> "It’s the command and control model that has been very effective for China,”
> she said in a telephone interview Friday. “In this low-end, export-oriented
> assembly, there’s this idea that between the company and the workers,
> there’s this 24-hour relationship and that this is how things get done.”
>
> In this low-end, export-oriented assembly, slavery is how things get done.
Company-provided housing is quite normal for China, I think partly going back to the Mao era where the Chinese analog of a Soviet managed everything -- housing, marriages, ...
There are also parallels elsewhere in Asia, notably Japan where lots of employees live in company housing. And in history; in the UK, Birmingham has a whole district that was built for Cadbury workers in the 19th century.
Drive past any construction site in China and you'll see barracks for the workers. Most restaurants provide housing for their staff, typically by renting apartments and cramming people in at 4 to 6 to a bedroom. Small factories do the same. Big factories build dorms.
Conditions are definitely not great, but they are much better than a generation ago. Migrant workers come from the countryside into the cities to work; it is easier to work for a company that provides housing than to rent your own.
There are lots of problems, none unique to Foxconn See for example. http://www.leraweb.org/publications/perspectives-online-companion/perspectives-exploitation-migrant-workers-chinas-export-m