My name is Akbar Mannem. I have worked at Foxconn in Chennai, Tamil Nadu
as an assembly line worker for over five years.
I began working there to take care of my wife and our 3 sons. I pray every night that my sons don’t someday have to
work in a factory as I have had to. The
long hours are stressful, the conditions less than great, and the worst part is
the pay. I have gotten a few raises here
or there, but nothing to help me thrive. I make less than what we need to live,
and my wife and older son also have to work to keep the family afloat. I
feel like a failure as a husband making my wife work, but this is what has to
happen for us to keep our home. The only other place I could work is the Nokia
plant across town, but they have recently been said to underpay their workers
as well. I thought we were going to lose
the house when the plant was closed a few years ago (BBC News, 2010). My neighbor was one of the 250 workers who got sick
from the pesticides that were sprayed, and was in the hospital for two days (BBC
News, 2010). I am lucky I did not get sick from the pesticides, but the plant
was closed down and we were forced to stop working for a week. I know the China factory protested about their
pay and working conditions, but we make much less than those factory workers at
81,520.94 INR annually ($1,530.80 USD) (BBC News, 2010). I don't have the resources to stop working and protest as they did in China. The only thing that
keeps me going is knowing I have my family to take care of. I just hope I don’t let
them down.
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