China iPhone plant sees eighth suicide

[The Damned]

Source: MSNBC.com

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwan's Foxconn Technology, a contract maker of the iPhone and other consumer electronics, insisted Wednesday its treatment of workers is world class after a female employee became the company's eighth Chinese worker to commit suicide this year.

"We regret to see the recurrence of such incidents," Foxconn said in statement that came a day after a 24-year-old Foxconn factory worker surnamed Chu killed herself by jumping from her rented apartment in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. Foxconn, the world's largest contract maker of electronics, said that Chu, whose full name was not released, began her employment last August.

The company has attracted wide attention from the Chinese media following a spate of suicides among young Chinese working at its mammoth Shenzhen factory complex, where some 300,000 are employed.

A week ago a 24-year-old male factory worker surnamed Lu committed suicide by jumping from a building inside the complex.

The most notable Foxconn suicide came last July when 25-year-old Sun Danyong jumped from his high-rise apartment after being interrogated over a missing iPhone prototype.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37105960/ns/business-world_business/

---

But, I can still get all my apps, right?

RIGHT???

[onehandle]

1. Foxconn is the company and they make products for Dell, HP and many other companies.

It's fucking China. They thrive on slave labor and our cash.

Let me know when you find electronics that are 100% non-China made.

[Deep13]

2. iKill nt

[OhioChick]

3. Shame on Apple and all of the other corporations that use Foxconn and the like n/t

[pattmarty]

7. No, shame on us for buying the shit. No buyers, no market...................

..............Just like "no tickee, no washee".

[SocialistLez]

16. +1. I try to only buy electronics when the ones I have give out. NT

[pundaint]

23. How else would we be able to read your excellent posts?

[pattmarty]

37. Osmosis??????? Tea (bag) leaves?

[Xenotime]

27. Agreed.

[The Damned]

32. True, but we'll keep buying!

Ever heard the song I've Got Mine, by The Eagles? That's us!

[havocmom]

4. Between this and all the violent attacks on school kids, gotta wonder about industrial toxins

Wages are not the only reason companies outsource. Though US health & worker safety regs are WAY under enforced, we do have some and that means workers might just be able to sue if employers expose them to too much in the way of bad conditions/toxins; citizens can sue if the toxins get into air/water and do harm. Sure, it's tough to sue big companies with deep pockets, but it happens.

Manufacturing in many other nations does not include expenses dealing with much in the way of regulations of safety.

We know many chemicals can disrupt mental health at a very basic chemical level in humans. One wonders about the possibility that toxins might be playing a role in these sad events in China.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

22. My Thoughts Exactly

:hi:

[KT2000]

24. Good point

In the 90's, a large aerospace company started using a new type of resin and insisted upon lots of overtime to meet deadlines. Many people got sick but the co. refused to recognize this and insisted that the state not recognize their illnesses. Yes they were affected mentally and other ways as well.
Some workers did commit suicide.

[suston96]

5. Taiwan is China? Since when?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_status_of_Taiwan

[onehandle]

9. Taiwan is where the company HQ is. Their plants are mainly in China. nt

[suston96]

13. Ah so. All sounds political. HQ is in Taiwan. Factories in China?

How did the ROC arrange that? (Rhetorical).

(Taiwan is called the Republic of China. The mainland part of the ROC is called the People's Republic of China}.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_status_of_Taiwan

[Tempest]

10. The plant is in China

It's run by a Taiwan company.

[amandabeech]

11. The plant is in Shenzhen, China, on the mainland.

The company's headquarters is in Taiwan.

[pattmarty]

12. C'mon, you haven't been reading your corporatism 101, have you?

[gmoney]

6. Media seems to be hating on Apple these days...

This plant is not owned by Apple, and they make products for dozens of companies, but because the iPhone is the hot product, they single out Apple as if that's the only product being made there. The Android is probably made there, too...

I'm sure working conditions aren't great. I'd love to see Apple move their manufacturing operations to someplace like Ohio, but I doubt that's ever, ever going to happen. Maybe they can at least pull out of Foxconn though... sounds like it's run by the same sociopaths that put melamine in food and lead in children's toys.

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. Considering China's suicide rate is about .023%, and this is a rate of .008, much ado about nothing.

According to this:

http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Asia/Story/A1Story20081209-106506.html

Well, I shouldn't say much ado about nothing - the suicide problem is monumental.

But the factory seems to have a lower rate of suicide then in general population.

[pattmarty]

14. What exactly would compare that to in the US? How the fuck often............

.......do you hear/read about that shit in the US?

[Rebubula]

15. Hint:

China is not the US and the cultures are incredibly different.

[Rabrrrrrr]

25. The US's suicide rate is about 0.011%, so in-between China's general rate and Fenncomm rate.

according to http://www.suicide.org/suicide-statistics.html#2005

[truthisfreedom]

34. Anytime you have a large group of people you're going to have suicides. Their rate is better

than average, so I'd say they're doing pretty well. .008/.023= 35% of the general rate, or 65% LOWER than the average suicide rate in China and .008/.011= 72% of the US rate, or 28% lower than the rate of suicides in the US. Think about it people. Drastically lower suicide rates than the general population of their own country and significantly lower than suicide rates here.

[Rabrrrrrr]

35. Yep - and look at the self-righteous assholes on this thread who still blame Apple for it

even after I posted the math about it.

People LOVE to get enraged based on their emotional attachment, and facts be damned.

Sadly, even liberals do it.

[truthisfreedom]

36. ALRIGHT, PEOPLE, LISTEN UP! APPLE'S SUICIDE RATE IS 65% LOWER THAN THE AVERAGE CHINESE RATE AND 28%

LOWER THAN THE US RATE. So just shut up already about it. Cripes. Apple's doing great.

[Jennicut]

18. That article is very sad.

Many people there are apparently not reacting well to "individualism". We are way more used to that way of life here.

"Since reform kicked off in 1978, the Middle Kingdom has been through enormous upheavals and so has the psyche of its 1.3 billion people.

Society has been uprooted as traditional family and clan structures have disintegrated, straining social relations and putting the individual under immense stress, experts said.

In just one generation, China's millennia-old civilisation has become one dedicated almost entirely to profit, with profound consequences.

In the overall rush to get rich, a culture of competition places huge pressure not least on children, who usually have no siblings and face almost impossible expectations from their parents to be successful.

In a country where three or even four generations used to live under one roof, the elderly are now abandoned - once an almost unthinkable crime - while rural migrants go to the cities to work, leaving their children behind.

'We see more patients in psychiatric hospitals who are there because the economic development has caused old family bonds to dissolve. People are more isolated from others,' said Dr Huo.

It is a time of unprecedented possibilities for education, leisure and travel and more people are allowed to climb the social ladder than ever before.

But at the same time many Chinese succumb to a frightening sense of insecurity."

A culture that changes so fast like that is bound to have issues like a higher suicide rate.

[Divine Discontent]

19. what a SAD read your post is. People need to stop focusing on wealth. I believe whatever

they're doing there it's not good. Apple should, but won't, bring their operations to Europe or the US. I am so glad my faith teaches me to respect simplicity in life and not feel I have to produce great wealth in the literal sense but instead, foster a mentality with others that values personal growth.

God bless these poor people. What a way to go... They probably feel like they work at a walmart the size of 50 football stadiums. How unnatural that must be.

[Jennicut]

21. I totally agree. We shouldn't be used to it here. They are going to turn into a

way worse version, they have nothing in the way of regulations for safety and health.

[Rabrrrrrr]

26. It is really sad - and Japan is suffering from some of the same issues

and also has a fantastically high suicide rate, especially among men and children.

China, oddly enough, has a higher rate for women than for men.

[MannyGoldstein]

20. +1 nt

[anigbrowl]

30. Actually .0027 - 8 out of 300k people, not 100k. nt

[Rabrrrrrr]

31. So far this year, though, so I multiplied it by 3 (since we're 1/3 of the way through the year).

As far as I could tell, the article was talking about 8 dead so far this year, not "in the last year".

But I had a difficult time trying to tell if that's what they meant. You might have found a more definitive place in the article - was it 8 dead in the last year?

If it is in the last year, then you're right - it's even lower than the number I gave.

[anigbrowl]

33. i misread, i think. nt

[Shining Jack]

17. K&R

Did they all jumped to their death ? That's strange.

[tomm2thumbs]

28. Not to worry, Steve Jobs has a very strong soap he uses to wash things like this from his hands

can't very well use these touch devices with blood all over them, now can we?

[anigbrowl]

29. it's a mistake to assume it's a corporate issue

A certain number of people commit suicide every year. It's individually tragic, of course, but not necessarily connected with where the person works. There might be any number of personal reasons involved - family, end of a love affair, insanity, or whatever.

In any group of 300,000 people some of them will become suicidal - that's the population of a small city. So 8 people out of 300,000 in a single year is a suicide rate of .0027%, which is way below average compared to most countries. For comparison, it's about a quarter of the suicide rate in the USA and less than a fifth of the suicide rate in China as a whole. In other words, a person working for this company is about five times less likely to commit suicide than the average Chinese person.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate

And no, I don't own an iPhone or anything made by Apple.

[humblebum]

38. What China is going through right now is much like the US in the early 1900's

Corporate China is taking absolute advantage of the workers, who have very little if any say or recourse towards anything. The US is supporting slave labor just as it did in the 19th century.