Ninth Foxconn Worker of 2010 Commits Suicide

[JMcEntegart]

Another employee has committed suicide at Foxconn bringing the number of 2010 deaths at the factory to nine.

Ninth Foxconn Worker of 2010 Commits Suicide : Read more

 

[soo-nah-mee]

How many posts will it be before someone uses the term "Liberal" or "Conservative" and makes it political this time?

 

[gimpy1]

I don't mean to sound harsh, but given the national average, nine is not bad. We are a little over %39 of the way through the year. Assuming the plant employs 300k people, we would expect 27 suicides at this point.

So, I guess I am wondering why this is news. When I first read the headline, I assumed that nine suicides was abnormally high. If it were high, I would take that into consideration next time I was shopping for some computer component. I think that the headline may be unfair to Foxconn as it seems to imply something is amiss.

 

[burnley14]

There are 300,000 people working at this factory? Only in China I guess . . .

 

[alentor]

lol this must stop.. xD

 

[gimpy1]

Thanks for the reminder soo-nah-mee, I almost forgot to blame the liberals for driving 300,000 jobs overseas. (It should go without saying, but I am being sarcastic)

 

[etrom]

Way to go, China! Keep your annual GDP growth close to 10% while lack education, health and proper work conditions for citzens.

 

[icepick314]

nice to know that my electronics are literally made from sweat, tears and blood...

hope there are no spirits of disgruntled workers in my Zune and Xbox 360...

 

[Marco925]

[citation][nom]icepick314[/nom]nice to know that my electronics are literally made from sweat, tears and blood...hope there are no spirits of disgruntled workers in my Zune and Xbox 360...[/citation]
No, they're in your iPhone instead.

 

[SlickyFats]

Has anyone considered putting up a fence or wall or something else to prevent all of these people from jumping? Seriously don't make it so dang easy for people to just go jump, make them work for it and maybe during the time it takes them to make it up there they'll change their minds.

Also how dedicated of employee must he have been, at least he finished his shift. I would have done it BEFORE work not after.

 

[tayb]

Wow. Did not know that Foxconn employed 300,000 factory workers. This all goes back to poor working conditions, long hours, intense pressure to meet deadlines, and low pay. The article I read referenced a pay rate of $130 (US) a month and a work schedule that allotted little time for anything but work and sleep. It was depressing reading it.

Very sad.

 

[tayb]

[citation][nom]Marco925[/nom]No, they're in your iPhone instead.[/citation]

Do you think Foxconn only produces Apple products?

 

[NuclearShadow]

Instead of hiring exorcists and other foolish "professions" how about improving the living conditions of the employees? It's not like they can't afford to make improvements. Of course this isn't going to happen if anyone recalls the first suicide that was reported on it was after they detained tortured one of their employees who later took his life after.

I'm not going to buy anymore Foxconn products or anything they are linked to like the iPhone.

 

[cadder]

What is Apple doing to those people? I thought Apple was all "peace" and "love".

 

[tntom]

14 yrs ago when I was in the 8th grade(so you will have to excuse my recollection). My class had a visit from some friends of the teacher who were from China and we got to ask them questions. I asked what the suicide rate was for school age students. She said, that it was extremely high because of all the social pressure to perform at a high rate. But that their society looks down on sharing that.
I imagine that the social pressure could only be that much higher 14yrs later.

 

[back_by_demand]

Suicide rates for China put the average number of suicides per 100,000 at 23

So assuming the law of averages is working with 300,000 people on site we should expect 69 people to commit suicide in 2010.
At the end of 5 months, we should have had at least 28 by now.
We have had 9.
Suicide rates are less than a third of the national average, the only reason this seems like a large figure is that they all work at the same company, but try to get this in your heads - this factory has more people working in it than the City of Coventry in the UK.

 

[bollwerk]

Are they not allowed to just quit and find another job?

 

[falchard]

The mismanagement of the liberal media has put a spotlight on a company that should be commended for suicide prevention. They are far below national statistics on suicides per capita. Its just being used as a method to demigog the low regulation electronic industry. However, bringing them the conservative principle of god into their lives should reduce these incredible numbers further.

 

[Guest]

Maybe that's the angry china spirits causing all the RROD in the Xbox 360's.

 

[nforce4max]

[citation][nom]bollwerk[/nom]Are they not allowed to just quit and find another job?[/citation]

Its China FFS, people over there don't have much of a choice and its getting like that else ware. To quite or lose your job means homelessness and starvation. I am done explaining how things are to these dogooder yuppies.

 

[sliem]

"...usually only experiences one or two in a year..."
uh oh... usually? Lol, they need to be shot for slavery.

 

[jellico]

[citation][nom]burnley14[/nom]There are 300,000 people working at this factory? Only in China I guess . . .[/citation]
There are about 240,000 working in that plant. They work 12-hour shifts with only 2 breaks for meals. They typically work 6 - 7 days per week. They live onsite since it is not practical for them to come and go. Generally, they will only work a couple of years and then return home. It's a pretty brutal living; but we too had our industrial boom.

 

[jimslaid2]

Xbox 360's are made by foxconn, that explains the suicide RROD rate.

 

[dman3k]

This just in! Apple lost 9 iphone 4.0 prototypes this far!

 

[joebob2000]

[citation][nom]burnley14[/nom]There are 300,000 people working at this factory? Only in China I guess . . .[/citation]

No shiiii...

t. 300,000 employees for one company in one country would be unheard of anywhere else in the world (except maybe India.) To anyone who thinks these jobs were "lost" in the US: they never existed here at any time in the country's history. They exist because laborers earn a tiny fraction of even the average Chinese wage, which is itself very low. You can hire 3 professionals in China for the cost of one in the US; at this exchange rate it's still profitable to have some work done in the US. When you can hire 20 or 30 factory workers for what one worker in the US would demand for the privilege of showing up every day and doing their job competently without stealing, slacking off, or otherwise running costs up, it's not even worth thinking about employing them in the US.

If you want to get an idea of what sort of stuff goes on in China and other places, you need to watch "Manufactured Landscapes", a documentary by Edward Burtynsky. It's *extremely* eye opening if you are interested at all in what the global consumer goods market looks like from the supply side.