iPhone manufacturer employees commit suicide

Tora Bora

Perhaps the the pressure to satisfy our insatiable desire for gadgets and gizmos, at low price leads to desperate lives and conditions for workers in China and the likes!!!!



Tenth employee dies at iPhone maker

Related

• China counts the cost of rapid growth as suicide rate soars | 26/05/2010

A tenth employee of iPhone-maker Foxconn died yesterday, only hours after the company's chairman promised to make life better for employees at the sprawling production site in southern China.
The company not give details of the death but China's official Xinhua news agency reported on today an initial police investigation indicated the 23-year-old man from northwest China had taken his life by jumping from a seventh floor dormitory balcony.
The spate of deaths has thrown a spotlight on the labour practices of Foxconn, a unit of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry, whose clients include Apple, Hewlett Packard and Sony Ericsson.
Apple and other clients have said they are investigating working conditions at Foxconn, which has some 420,000 employees at its base in Shenzhen and has come under fire for its secretive corporate culture.
Workers live inside the factory complex and churn out products for the world's leading computer and phone companies in round-the-clock shifts.
Taipei-based Hon Hai spokesman Arthur Huang confirmed the tenth death but denied reports on three Taiwan TV stations that another person, a young woman, had also jumped late on Wednesday, surviving with serious injuries.
Just hours before the latest reports, the usually media shy Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou had opened the company's sprawling facilities in Shenzhen to reporters and vowed to take sweeping action to prevent more deaths. Mr Gou made another trip back to the plant today following the Wednesday media tour.
All 10 of the deaths have been of young migrant workers, among the millions who leave the poor hinterlands of China for the boom towns of the south and east coastal areas in search of work and high wages.
Two others have been seriously injured after also jumping from buildings, in incidents that labour groups say expose the harsh working conditions at Foxconn.
Li Ping, secretary general of the Shenzhen municipal government, told a news conference yesterday the pressure of being away from home with little care from society was part of a complex set of factors underpinning the suicides.
He said the government was joining with the police and Foxconn to consider a range of ideas such as building up sports and cultural facilities to improve the living environment, Xinhua reported.
The firm was training about 100 mental health counsellors and installing 1.5 million square metres of nets to stop workers from jumping, Xinhua said. The safety nets will cover nearly all dormitories and factories.
"Although this seems like a dumb measure, at least it could save a life should anyone else fall," Mr Gou was quoted as saying.
Reuters

cornbb

Why is everyone referring to "iPhone-maker Foxconn" when they make everything from the iPhone, the Kindle, the Wii, the PS3 and beyond?

Also, while these deaths are all tragedies, 10 deaths among 400,000 workers is significantly less than the Chinese average of 14 per 100,000...

Sounds like lazy sensationalism to me.

Blackhorse Slim

Chinese workers jump to their deaths, and the only person they could find to comment is called Li Ping?

Sad Professor

cornbb wrote: »

Sounds like lazy sensationalism to me.

I'm inclined to agree.

The workers live on the Foxconn complex which is why this is getting so much attention. I'm not saying that working conditions aren't the reason for the suicides. But a lot of people in western societies probably kill themselves because of their jobs as well. However, since they don't live on their employer's property nobody cares and we're happy to believe they killed themselves because of personal problems or whatever.

The poor working conditions in these factories are a very serious issue and I'm glad this is getting some attention. But the media/blogger coverage is absolute sh*t. Foxconn will bar up in the windows, put on more security and when the suicides go down (or they find a way to fudge the numbers) everyone will go back to not caring, but the workers will be just as miserable.

MRBEAVER

Blackhorse Slim wrote: »

Chinese workers jump to their deaths, and the only person they could find to comment is called Li Ping?

Indeed. His brother Jum was probably unavailable.

BrianD

Agreed that other brands are made in this plant and indeed that other plants probably have the same or worse problem. At the same time, I suspect that "fan boys" will probably find an excuse for this behaviour.

It wouldn't be sensationalist if Apple didn't try to hold the higher moral ground. The use of these kind of factories is inconsistent with the brand image that Apple wishes to project nor are they values that their customers would want to be associated with.

A decade ago Nike was accused of sweat shop labour to make their goods. Because of public pressure, they were under pressure to emprove their conditions and it seems to have an effect. Apple should also be applying this pressure for chane and if they don't the public and many of their customers will.

Then again we all rely on cheap labour from the third world to keep us in the standards of living we have become accustomed to. We wouldn't be able to afford it otherwise.

Kai

Blackhorse Slim wrote:

Chinese workers jump to their deaths, and the only person they could find to comment is called Li Ping?

MRBEAVER wrote: »

Indeed. His brother Jum was probably unavailable.

I think he was out for dinner with his wife Hum.

Dades

I can't help but wonder if a lot of these suicides are related to the design of the new look iPhone. :pac:

Tom Dunne

Ok, I don't really think this is appropriate for discussion in this forum.