Apple manufacturer Foxconn to allow union elections

Foxconn, the manufacturer of Apple’s iPhone and iPad, will for the first time allow workers to elect union representatives, in the latest sign of reform in its vast Chinese factories.

14-year-olds employed on Foxconn factory production line
Foxconn assembles the iPhone and iPad Credit: Photo: Kin Cheung/AP

The firm said it would hold elections for a chairman and 20 members of its Federation of Labour Unions Committee every five years. Taiwan-based Foxconn employs around 1.2 million workers across China.

The move comes in response to pressure on Foxconn from Apple and its own workers over pay and conditions. Protests, unofficial strike action and even riots have caused disruption. A spate of reports of worker suicides in 2009 and 2010 brought the issue into the media spotlight.

Apple forced Foxconn to allow its facilities to be inspected by the Fair Labor Association, which identified lack of proper union representation as key failing, as well as long hours and low pay, and safety concerns. The current chairman of Foxconn's labour union in China is Chen Peng, a senior member of the firm's management.

“The process through which Foxconn’s current labour union representatives were chosen was not democratic because there was no open and transparent nomination of candidates, and it is not representative because more than half of the committee members are from management,” a person working on the election plans told the FT.

According to a New York Times report in December, Foxconn had carried out more than 280 of the 360 changes called for by the Fair Labor Association.

Apple recently announced that it would begin manufacturing some of its new Mac computers on home turf after years of relying on Chinese labour. Foxconn has said it will open its first facilities in the United States.