.

A variety of stores are available for employees to buy from

Fast food!

There's even a hospital.

 
However, nowhere on their site is information being provided regarding the other, more internationally popular features of the company campus.

Such as these nets designed to stop employees from killing themselves by jumping off buildings.

It doesn't take a lot of effort to find online articles focused on exposing the deplorable working conditions within Foxconn campuses.

A screencap of the first page of results on google

For a globally concious individual, what does this mean? Considering that the multinational corporations doing business with Foxconn only made efforts to criticize the company when allegations of employee mistreatment reached international media outlets, I'm thinking that we have a very strong contender for our blog. Western consumers want their ipods, computers, and cellphones just as much as they want the source workers responsible for those products to be well taken care of. Globalizing companies realize this and present an image speaking towards consumer empathy, however fabricated that image may be. It's only when the consumer revolts and threatens to disrupt the stream of wealth fueling globalizational enterprise that the disjunction between reality and fabrication is rejected and 'efforts' are made to improve over seas working conditions.

Sweatshop sublime indeed.

I wanted to try to briefly outline the situation instead of link bombing readers, but for anyone who is interested here are some well done articles better discussing the situation:

An in depth documentary featuring video footage from Chinese television networks covering the story

Another article deconstructing Foxconn's employee mistreatment, with the additional bonus of hard numbers and evidence

The writer of this piece points out western worry over lack of ipad 2 units, and the simultaneous ignorance of western consumers to the deaths of workers associated with the reason for that shortage