Foxconn Suicides: iPhone and iPad Factory Under Scrutiny

Foxconn Suicides: iPhone and iPad Factory Under Scrutiny

This made me jump out of my seat in anger, but then i had to remind myself that this isn't something new. This is going on all around china. The human rights abuses that goes on in China are some of the most extreme cases around the world.

The massive Foxconn factory in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen is known for assembling famous electronic goods like Apple's iPhone and iPad. But in recent months it has gained a darker image, as a place where distraught workers regularly throw themselves to their deaths. The latest fatality came on Tuesday morning, when a 19-year-old employee died in a fall in the company's Shenzhen compound, according to the state-run Xinhua news service. He was the ninth worker this year to have died in a fall from factory buildings on Foxconn's properties in Shenzhen; two have survived suicide attempts, according to state-media reports. Another teenager, who the company revealed this month died after jumping from a company building in Hebei province in January, brings the total employee death toll from falls to 10 this year.

Workers are committing suicide because of the working conditions and really poor wages. this is sick... next time you buy an IPAD, remember someone was slaving away at nearly nothing an hour so you can have one!

The string of deaths has drawn attention to the labor practices of a highly successful Fortune 500 company that has 420,000 workers on its payroll in Shenzhen alone. Two dozen activists protested outside the company's Hong Kong offices on Tuesday, calling on Foxconn to improve working conditions and raise wages.

It should bring attention. Something like this cannot go unnoticed for so long!

The dead have all been migrant workers, and for many Foxconn was their first job. The company pays most of its assembly-line workers in Shenzhen the city's minimum wage of $130 a month, and many work significant overtime hours in order to maximize their incomes. "The work [at Foxconn] is long, monotonous and boring," says Liu Kaiming, a labor researcher and executive director of the Shenzhen-based Institute of Contemporary Observation. "The speed is very fast and you can't slow down, for 10 hours a day at the minimum. You can see how someone could easily become numb and turn into a machine."

130 a month? and over here in the US, we thought we had it bad. these guys are working for crumbs and making a product that goes for 300-400 an item. in their eyes (and mine) this is robbery. I wouldn't be surprised if things like this pick up.

Source

MODS if this was the wrong forum area, please move/remove. thanks!

[edit on 5/29/2010 by ugie1028]

This article was sent to me by one of my friends.

With how bad things look in china with the poor working conditions, low slave wages, why do people still buy products made in china?

yea the argument may be that its economic for us, but really every time we buy something from china some poor soul is working for peanuts producing that product.

I know this is not something new, but things like this piss me off and make me wonder if the world will ever fix itself.



edit for epic grammar fail.

[edit on 5/29/2010 by ugie1028]

Not only poor wages and conditions but as far as I know the male\female ratio is out of whack. These gents may just as well have given up on life because they couldn't find a girl. In some universities the male\female ratio is 25 men to one woman due to the one child policy and parental preference for boys. China- wide, the ratio is 120 men to 100 women. (Based on a blurb I saw on the news) these men may just have wondered exactly what were they working for?

The profit margin for apple and other companies must be astromical (sp?) Like nike shoes, etc.

Simply terrible. Why do these companies need to make so much money, do they think they can bring that wealth with them when they croak?

[edit on 30-5-2010 by star in a jar]

reply to post by star in a jar


I never thought about that before. so these male workers must see no point in living if they cannot even find a possible wife as well as a dead end job working 18 hour shifts.

the social stresses over there are extreme.

Foxconn share trading halted pending announcement
Via MarketWatch.com

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Trading in shares of Foxconn International Holdings (THE:HK:2038) (PINK:FXCNY) was halted in Hong Kong Monday at the company's request, pending a price-sensitive announcement. The shares had opened sharply lower amid expectations that the devices contract manufacturer may announce a sharp wage increase in the wake of suicides by several workers at its factory in Shenzhen. The shares were last traded at 5.66 Hong Kong dollars ($7.26), 5.5% lower than the previous close.

reply to post by Geeky_Bubbe


Great find.

Wow it only took about 10 suicides for the company to get the message.

I wonder what that tells you...

EDIT:

The link does not work. I thought it did, but then it said 'Connection timed out.'

Did they just pull it?

2nd EDIT:

It works now.... that was ODD

[edit on 6/6/2010 by ugie1028]

[edit on 6/6/2010 by ugie1028]

You guys are dumb. Before you blast do the math....

The suicide rate of Japan is 13 for every 100,000.

Foxconn has 450,000 employees.

Therefore their suicide rate is lower than Japan's national average.

Oh also those complaining about $130-200/month in wages - yes that is very low for Shenzhen but not for the rest of China. Also:
1. Foxconn provides room and board
2. You can eat a square meal for ~$0.25 in Shenzhen


You're right though - their life does suck - but no worse than the migrant worker busting their ass in the hot sun for $4/hour. In fact if I had to choose, I'd rather be assembling PCBs in a clean air-conditioned factory....

news.bbc.co.uk...

they gave them a raise by the way. it could very well have been because of pressure from apple...then again, apple might have increased the amount they are paying for the products to cover the increase, who knows!

this wasn't good for apple's image, that's for sure.