China

animeblood · May 28, 2010

Suicides At Apple Supplier In China
Gordon G. Chang, 05.28.10, 12:27 PM ETOn the evening of May 26 a 23-year-old worker jumped to his death at a factory in Longhua, located in southern China near Hong Kong. The apparent suicide was the tenth since late January at facilities run by Foxconn Technology Group, the world's largest maker of electronics and computer parts. The company puts together the iPhone, the iPod, the iPad and the MacBook. Foxconn also manufactures PlayStation consoles for Sony, motherboards for Intel, and an assortment of products for Dell, Nokia, Nintendo and Hewlett-Packard.
Hours before the latest tragic incident, billionaire Terry Gou, the chairman of Foxconn parent Hon Hai Precision, toured the Longhua plant, believed to be the planet's largest factory. "Generally, the suicide rate in a society will increase when its GDP rises," said Gou, protected by dozens of bodyguards, as he defended working conditions from complaints aired both inside and outside China. "I've consulted psychologists, and they told me the suicide rate at Foxconn is much lower than the country's average."
Although Gou believes "every single life is valuable," Foxconn maintains severe working conditions contributing to the tragic incidents. Workers--the company employs about 300,000 at Longhua and another 120,000 at a second plant in Shenzhen--struggle through mind-numbing 10-hour days and are forced to accept overtime, getting only one day off a week. There is a strict ban on communication on the shop floor, and labor activists complain of production lines that move too fast. Workers live 12-to-a-room in company dormitories. No wonder Gou, the third-richest person in Taiwan, said he could not promise there would be no more worker suicides in Shenzhen.
So far, Foxconn has hired monks, set up a suicide-prevention hotline and installed nets to catch jumpers and fences to stop attempts. Moreover, the company has asked--in reality, forced--workers to sign pledges that they would not take their own lives. The document also purports to absolve Foxconn of any liability to pay compensation above that required by law. Gou this week apologized for the "pledge" and promised the company would discontinue its use.
On the same day as Gou's whirlwind tour--and the day of the latest death--Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Nintendo announced they would investigate worker conditions at Foxconn. Two days after that Foxconn announced a 20% pay hike, which it insisted was in the works all along.
Perhaps the latest tactic will end the string of gruesome events, but the Foxconn deaths will continue to grip the Chinese public, in part because they are occurring at the same time as a series of brutal attacks on schoolchildren across China. So what is happening in Chinese society?
There is the anguish accompanying modernization and the anger created by intensifying political repression. All this is publicized and magnified by instant communications and the Internet. The mystery of the suicides is that Foxconn's facilities are by no means the worst in China. On the contrary, because the company is so visible, its working conditions, as dehumanizing as they are, are considered to be among the best of the mass manufacturers in the country.
That's why, on one level, the suicides are so troubling. They strike at the heart of the Chinese industrial system, perhaps signaling the questioning of the Communist Party's model of manufacturing. That model worked because peasants were willing to travel a thousand miles to live in labor-camp conditions.
Today, we see the social detachment, alienation and despair that are the result of an efficient--but ultimately unsustainable--system. The inspectors from Apple will examine the details of Foxconn's facilities, which they have seen before, but they will not look at the larger issue: the compatibility of China's economic model to a modernizing society.
Of course, hundreds of thousands of Chinese, most from rural areas, will continue to come to work at Foxconn's sprawling factories. And there will be tens of thousands more when news of the big pay hike reaches backwater villages and small towns across the country. China has yet to become a postindustrial society. Nonetheless, it is changing fast in ways we are only beginning to perceive.
It is the country's weak and powerless who will one day shape, if not change, their society. Now, ten sets of parents are grieving. The mother and father of Ma Xiangqian, a 19-year-old found dead near a stairwell in a Foxconn dormitory on Jan. 23, knelt before reporters outside the plant this week, seeking answers no one today will--or can--provide. Gou will push production at Foxconn, but his, and China's, formula will have to change soon.
Click to expand...

http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/28/fo...opinions-columnists-gordon-g-chang_print.html

...Glad I'm not working there but it sounds like workers don't have any other option. I'm already suprised that there isn't any strike or big protest.

Sad that the owner is only working on prevention and not actually change the actual labor hours and conditions.

Edit:Ah...wrong thread title, can editors change the title to Suicide in China or something?

KaY_xD · May 28, 2010

been hearing this for a while, no surprised on their systems, just feel bad for those who choose to end their lives like that sigh, strike/protest might equal to losing your job, officials there might hide secrets about the suicide who knws, do that all the time

EvilTofu · May 28, 2010

saw it on the news, it's up to like 13, I believe...

long hours and not much social life cause their are a lot of secrets and stuff going on cause of the works that are involved. Foxconn should really improve the working conditions and provide their workers a place where they can go to seek help.

China

animeblood Well-Known Member

KaY_xD 但願人長久，千里共嬋娟

EvilTofu 吃|✿|0(｡◕‿◕｡)0|✿|吃