【英语科技】富士康深圳园区工人的真实生活

In recent months Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., or Foxconn as it is better known, has done an about-face with its public relations policy, opening its doors to several different Western media companies, including The Wall Street Journal. In the past, the secretive assembler of electronics for global brands like Apple Inc. and Nintendo has only infrequently allowed foreign media inside its city-sized factory campuses.

The new media blitz is the second act in Hon Hai's public makeover, following the publication in March of findings from an audit carried out by the Fair Labor Association and an ensuing pledge by the company to improve overtime, health and safety violations found by the investigation. Two years ago an outbreak of more than a dozen suicides first brought major media attention to Hon Hai's China factories which employ about 1.5 million people and since then an unfortunate mélange of plant explosions, worker riots and child labor violations has meant the spotlight has never strayed too far from the Taiwanese company.

The Wall Street Journal visited Hon Hai's 'campus' in Shenzhen home to more than 200,000 workers in early December. On the day we visited, Hon Hai said they were conducting an audit, which meant we weren't able to visit the main production facilities. We were, however, able to see the kitchen, a dormitory, the employee care center, and a cafeteria among other locations on campus places that provided interesting insights into the everyday lives of the workers who churn out some of the world's most popular electronics products.

The company has worked to improve the lives of workers in recent years, though its efforts haven't all been as successful as some might have hoped.

This was evident in the Shenzhen facility's new employee care center, which gets an average of 1,200 calls and 10 in-person visits per day, according to staff. Consultations are free and the volume of interaction suggests many workers are getting help they likely otherwise would have gone without. On the other hand, staff indicated that few of the calls or visits are kept anonymous. If an employee is deemed to have a problem and a risk assessment is carried out, for example, the worker's manager is informed and brought in to explain what issues the worker has had hardly the sort of system that encourages frank discussion.

The worker dorms have been recently outsourced to a management company that allows friends to live together. Despite the change, many workers we talked to said they preferred to live off campus to escape strict oversight by guards, who perform spot-checks on dorm rooms and enforce other rules in an occasionally harsh manner though others defended the guards, saying worker behavior on campus was occasionally out of line.

Hon Hai has also seen mixed results with the campus learning center, which now offers expanded educational opportunities, including an array of training courses and degree programs from junior college to doctorates. Hon Hai says that around 22,000 employees had enrolled in programs at the center, which represents roughly 10% of the work force. Some workers we talked to said they preferred to study on their own or take classes off campus where hours were more flexible. One worker said that, with his long working hours, he'd likely only have time for maybe three classes a month at Hon Hai's center and predicted he wouldn't learn anything.

Still, Hon Hai is trying, and according to labor groups and workers, many aspects of life at the company's Shenzhen facility are better than at other electronics factories in the area where management can be cruel, facilities lacking, overtime extreme and pay docked (or even eliminated) for trivial violations of strict factory rules.

The biggest change for Hon Hai employees will come next summer, when legal overtime restrictions of 9 hours per week are officially put into place. To keep workers around after overtime drops, the company has said it will have to raise wages. Workers interviewed separate from the tour were for the most part aware of the looming restrictions on overtime, but far less certain about whether wages would rise to make up for the cut back in hours. One worker interviewed said there were rumors that base wages could rise 50%, matching a projection by Sanford Bernstein about what Hon Hai would have to do to keep workers after cutting overtime. But the worker was quick to add, 'I really don't believe that number.'

How Hon Hai will do under the new policies depends in part on the company's credibility of workers who are suspicious that the changes will result in less pay for them. It also depends on how much of the costs Hon Hai is able to pass on to end-brands like Apple, who make a premium on the cheap production.

It's important to remember that, despite Hon Hai's massive scale and deep experience, there are other manufacturers out there who could seize the opportunity to grab a bit of Hon Hai's business. One example is Pegatron Corp., the listed manufacturing spinoff of popular Taiwanese computer company Asustek Computer Inc., which often vies with Hon Hai for Apple contracts. Still mostly unheard of globally, the company could come in and undercut Hon Hai for some orders. Nonetheless companies like Pegatron are probably hoping to use any raises in Hon Hai's fees to accomplish the same feat themselves and get more from the branded companies that enjoy better margins.

Paul Mozur

Paul Mozur/The Wall Street Journal一名女子走出富士康深圳龙华工厂大门。
这几个月，鸿海精密工业股份有限公司(Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.，又名富士康)在公关政策方面来了个180度大转弯，向《华尔街日报》等几家西方媒体公司敞开了大门。而在过去，它只有很少几次让外国媒体进入其有如城市般大小的工厂园区。富士康一向行事隐秘，是苹果(Apple Inc.)和任天堂(Nintendo)等国际品牌的电子产品组装商。

Paul Mozur/The Wall Street Journal图为富士康深圳园区员工关爱中心内的一间咨询室。透过窗户的防盗网可以看到为防止员工自杀而设置的安全网。打响这次媒体新“闪电战”是富士康进行公关改革的第二幕。此前，美国公平劳工协会(Fair Labor Association)今年3月公开了一份针对富士康的审计报告。报告发现，该公司存在违反加班、健康和安全规定的情况。随后，富士康承诺将做出改进。两年前，10多起自杀事件第一次让媒体把主要目光投向了中国内地的富士康工厂(其雇员规模约为150万人)。此后，富士康成了一连串不幸事件的发源地，如工厂爆炸、工人骚乱和非法雇佣童工等。这意味着媒体聚光灯从未远离这家台湾企业。

《华尔街日报》记者今年12月初参观了富士康深圳园区，这里共有雇员20余万人。在我们参观的当天，富士康说自己正在进行检查，这也就意味着我们无法参观主要生产设施。不过，我们可以去厨房、宿舍区、员工关爱中心和自助餐厅等地方参观。这些地方让我们有机会了解到富士康工人日常生活的一些细节。全球一些最炙手可热的电子产品就是在他们手上大批量生产出来的。

富士康这些年一直在努力改善员工的生活水平，尽管该公司的努力并非总像一些人期待的那么成功。

Paul Mozur/The Wall Street Journal女员工宿舍。每间宿舍一般有八个床位。有关这一点，在富士康深圳园区新的员工关爱中心体现得十分明显。该公司雇员表示，这个中心平均每天会接到1,200个来电和10人次的登门拜访。富士康在这里为员工提供免费咨询，而互动数量表明，如果不是有这个关爱中心的话，很多工人是有其他渠道获得帮助的。另一方面，也有员工表示，不管是电话还是登门拜访都几乎不能保证匿名。举例来说，如果某员工被认为有问题并且对其进行了风险评估，那么此人的经理就会接到通知，然后该经理就会被叫去解释这个工人有什么问题。也就是说，这不是一种鼓励员工畅所欲言的制度。

富士康的员工宿舍前不久外包给了一个管理公司，该公司允许关系较好的同事住在一起。尽管有了这样的变化，仍有很多员工对我们说，他们更愿意住在园区外，避开保安的严格监督。富士康的保安会到员工宿舍进行现场抽查，有时还会非常严厉地执行其它规定。不过也有人为保安辩护，说园区工人偶尔也有出格行为。

Paul Mozur/The Wall Street Journal宿舍大楼内有富士康员工教育中心。富士康也发现，厂区内设置的学习中心的效果也是好坏参半。这个学习中心目前提供大量教育机会，其中包括一系列培训课程以及从大专到博士的学位课程。富士康表示，大约有2.2万名员工参加了学习中心提供的各种学习项目，人数约占工人总数的10%。与我们交谈过的一些员工说，他们更愿意自学或在厂区外上课，因为上课时间更为灵活。一位工人说，由于上班时间很长，他在富士康的学习中心一个月可能只能上三次课，他预言自己学不到什么东西。

不过，富士康正在努力。据劳工团体和工人说，富士康深圳厂区在生活上的许多方面比当地其它电子厂商要好。那些工厂的管理非常严酷，设施缺乏，长时间加班，只要工人稍稍违反严格的厂区规定就会被克扣工资甚至被停发薪水。

Paul Mozur/The Wall Street Journal富士康深圳园区内有十几家餐厅。图为工人在其中一家餐厅吃饭。对于富士康员工来说，最大的变化将在明年夏天得以体现。届时每周九小时的法定加班上限将正式开始实行。在加班时间减少以后，为了留住员工，富士康说它会给员工加薪。在另外的采访中，大多数受访员工都了解有关加班时间即将变化的消息，但很不确定涨薪幅度能否弥补因加班时间缩短造成的收入减少。一位接受采访的工人表示，有传言说基本工资将上升50%。这与咨询公司Sanford Bernstein的预计一致。后者曾表示，在加班时间被缩短后，富士康必须让基本工资上升50%才能留住员工。但这位工人很快又说，我真的不相信这个数字。

新政策推出后富士康的表现如何，部分取决于员工是否信任公司。员工怀疑政策的变化将导致其收入下降。这也取决于富士康能将多少成本转嫁给苹果等终端品牌。后者正是依靠富士康的廉价生产赚取高额溢价。

重要的是要记住，尽管富士康拥有巨大的规模和深厚的经验，仍有其他厂商能够抓住机会分食富士康的业务。其中一个例子是和硕联合科技股份有限公司(Pegatron Corp., 简称：和硕)。这家上市生产企业是从台湾知名电脑公司华硕(Asustek Computer Inc.)分拆出来的，它常常和富士康争抢苹果的合同。虽然它在国际上的知名度还很低，但该公司可能逐渐壮大并抢走富士康的一些订单。然而像和硕这样的企业可能希望利用富士康上调代工费的任何一次机会去实现类似的壮举，并从利润率更高的知名企业那里获得更多收入。

Paul Mozur

（本文版权归道琼斯公司所有，未经许可不得翻译或转载。）关键词：苹果  富士康  鸿海  劳动力  生产  深圳