New video reveals a well-equipped, modern Foxconn factory

Ever wanted to be one of the lucky ones to visit Foxconn and see how Apple products are made? Well, you’ve just got lucky! Marketplace have released a video on how the iPad 2 is made at Foxconn’s Longhua facility in the city of Shenzhen. The belief among those people who have not seen the facility, but have been hearing a lot about the factories is that it is a stereotypical factory or a Chinese sweatshop. The Foxconn facility in Shenzhen, on the contrary, is a huge facility with dorms for their 50,000 stronghold. The facility has many fast food restaurants, banks, cafes, grocery stores, a wedding photo shop, and an automated library. In addition to that, there are basketball and tennis courts, a gym, swimming pools and a football stadium. The conditions out there don’t seem to be as severe as what has been reported in the past, which includes workers committing suicide or they not being paid enough amount of money as a part of their salary. There are also safety nets placed 20 feet above the ground as a precautionary measure, considering that in the past, several workers jumped to their death. 

It is not just the workers at the Foxconn unit, who do the work of assembling the iPad 2; machines, in fact do most of the heavy tasks that involve pushing the battery into the housing or testing the different parts and sensors of products, such as the Gyroscope that help you play games that require you to  tilt the device. Workers, on the other hand are given tasks, like installing the motherboard and the LED touchscreen display. Interestingly, to ward off boredom arising out of monotony, the jobs assigned to the workers are rotated every couple of days.  

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Workers at the factories, are typically here to send the money they earn to their families back home. The conditions in which these workers live in the factory’s dorms are seemingly much better, than that back home. Workers also feel that Foxconn is one of the best places to work at, as compared to the other Chinese factories, since they (Foxconn) invest millions into providing the workers with amenities that are scarce near their homes.