Tick. Tick. The release of Apple’s new iPhone is around the corner. Worldwide media has already joined excited Apple fans in speculation about the iPhone 5’s possible sales.
Meanwhile in Huai’an (淮安), a municipality of about 4.8 million people in the province of Jiangsu, locals have much more mixed feelings about the debut of the iPhone 5. The reason is simple: According to Chinese media reports, college classes have been suspended and students have been involuntarily sent to the local Foxconn plant as extra workforce for the production of iPhone 5’s. Foxconn is a major Taiwan-based parts manufacturer with plants throughout China, and has been cited in the past for overworking its employees.
On September 4, a student (@阿里嘛嘛小迷糊) from Jiangsu Professional Vocational and Technical College of Finance and Economics (江苏财经职业技术学院) tweeted the following on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter:
“I am a third-year student at Jiangsu Professional Vocational and Technical College of Finance and Economics. We just started school when we heard the news that we have to intern at Foxcoon for two months. The reason is ridiculous: Foxconn is in urgent need of manpower, about 10,000 people, so students from the whole college town were dragged to intern for them. Problem is, I’m not a student of electronics or mechanics. We mainly study accounting, law, and management … SOS! Retweet this if you can. Thanks!” {{Chinese}}[[Chinese]]我是江苏财经职业技术学院的大三学生，刚刚开学，就得到消息，要去淮安富士康实习2个月。原因可笑至极：富士康缺人，急需10000人，于是我们整个大学城的学生就被拉过去被实习了。关键是我学的不是电子和机械！基本都是会计，法律，工管⋯⋯请求帮助，SOS！帮忙转一下，谢谢了！[[Chinese]]
It is common practice in China for universities to make internship arrangements with local businesses so that students can work in the corporate world, learning on the job and earning school credit based on their internship performance. But exactly how hard is it to be a qualified Foxconn “intern”? According to a Chinese National Radio report, the Foxconn plant in Huai’an specializes in producing cables and chargers for Apple products, and as a worker himself from the plant explains, with an ID and a higher-than-middle-school degree, you’re good to go. It is obvious how little practical training students are likely to get from working on a Foxconn assembly line for two months.
In the same report, students told reporters that they had heard nothing about plans for the internship until the new semester started. The work that they now do—mostly work on the assembly line—surely has little or nothing to do with whatever students are studying in school. Students have to work for eight hours a day, alternating between two shifts. According to one student who took more than a glance at the work contract, their monthly compensation is 1,550 RMB (about US$244), about 220 RMB of which is kept by Foxconn as their accommodation fees at the factory.
Students from most Huai’an universities were brought along during this move, possibly with local government approval. According to Huai’an’s local news website, www.hynews.net, the vice mayor of Huai’an stressed in a meeting on August 16 that it was a priority to find workers for Foxconn for the coming three months.
Original protests from students were ineffective; after all, the schools had control over students’ academic credits. If you don’t work for Foxconn, you won’t get your internship credit, and you won’t graduate. But as the news has spread, schools have backed down from their position. On September 5, ”News Sweep” (新闻纵横), a well-known program on China Central Televisions’ Channel 1, covered the news, and overnight, the government of Huai’an issued a short statement asking universities to comply with educational laws and resolve the problem promptly.
But as things get better for folks in Huai’an, it’s been reported that the conscription frenzy is still going strong in other places in China, including Taiyuan, Shanxi Province and Yantai, Shandong Province. For some of China’s university students, it looks like it’s going to be a long semester indeed.
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