Last January a 23-year-old student of industrial-machine design was attracted to work at Foxconn's Longhua plant by what he understood would be a month long "work placement" during which he would earn good money.
In fact, he says, he was exposed to a dangerous chemical without adequate protection, worked 10 days without a break, and got half the money promised by the training college that recruited him. "They disguised the nature of the work by calling it a work placement, but in fact it was manual work during the [Chinese new year] winter holidays," said Cui (he declined to give his first name to protect his identity).
Eager to pay for his studies at Anyang school of engineering in the central province of Henan, he responded to an ad from a nearby vocational training college, Zhou Ko Lian Ying. Lured with the promise of enough overtime to earn 3,000 yuan (about £300) after expenses in a month, he and 60 other students paid the medical exam fee and 600 yuan for a return bus ticket to the coastal town of Shenzhen. Cui worked applying paint and assembling parts, some of which bore Apple logos. The standard shift was 10 hours, including breaks totalling two hours.
"As soon as you enter the factory, you are standing throughout the day. It was very tiring." He got one day off a week, although at one point worked 10 days in a row. He was asked a number of times to spend a shift removing badly applied paint from parts using cloths soaked in a chemical, butanone. While longer-serving workers got breathing apparatus, and were under air vents, Cui and fellow interns were issued with simple face masks. "I felt dizziness after a few days," he says.
The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says butanone can cause dizziness, vomiting and numbness of the extremities. In tests on rats it has caused birth defects. Cui rented a bunk in one of the dormitories used by many Foxconn workers; eight to a room, one locker to store possessions, no kitchen, and no tables or chairs. No use of power sockets except for phone charging; anyone caught using a kettle would be disciplined. Most dorm mates were not temporary workers, but had lived there for one or two years.
After paying food and board, and missing out on shifts during the public holiday – for which he hoped to earn triple pay – Cui says he was told two days before leaving that he would be paid 2,900 yuan, leaving him just 1,500 yuan after expenses.
With fellow students, he complained to the local police but was told the fault was with the college that had employed them and therefore out of their jurisdiction. Foxconn managers refused to meet them to discuss the problem, he says. When they turned to a local commercial lawyer, they were told: "Foxconn makes so much money, and has such importance to local companies that if you fight them here you won't get anywhere."
