Source of this article: Times Finance Author: Wang Ting
Zhengzhou Foxconn on the first day of the new year Source: Interviewee
This is the 7th Spring Festival after Cheng Ke's entry into Zhengzhou Foxconn, and it is also the shortest one.
Chinese New Year's Eve morning, she took the earliest bus back to her hometown, returned on the afternoon of the first day of the first lunar month, and went to work on the second day of junior high school. "For so many years, there are many New Year bonuses this year, and there is only one opportunity, and everyone has to come back to work overtime to earn money."
Cheng can belong to the iPEBG business group, if the number of working days in January is not less than 23 days, he can receive a subsidy of 10,000 yuan, and the workers of Zhengzhou Foxconn iDPBG business group have a higher subsidy in January, up to 13,000 yuan.
When Cheng Ke returned to his family, Xiong Xin of the iDPBG business group was preparing a one-man Chinese New Year's Eve rice hot pot, he wanted to go home, but he was worried that he would not be able to bear the children when he left. As a former owner of a live streaming company, he wanted to raise venture capital and make a comeback.
During the Spring Festival of the reunion of ten thousand families, Zhengzhou Foxconn is running at full capacity. This ironclad camp needs soldiers left behind.
Office staff collectively support the production line and earn a subsidy of 10,000 yuan
On the afternoon of January 20 (the 29th lunar month), Zhengzhou Foxconn had a holiday, and Cheng Ke ended his work in the Year of the Tiger.
Walking on the factory road, she saw colored lights, red lanterns, went to the restaurant to eat, she heard the Spring Festival songs, as in previous years, it was not strange, but the dormitory and workshop still had no taste of the New Year. In this factory, holidays are not important for workers, but production and wages.
On January 23, the second day of the first lunar month, Cheng Ke ended the two-day Spring Festival holiday and began to work. She is an administrative staff member whose daily main job is attendance, and now she has moved from the office to the production line and has become an assembly line operator.
"There is no one in the office, everyone supports the production line... To work on the production line, there is a subsidy of 10,000 yuan, and everyone has to go into the workshop to earn this 10,000 yuan. In Cheng Ke's memory, the maximum subsidy for staying in the factory during the Spring Festival in previous years was four or five thousand yuan.
Unlike ordinary operators, Cheng Ke and his colleagues only work day shifts, not night shifts, and workshop leaders will also give time to adapt and gradually increase their production requirements. As for his own work, Cheng can be compressed or pushed back as much as possible, and he will also use meal time to do it.
Cheng Ke told Times Finance that one day he dreamed that he was five minutes late, and then he got up early for a few days, and his roommates were afraid of being late, "Everyone shouted at each other when they got up in the morning, even though they set an alarm clock." ”
Zhengzhou Foxconn's January incentive policy shows that if there is leave/absenteeism/late arrival and early departure for more than 30 minutes on the same day, it will not be counted as the cumulative number of attendance days, and the number of regular workers' attendance days is less than 23 days, and it is 15 days and above, the subsidy will only be 5,000 yuan.
Zhengzhou Foxconn's January incentive policy Source: Respondent
In fact, Cheng Ke could have taken a 12-day break for the Spring Festival this year, visiting relatives and friends, and having dinner and fun as in previous years, but now he can only wait until February or March to take leave to return to his hometown to rest.
"This Spring Festival, basically 85% of [iPEBG business group] stayed in the factory." Cheng Ke also observed that in order to earn high subsidies, some merchants who opened small shops outside the factory area also worked on Foxconn's assembly line.
After spending Chinese New Year's Eve at Foxconn for three consecutive years, this year is the most deserted
Cheng Ke, a native of Henan Province whose home is not far from Zhengzhou, did not have time to visit relatives and friends when he returned to his hometown, but he also spent Chinese New Year's Eve nights and ate Chinese New Year's Eve with his parents, as did many other workers.
She lived in a dormitory of eight, five of whom left the factory on the 29th of the month to return home, and the other two roommates left early in the Chinese New Year's Eve morning because they had to work night shifts, and some of them also had haircuts and manicures.
"In the past two years, because of the epidemic, many people did not go home for two or three years, and this time they went back as soon as they were on holiday." Xiong Xin observed that on the afternoon of January 20, many people left the factory with suitcases, and the surrounding roads were jammed.
Xiong Xin did not return to his hometown, he bought himself a set of clothes, posted spring couplings for the rental house where he lived, made hot pot Chinese New Year's Eve night, transferred 10,000 yuan to his parents, and made video calls with his son who had just entered elementary school.
New Year's Day, Zhengzhou Foxconn near the pedestrian street Source: Interviewee
According to the national holiday, he can take 7 days off for the Spring Festival this year, but in order to earn the subsidy, he only took 2 days off. Because the cumulative number of attendance days in January is not less than 23 days, he can receive a continuous service incentive of 3,000 yuan and a New Year's gift package of 6,000 yuan.
As for the aforementioned subsidy of 13,000 yuan, regular workers have the opportunity to obtain it. Xiong Xin is a dispatch worker, and he has not been working at Foxconn for three years, but has been in and out three times, entering the factory when the wages are high, and leaving when the wages are low.
"In the first half of January, we have two days off, and there is a Saturday and Sunday after the Spring Festival, and the factory may arrange a double holiday, so the number of attendance days should reach 23 days or more, and the Spring Festival can rest for up to 3 days."
For three consecutive years, Xiong Xin spent Chinese New Year's Eve nights at Foxconn in Zhengzhou. In the past two years, he went to restaurants for dinner Chinese New Year's Eve night with friends, and this year no friends spent Chinese New Year's Eve at Foxconn, so he could only cook hot pot by himself.
In November and December, his income was 13,000 yuan and 27,000 yuan respectively (including 10,000 yuan in rebates), and his income in January will definitely exceed 10,000 yuan. He wants to pay off his foreign debts and raise money to start a business.
In 2019, he started a small live streaming company that went out of business during the subsequent pandemic, and his car was mortgaged. He plans to do cross-border e-commerce or make videos and self-media in 2023, and become his own boss.
"The credit cards are all paid off, and it's very comfortable not to owe debt." In the second half of 2022, due to the epidemic, Foxconn worker Xiao Liu was locked in the community for nearly two months, and his credit card was overdue for the first time. He bluntly said, "I'm exhausted to death", not only did he work intensely, but he did not dare to take leave, and he insisted on working night shifts with a high fever.
In November 2022, Cheng Kefeng stayed in the dormitory for more than 20 days, and his income was also greatly affected. This is also the reason why she stayed at Foxconn during the Spring Festival.
At full capacity, a site is being planned for the iPhone 15 series
Behind the high subsidy is Zhengzhou Foxconn's busy, demand for labor.
In January this year, Cheng Ke's income is expected to reach 16,000 yuan to 17,000 yuan, including 6,000 or 7,000 yuan in salary income, and most of the salary income is overtime pay.
During this period, her work rhythm was basically 13 days off, 10 hours a day. She expects to work more than 120 hours of overtime in January, about double the number of the same period in previous years. In December 2022, her working days also reached 23 days, excluding the 5 days of silent management in the factory.
In the past two months, Cheng Ke has been very busy and said that he has not had a good rest. Xiong Xin has rarely rested since November, working 27 days in November and no less than 21 days in December, working 10.5 hours a day, including 2.5 hours of overtime.
All they produce are the iPhone 14 series. In November, after the return of Zhengzhou Foxconn, Apple's official website announced that the production capacity of Zhengzhou Foxconn, the main assembly plant of iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, was greatly reduced.
In order to resume production, Zhengzhou Foxconn continued to introduce incentive policies, including a daily attendance subsidy of 400 yuan in November plus a full attendance reward of up to 5,000 yuan, a continuous service incentive of up to 10,000 yuan in December, plus a closed-loop warming subsidy of 3,000 yuan. Xiong Xin entered Zhengzhou Foxconn in August 2022 and renewed it due to the incentive policy after the three-month construction period.
In early November, Zhengzhou Foxconn also recruited 100,000 workers in a short period of time with a high wage price of 30 yuan per hour and a job stabilization allowance of 3,000 yuan. According to CCTV News reported in early January, Zhengzhou Foxconn's production capacity has returned to the peak state of the peak season.
Times Finance observed that this state of full operation seems to be about to usher in a turning point. In the week before Chinese New Year's Eve, Xiong Xin only worked 8 hours a day, and the days of overtime for three consecutive months were over.
Cheng Keze predicts that after the Spring Festival, his work will no longer be so busy, because the factory has to produce new mobile phones, the early stage is the experimental stage, and the production line is not busy.
"Our big boss is already planning the production site of the iPhone 15 series, and has held several meetings, and after the end of the year, he will pull the old production machine away and ship the new one." She revealed to Times Finance.
Xiong Xin is also thinking about whether to renew the contract for another three months after the end of the construction period in March, if Foxconn continues to introduce incentive policies, the average monthly income can reach 10,000 yuan, he will stay, otherwise return to his hometown to start a business.
Times Finance learned that if there is no incentive policy, during the peak price period, according to the general three-month construction period, the average monthly income of ordinary operators of Zhengzhou Foxconn is up to 56,000 yuan. Although the peak season rebate exceeds 10,000, it is not a one-time payment, and it needs to be divided into three months.
According to the information released by the official customer service of Zhengzhou Foxconn Human Resources Human Resources (Zhengzhou Foxconn's human resources), the factory will open the channel of resignation and return to work on February 6, with a return fee of 9,500 yuan and a comprehensive monthly salary of 4,500-5,500 yuan, which is similar to the same period in previous years.
(Cheng Ke, Xiong Xin, and Xiao Liu are pseudonyms)