Online (Zoom webinar), January 28, 20219:00 AM – 10:30 AM
This book talk focuses on the life and death struggles of a new generation of Chinese workers who produce our iPhones, Kindles, and Xboxes. Between the rash of employee suicides in 2010 and the outbreak of coronavirus at the end of 2019, my colleagues and I engaged with Foxconn workers through interviews as well as their shared poems, songs, open letters, photos, and videos, supplemented with meetings with managers and government officials. Taiwanese-owned Foxconn is the world’s largest electronics manufacturer and China’s largest exporter. During the period of rapid business growth in the wake of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, Foxconn workers and interning students were transferred between factories to reach ever-higher productivity and profit goals. This reflects an emergent pattern of massive, corporate-led forced migration. From a broader perspective, the fluctuation of orders, coupled with tight delivery requirements, shifts production pressure from global buyers like Apple to Foxconn and smaller suppliers in transnational manufacturing. In key nodes of globalized electronics production, large-scale labor strikes can send important messages to the Chinese state, to Foxconn, and to global brands. Should workers at Foxconn and elsewhere succeed in organizing and mobilizing effectively, they would inspire many more to strive to make a better future together.
Dying for an iPhone 