The dormitories at Foxconn's Zhengzhou plant.
(Credit: Jay Greene/CNET)
Think for a second about the people you don't think about.
They go to work in giant factories in China by the hundreds of thousands to make consumer electronics such as your iPhone. They work long hours for wages we'd consider unconscionable, but for many of them may well be aspirational. They've left their homes to travel around China as digital age migrant workers, helping Foxconn and other contract manufacturers fulfill orders during their busiest seasons. They live in tight quarters in huge dormitories. And at the end of the month, they hope to have enough money to send home to their families.
Sometimes, after paying for food and dormitory rent, that doesn't happen. So they work overtime to get ahead. And they're often reluctant to make waves. For all they may not like about what they're doing, there are plenty of other people who would happily take that work, and other countries -- where workers would be paid even less -- that would welcome those factories with open arms.
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