A week after Apple said the Fair Labor Association was starting independent investigations of the working conditions at its partners' factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China, ABC News was able to take its cameras into Foxconn's factories for a look at how iPhones, iPads and MacBook computers are made — and what the conditions are like for workers there who make about $1.78 an hour.
Masked and gloved workers at the iPad plant told Nightline correspondent Bill Weir that they handle up to 6,000 units each during shifts that can last 1o hours. A robotic feminine voice says "Okay," "Okay," "Okay," as each iPad is "born," Weir says.
"A supervisor will bark the occasional order in Mandarin, but on this line the machines do most of the talking while the people work in silence. Their faces are blank as they insert a chip or wipe a screen or plug in a diagnostic cable to hear that everything is "Okay."
And they will repeat that motion and hear that fembot voice a few thousand more times before lunch. It is just an average day at Foxconn."
Most of Apple's products are built by hand, Weir said, noting that Foxconn also handles production for other tech companies including Intel, Dell and Nintendo. But Nightline said it was only given access to the factory floors where Apple's product are put together.
There are more than 235,000 workers at Foxconn's factories in Shenzhen, about the same as the population of Orlando, Florida, ABC notes. Photos show eight workers sleeping in a single room in dormitories that are surrounded by the suicide prevention nets that went up in 2010 after more than a dozen workers killed themselves.
Notes Weir: "The average starting salary at Foxconn is around $285 a month or $1.78 an hour. Even with 80 hours of overtime, it's considered so low that the Chinese government does not deduct any payroll taxes."
Foxconn last week said it was raising the wages of workers by 16 to 25 percent, the third pay hike since 2010. That puts the monthly pay at $285 to $350 per month.
Still, the stories of suicide, hazardous conditions and long workdays didn't stop more than 3,000 people from showing up outside of a Foxconn recruitment center in Shenzhen in search of a job, ABC said in its special report called "iFactory: Inside Apple." Foxconn told Weir that it would hire 80 percent of those who rushed its gates that day, looking for a job.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said Feb. 13 that the Fair Labor Association will conduct audits at facilities in China where more than 90 percent of the company's products are assembled. While it has done its own audits over the past few years, Apple — which has become the most valuable company in the world in terms of market value — is being called on to push through changes at its Chinese suppliers.
Earlier this month, Change.org delivered petitions signed by more than 250,000 people asking Apple to take a more forceful stance with suppliers in China.
Weir met up with FLA President Auret van Heerden and his team as they started their audit, which Apple is paying for, Weir said. The FLA is expected to post the results of its investigations and its recommendations on its website in March.
