Foxconn suicide toll mounts

[ensho]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/LE22Cb01.html


Hon Hai Group, which should be celebrating a 35% surge in first-quarter profit from making electronics products such as computers for Hewlett Packard and iPhones for Apple, is instead calling in monks and counselors in an attempt to halt a growing number of suicides among its 800,000-strong Chinese workforce.

So far with little success. A 21-year-old man jumped to his death early on Friday at the Shenzhen operations of Foxconn Technology Group, a Hon Hai affiliate. The fatal jump brought to eight the number of suicides over the past five months at Foxconn's operations in Shenzhen, the fast-growing metropolis and manufacturing hub adjoining Hong Kong. Two other workers survived with injuries after attempting to take their own lives, while the company claims at least 30 other possible attempts have been forestalled since April.

The workers involved in all 10 suicides and attempted suicides were aged between 18 and 24 and had been at the company for about six months. The spate of deaths has baffled Taiwan-based Hon Hai, whose pay and conditions have garnered positive reports. Foxconn, a leader in design, manufacturing, and after-sales services for computer, communication and consumer-electronics companies, has 420,000 employees in Shenzhen, 300,000 of them at Longhua.

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Another former employee, who asked not to be named, echoed Ma's views, complaining about "the tremendous workload" at Foxconn and saying it was not possible to make money without working overtime - "I often worked past midnight and took more than 100 extra shifts each month".

He said he quit after two years because of the tremendous workload.

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The suicides come two years after Foxconn and US-based Apple, which outsources the manufacturing of iPhones to the Taiwanese company, faced claims of abusive work practices. The allegations were found to be largely unfounded, according to AP.

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Some insight into working conditions at Foxconn is provided by a diary written by 22-year-old Liu Zhiyi, who spent 28 days working in Foxconn’s main factory while an intern for Southern Weekly, a Guangzhou newspaper. She said the production lines at Foxconn started at 4 a.m., with thousands of uniformed workers, all dressed alike, having to stand as they worked at least eight hours a day.

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Hon Hai in April said first quarter profit rose 34.76% to NT$17.99 billion (US$560 million) from a year earlier as sales increased 49% to NT$414.8 billion.
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the workers need a union

[BanzaiBonnie]

1. If this is true, then those of us

who are Mac addicts should begin screaming at Apple about it.

I would hope they do the right thing...

[BanzaiBonnie]

2. And the workers need a union

But does Taiwan allow unions? I don't know.

This world is small now and when we know of injustice, we the people, need to act.