Inside Apple's Million-Person Chinese Factory

Nightline host Bill Weir dons a suite before entering the Foxconn facilities.

Image: ABC

The Foxconn plant that makes many of Apple’s products (and a few of Microsoft’s too) has one million employees, dozens of restaurants, movie theaters, hospitals, and swimming pools. And after complaints of low wages, cramped living conditions, and a series of highly publicized suicides leading to nets being placed around every building, the Chinese manufacturer opened it’s doors to the Fair Labor Association, with ABC’s Nightline along for the tour.

The video, which was aired last night, shows spotless working conditions and gives an interesting perspective on how life in the factory compares to the rest of China.

PC Magazine reports:

Despite the minimal pay, long hours, and close quarters (workers pay $17.50 per month to live in a seven-person dorm room), Foxconn is often a better alternative to staying in rural villages. Weir visited one such village near Chengdu, where large families lived in one-room homes with very few amenities. Despite the proximity to the Foxconn plant, though, the majority had never even seen an iPad.

Back at the plant, workers are seated at long benches assembling Apple gadgets. They get a break for lunch—which runs about 70 cents per day—and many rush their meal in order to take a quick nap before the start of an afternoon shift.

The report revealed that workers can make 300,000 iPad camera modules in a day. It takes about five days and 325 sets of hands to make an iPad, he said.

But what prompted the most interest in working conditions at Foxconn lately were the suicides—nine over a three-month period in 2010 alone. A Foxconn exec tells Weir that given the size of Foxconn, that is actually lower than the national average, but the publicity generated by the suicides prompted Apple CEO Tim Cook to travel to China and evaluate the situation. Wages were raised, a counseling center was opened, and nets were placed around the dorms to stop jumpers.

Apple is, of course, sitting on billions of dollars. At the end of the interview, Weir asks a Foxconn exec if it would be possible for Apple to use its funds to double wages at Foxconn. "Why not?" the exec responds. It would be good for China and for morale, he said.

Since Apple CEO Tim Cook visited the factory wages have increased, a counseling center was opened, and, of course, those famous nets have been installed.

To watch an excerpt of the video for yourself, take a look below.