NYU Student Who Went Undercover In China Says Manufacturing Jobs Can't Come Back To The U.S.

A student at NYU named Dejian Zeng spent six weeks assembling Apple Inc. AAPL devices at the company's manufacturing facility in China as part of an undercover project.

Zeng's project was part of a joint project with China Labor Watch and hoped to expose and show the world what is believed to be harsh working conditions in Apple's factories, owned by Foxconn.

He explained that getting a job inside the facility is easy and the sole requirement is reciting the English alphabet. Once inside, his job was to put one screw over an iPhone device and fasten it — over 1,800 times a day.

Zeng did acknowledge that the facility isn't a "traditional sweat shop" many assume it to be, and by Chinese standards, the pay isn't terrible. But the hours are very long with a 10-minute break every two hours, a 15-minute lunch break, and a 30-minute dinner break. Overtime work is involuntary and workers' complaints are handled internally and never go through Apple.

Manufacturing Jobs Can't Leave China

Speaking to CNBC, Zeng explained once someone sees how a large factory in China operates, it would be impossible for Apple or any other company to duplicate the facilities in the United States.

First, Zeng said the salary he received in China of around $450 a month would be unacceptable by nearly every standard in the United States.

"We are using labor in China instead of a machine because labor is cheaper than maintaining machines. If you relocate factories to the States you need to think of how to manage the workers," Zeng explained.

President Donald Trump's calls for Apple to bring home facilities from China means consumers will be absorbing the higher cost of human labor, or Apple would rely more heavily on machines, which won't align with the president's goal of creating jobs for humans.

Nevertheless, some among Wall Street remain convinced that both the iPhone can be made in the United States and consumers will gladly pay a premium for the device.

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When Will Trump's Jobs Efforts Start Cutting Into Corporate Profits? _______ Image Credit: By aolin - NYU - newmanhamsterdam york university, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons