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Article

16 Jul 2006

Author:
Kathleen E. McLaughlin, San Francisco Chronicle

China's young make them, America's youth buy them -- Apple probes work conditions

Weary workers...migrants in their own country...born poor in rural China...come to this manufacturing mecca to make the latest gadgets for the world - the iPods, cell phones and laptops that they can't afford...mega-factory complex of Foxconn Electronics, trade name of Taiwanese electronics giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Corp., which makes components and devices for...[including] Apple, Cisco Systems, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Nokia and Sony...Recent charges that Foxconn workers making iPods here earn low wages and work crushingly long hours has spurred an investigation by Apple and stinging criticism from around the globe...A recruiting poster tacked to a utility pole near the factory's main gate tells the story in black and white. Foxconn, it says, seeks 16- to 21-year-olds to work in production for $72.50 to $80 per month, plus housing and meals, and hourly overtime...At Foxconn, even the housing benefit is in danger. Some 2,000 employees have already left the factory after learning they would be charged for their rooms starting this month, just as the minimum wages were set to increase...Neither Foxconn nor Apple responded to requests to go inside the factory...