Chinese manufacturer Foxconn is in the process of doubling their workforce in places like the city of Zhengzhou, and despite all of the recent controversy surrounding working conditions at Foxconn factories, tons of Chinese workers are rushing to grab a job.

Chinese Apple site Mic Gadget reports that on Monday, thousands of people looking for jobs lined up outside a labor office in the largest city in Henan province, all looking to be hired on at Foxconn.

They discuss what could be the draw of a Foxconn job:

Well, these people saw the job advertisement posted by the Zhengzhou government in the city which showed the salary at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory is 1650 yuan (US$261) for basic salary, and the salary would be increased to 2400 – 3200 yuan (US$379-$506) after the appraisal. What’s more, workers do not need to pay additional money for dormitory and food. Foxconn incorporates the food and housing allowance into the basic salary. So, this attracted thousands of young job seekers to deliver their resumes to the Foxconn representatives.

Apparently, the crowd was heavily swayed toward males and most had prior work experience. A smaller subset of the applicants were described as recent college grads.

Of course, the Apple manufacturer has been the subject of public scrutiny as of late regarding worker conditions inside its factories. Foxconn has been accused of worker abuses, including witholding pay, forcing long hours with no breaks, and providing unsafe conditions. One Chinese executive from a Foxconn parent company raised eyebrows by comparing his workers to animals. Then there are those horrific stories of suicides at the plants.

Apple has denied that they were aware of these abuses and have stated emphatically that they care about every worker in their supply chain. CEO Tim Cook said that he was “offended” by the allegations, saying “we care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain. Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern. Any suggestion that we don’t care is patently false and offensive to us.”

But it looks like Chinese workers are lining up in droves for work at the plants. One might think that this hints that conditions might not be as bad as some have reported, but Mic Gadget has some pretty harsh words about the Foxconn factories:

The long lines at the labour agency may have surprised some, considering the harsh working conditions at Foxconn’s factories. No matter how poor the working conditions are, we can still see lots of Chinese willing to work at the hell factory to assemble the tech gadgets we’re using today. God bless them.

Foxconn is probably ramping up hiring to deal with the production of new Apple devices like the iPhone 5. Earlier, we told you about an online petition about protecting Chinese workers that has been gaining a hell of a lot of steam on Change.org. With all of the recent news about worker conditions in these factories, it’s safe to say that many Apple lovers will look at the iPhone 5 in a way that they probably didn’t look at their original iPhone.