Dream - Set against the backdrop of dusty highways in South India, on a late afternoon in May 2023, a group of women in blue and pink uniforms hurriedly entered three factory buildings amidst the hustle and bustle of traffic and construction. The newly constructed factory buildings stood strong behind black barbed wire fences. The factory complex in Sriperumbudur, an industrial city in the state of Tamil Nadu, is one of Apple's most important iPhone assembly centers outside of China. This factory is operated by Foxconn, an electronics manufacturing company based in Taiwan.

Three times a day, this factory gate is opened to receive the arrival of buses carrying thousands of workers — about three-quarters of whom are women. These workers spend eight hours a day, six days a week, on busy assembly lines, soldering components, turning screws, or operating machines. The factory is one of the largest iPhone factories in India, employing around 17,000 workers who produce 6 million iPhones annually.

Most of the 232 million iPhones sold by Apple in 2022 come from factories in China, and many of them are from a large Foxconn facility in Zhengzhou. However, recent geopolitical changes have forced Apple to reevaluate its investments in China. The first is the pandemic, when Beijing's lockdown policies severely disrupted the global supply chain. Now, US intelligence assessments, published this year, say that Chinese President Xi Jinping has instructed his military to prepare to attack Taiwan in 2027, and President Biden has said that the US will defend Taiwan in such a scenario.

The heated war between the US and China could have very dire consequences, not only for the world but also for Apple's ability to produce many products behind its $2.7 trillion business. Therefore, the company is hedging against India, a country protected from China due to having the highest mountains in the world and being home to 1.4 billion people. In September 2022, Apple announced that the iPhone 14 will be assembled in India for the first time.

In April 2023, Apple CEO Tim Cook flew to India. He met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, promising to invest more in the country, and personally opened two factories in Sriperumbudur. Currently, workers at the Sriperumbudur factories are reported to be assembling the new iPhone 15, which started selling in September.

The one driving Apple's move to India is Foxconn. In 2024, Foxconn hopes to double its production at this South Indian factory to 20 million iPhones per year, and it is reported to be planning to hire tens of thousands of workers again to achieve this. ***The shift towards India indeed has winners and losers. Foxconn has a history of low wages, harsh working conditions, and strict targets at its factories in China.

And when Foxconn rushed to India to meet Apple's demands, a similar situation also occurred there. In 2021, 159 factory workers were hospitalized due to food poisoning from consuming unhygienic food in the dormitories provided by subcontractors. According to the New York Post, Indian women who assemble Apple iPhones have to survive on worm-infested food and live in rat-infested dorms without running water – all at a cost of less than $5 per day or Rp 78,000, according to a new investigation.

News about the alarming conditions in a factory with 17,000 workers emerged when Apple provided holiday bonuses of up to $180,000 or Rp 2.8 billion to several US engineers. This situation came into the public spotlight when 159 women were hospitalized due to food poisoning in mid-December 2021, triggering rare worker protests. Apple has since indefinitely put the Foxconn-managed factory on "probation" and stated that the factory will not reopen until it meets "stringent standards."

The deplorable conditions were detailed in a Reuters investigation that included interviews with six women who worked at the factory, located outside Chennai. The workers said they were forced to sleep on the dormitory floor, with a maximum of 30 women sleeping in one room. And at least one dormitory had a toilet without running water, the workers said. This was reported to have caused many women - mostly aged 18 to 22 - to experience various health problems.

"“People who live in dormitories always suffer from certain illnesses - skin allergies, chest pain, food poisoning,” said a 21-year-old woman who left the factory after protesting. “We didn't mind it because we thought it would be fixed. But now, it's affecting many people.” The female workers assemble iPhones for less than $5 or Rp 78 thousand per day. These women earn $140 per month or Rp 2.2 million - or about $4.67 per day - but have to pay Foxconn contractors for housing and meals while working in the factory."

Some activists and academics say that women recruited from farming villages to work in factories in the area are seen by employers as unlikely to join unions or demonstrate, a factor that makes protests at Foxconn factories - which do not have unions - more shocking. In one protest in December, police beat male workers from a nearby factory who joined women, then chased down and beat several women as well, said a union leader.

The police also detained 67 female workers and a local journalist, confiscated their mobile phones, and called their parents to warn them to scold their daughters. Food poisoning and protests have led to at least four investigations conducted by regional state institutions. Officials have also personally warned Foxconn to improve working conditions.***

At 9 am on December 17, 2021, two days after the food poisoning incident, a health and safety inspector from the Tamil Nadu state government appeared at the iPhone factory gate in Sriperumbudur. The inspection found that six workers who were manually soldering iPhone parts were "not provided with protective equipment," including safety glasses, chemical-resistant gloves, or respirators, according to a letter sent by the government inspector to Foxconn, a copy of which was seen by TIME magazine.

In the factory area where soldering is carried out, the inspection found that the ventilation system is not sufficient to prevent the "release and spread of toxic fumes into the working environment." The soldering process, the letter says, "is very dangerous for workers' health." In another part of the factory, the inspector found that the workers "are not provided with suitable goggles to protect their eyes from excessive light and infrared radiation."

He identified 77 automatic machines that do not have important "interlock" mechanisms on their doors to prevent operation in hazardous conditions, and 262 examples of lack of guards on pressing machines. The lack of this protective mechanism, the letter said, poses a risk of bodily injury. And six large industrial ovens used to install small electrical components onto iPhone circuit boards, according to the letter, have not been "tested by a competent person" before factory workers are expected to use them.

The inspection also found several violations of labor laws, according to the letter. At least 11 workers in the factory, he said, were required to work excessive hours for the past three months. At least 17 workers were required to work on Sundays — usually their only weekly day off — without being given a replacement day off within three days. "All toilets and urinals in the factory are not maintained in a clean and sanitary condition at all times," the letter said, and there is debris on the factory floor that poses a safety risk.

"The factory manager has failed to keep a list of workers in the factory or their salary list, said the inspector. And more than 4,500 out of 6,126 workers in the factory at the time of inspection were allegedly employed not by Foxconn, but by 11 different subcontractors who were not legally registered with the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health. The letter indicates that the inspector found many violations of state law. The same findings are likely also a violation of Apple's 127-page 'Supplier Code of Conduct'."

This code of conduct states that Apple suppliers must provide "safe working conditions," including providing personal protective equipment, ensuring adequate ventilation, and maintaining appropriate safety mechanisms on machines. Overtime must be voluntary, according to the document. Workers must receive at least one day off every seven days, it adds, and have access to clean toilet facilities. Apple does not prohibit its contractors from using third-party labor agents to supply workers, but states that these agents must be legally registered.

"Any violation of these Guidelines may jeopardize the supplier's business relationship with Apple, including termination of employment," as stated in Apple's supplier code of conduct. ***Foxconn has implemented several positive changes in the months following inspections, protests, and factory closures, according to three workers who spoke with TIME.

Foxconn removes the rule that workers must stay in subcontractor-provided dormitories and increases workers' wages by 5,000 rupees ($60) or Rp 944 thousand per month to cover the costs associated with renting accommodations independently. Both the food in the factory canteen and the working conditions on the factory floor have improved since the protests, according to the workers, although they acknowledge that there are still many issues that occur.

Although the workers interviewed by TIME agreed that the conditions in the factory have improved since the protests in 2021 and subsequent inspections, they also mentioned that there are still many issues occurring. One problem mentioned by three workers is their wages: ranging from 82 to 101 rupees or Rp 15,000 to Rp 19,000 per hour for slightly different roles within the factory.

Although the wage is more than twice the minimum wage for electronic workers in Tamil Nadu, and is still better than the risk of unemployment or working in the vast informal sector in India, the wage provides little opportunity for workers to climb the economic ladder, especially because many of them have children and elderly parents.

Before starting each daily shift at the Foxconn factory in Sriperumbudur, Foxconn managers announce the production target. On a future day, according to two assembly line workers, the target may require each worker to work on as many as 520 iPhones per hour — or one iPhone every seven seconds. At that rate, each worker on the production line can handle iPhones worth $4 million or IDR 62 billion per day.

Meena, a contract worker at the factory, said that she spends eight hours a day, six days a week, bending over at her workplace, and her fingers keep moving. "Some days, I don't even have time to go to the restroom because I have to meet my production targets," she said. "If the supervisor sees that there are piled-up products on the conveyor belt in my section, he will reprimand me." Her complex tasks - which, specifically, like her real name, are not disclosed by TIME to protect her identity - cause pain in her fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck, and back, according to Meena.

"If he changes his position to reduce his pain - for example, by crossing his legs - the supervisor will often force him to sit properly, he said. Meena is not directly employed by Foxconn. Instead, like most of her colleagues in the factory, she is employed by a third-party contractor. This system is not unique to Foxconn, according to labor lawyer Gopalakrishnan. It is common in the manufacturing sector in India, he said, because it helps factory owners maintain flexible labor and they have little legal obligations."

"\u201cUnlike permanent employees, these contract workers do not even know if they can make a living after tomorrow — that is the level of uncertainty we are talking about,\u201d said Gopalakrishnan. \u201cThe entire contract work system is designed to reduce labor costs and avoid responsibility for complying with labor laws.\u201d

Foxconn implemented a new policy earlier this year, according to workers, where if contract workers take leave on consecutive Mondays and Saturdays, their monthly salary will be reduced by 1,500 rupees ($18) or Rp 283 thousand, equivalent to several days' wages. And if workers take leave for three consecutive days, their salary will be reduced by 5,000 rupees ($60) or Rp 944 thousand, the workers said. This seems to depict further violations of Apple's supplier code of conduct. Apple stated in its documents that they maintain their suppliers to the "highest standards" of labor.

The regulation specifically states that they are not allowed to use salary deductions as a form of discipline, should not hinder workers from taking breaks in the bathroom, and must take steps to reduce "ergonomic hazards" including painful body postures from repetitive movements. In their statement to TIME, both Foxconn and Apple did not comment on allegations of salary deductions, worse conditions for contract workers, ergonomic hazards, or high production targets.

"\u201cWe work together with relevant local institutions to ensure that all recruitment efforts adhere to Foxconn's recruitment standards and guidelines, as well as local labor regulations,\u201d said a Foxconn spokesperson. \u201cWe have the highest standards in the industry for our suppliers and regularly assess their compliance with our code of ethics,\u201d said an Apple spokesperson."

Meanwhile, the most expensive iPhone 14 is sold at a price of U$ 999 or Rp 15.7 million. The most expensive iPhone 15 is sold at a price of U$ 1,099 or Rp 17.2 million. The four workers at the Sriperumbudur factory who spoke to TIME said that although they are unlikely to get higher wages elsewhere, they still feel entitled to something better. Those with the lowest income among them need about six months to save enough to buy one iPhone 15—and that's if the worker never pays rent, food, or supports their family.

"\u201cWhen I compare my salary to the price of an iPhone, it is clear that they can pay me better,\u201d said a teenage female worker. Perhaps India is a repetition of the tragedy of iPhone workers in China. Low wages have attracted Apple through Foxconn to invest in India. But in fact, the gloom for these expensive iPhone workers has not changed much. Depressing. (eha)Source: TIME, New York Post, Forbes, Bloomberg"