Harrison was Business Insider's first international correspondent, covering global issues, international technology industries, and travel from both a budget and a luxury perspective. 'There's a lot of freedom in this job,' he said. Zhang pushed back on the notion that workers' situation was bad. And workers know they're easily replaceable - China has 99 million factory workers, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated in 2009. Many have suggested that such practices create a culture of silence. The Guardian reported last year that if someone were to mess up, a manager could force them to prepare a formal apology to read to their coworkers. Employees told CNET in 2012 that managers would often subject employees who made mistakes to public humiliation. Other reports don't portray life in the factory as rosy. 'Here, I am sure of getting extra pay for working overtime.' 'Most of the Chinese factories out there have owners who would delay or even cancel payment of salaries,' he said. We visited 'iPhone City,' where half of the world's iPhones are made. 'All I want is to be with the people I like and not worry about food and clothing.' 'I don't have many big dreams,' one teenage Foxconn worker told the newspaper. In Shenzhen, considered by many to be China's Silicon Valley, there are stories of entrepreneurial factory workers who go on to start companies. Others speak of opening their own business. One worker told the South China Morning Post that he hoped to leave Foxconn within the year, using the skills he learned making phones to open a phone-repair shop.

Zhang's and Chen's perspective is far from the only one. In Zhang's and Chen's eyes, it was another factory job, albeit perhaps one that paid slightly better, was closer to home, or required fewer hours. That better opportunity didn't seem to be a promotion, a different career, or owning a business. One day, there may be a better opportunity. We never really thought about the future. The Foxconn Zhengzhou Science Park is actually more than 20 miles outside downtown Zhengzhou, separated by freeways, suburbs, and dirt scrublands.īut with a workforce rivaling that of many US cities, the factory has sprouted what residents have dubbed 'iPhone City.' There, factory workers live in dorms in 10- or 12-story buildings outside Foxconn's gates, while a migrating workforce of entrepreneurs and vendors sets up shop below to make a living cooking street food, offering massages, or selling socks and other knickknacks.Ī representative for a banking service helping a Foxconn employee open an account.

In the busy summer months before the fall release of a new iPhone, the factory produces 500,000 phones a day, or up to 350 a minute. The factory, run by the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn, employs about 350,000 people and produces about half of the world's iPhones. If you use an iPhone, chances are it was made at a sprawling factory complex in Zhengzhou, China, a city of about 9.5 million people in what is historically one of the country's poorest provinces, Henan. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.

Factory town fish