Foxconn, the manufacturing partner of Apple, has used forced student labour to make its iPhones. Students are forced to work up to 12 hours a day, often working night shifts without being paid for overtime. They earn as little as 65% of the local minimum wage and are forced to take the placements in order to graduate with a degree.

Last year 3,000 students from the Zhengzhou Urban Rail Transit School undertook internships at a Foxconn factory to work on the assembly line, and the program received support from local government. The placements often have nothing to do with students’ studies. While Apple claims it wants to ensure high labour standards in its supply chains, it put pressure on suppliers to produce its $999 phones as cheaply as possible.

In this video, Hongkong based labour NGO Sacom states that Apple has "launched an iSlave project to produce faster and make more money".  In order to achiev this, Apple suppliers like Foxconn use the workforce of thousands of students from hundreds of vocational schools. 

"For years Foxconn has been able to get away with using ‘student interns’ who are not legally recognised as employees, and are often forced by their schools to work at the company’s plants. In 2010, 28,044 student interns from over two hundred technical and vocational schools from all over China were assigned to the integrated Digital Product Business Group (iDPBG), a Foxconn business group that exclusively serves Apple, to work alongside Foxconn employees in Shenzhen." (Jenny Chan)

#iSlaveat10