Foxconn workers threatened mass suicide....

[acd]

Beijing (CNN) -- Microsoft is investigating a report that workers at a Chinese plant that manufactures its Xbox game systems have threatened mass suicide in a pay dispute, according to a statement by the company's Hong Kong office.

"Microsoft takes working conditions in the factories that manufacture its products very seriously, and we are currently investigating this issue," the statement said.

CNN has not been able to confirm the full details of the dispute, but Foxconn, the plant owner, and Microsoft did respond to inquiries.
The Chinese contractor acknowledged in a statement Thursday that 150 workers had protested at its Wuhan factory on January 4.
The incident, the company said, stemmed from a decision to transfer all employees to an alternate production line. And though it was later resolved "successfully and peacefully," 45 workers have since chosen to resign.
"The welfare of our employees is our top priority and we are committed to ensuring that all employees are treated fairly and that their rights are fully protected," the company statement said.
Foxconn produces brand-name electronics for companies such as Microsoft and Apple.
A Microsoft spokeswoman later added that the controversy was derived from employee grievances in "staffing assignments and transfer policies, not working conditions."
Overheard: U.S. too dependent on foreign manufacturing
Foxconn apparently offered disgruntled workers the option to transfer or resign, whereby they would receive "all salary and bonuses due, according to length of service," said a Microsoft spokeswoman.
"After the protest, the majority of workers chose to return to work. A smaller portion of those employees elected to resign," the statement said.
Foxconn raised workers' pay twice at its factory in Shenzhen in 2010 after a spate of suicides, Chinese state media reported at the time.
"We have a stringent Vendor Code of Conduct that spells out our expectations, and we monitor working conditions closely on an ongoing basis and address issues as they emerge," Microsoft's statement added. "Microsoft is committed to the fair treatment and safety of workers employed by our vendors and to ensuring conformance with Microsoft policy."
After the 2010 suicides at Foxconn, the company said it was taking measures to improve workers' lives, including organizing recreational activities, calling in Buddhist monks to offer spiritual consolation and setting up a 24-hour help line.
Foxconn, one of the world's top electronics manufacturers, also makes products for companies such as Dell, Hewlett Packard and Sony.
It employed at estimated 800,000 employees in China in October 2010.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/11/world/asia/china-microsoft-factory/index.html

I don't know who else is familiar with this news.
(Apparently, they have struck some kind of a deal though, so the workers either resigned and took their salary and bonuses or stayed on under new terms..)

I just recently became aware of this corporation.. As the article states, they employee about 800,000 Chinese and work them like machines.
Their employees have such high rates of jumping off the roof while on break, that they have erected giant nets to prevent the suicides..
I recently read another article in which a worker states the high suicide rate of employees is because, "Life is meaningless."

What a horrifying world.. and all while I type this from my computer... which is manufactured through that corporation...
/self-disgust...

Reps for the corporation say that they are doing all they can to take care of workers... (erecting nets so that they only break bones or disable themselves rather than die when jumping off your buildings??)
Hiring counselors... and offering to up wages. Ok.. The hiring counselors and upping wages are a good start.. How about not working them 12+ hours a day and dehumanizing them?


I just wish we lived in a world with integrity... where people were valued over profits... Unfortunately, this is the norm, it's ok. This is how we live, and we are complacent.
What is wrong with humanity? How could we stop living like this? Why are most of the people I meet good and kind, yet the world seems to be run by monsters?
Where do you see humanity going in the next hundred years, with shit like this happening in the world?

 

[Vict]

Violent overthrow, rebellion, and chaos. A natural winnowing of the species.

Par for the course, really.

 

[GracieRuth]

There is just too little information here for judgment.

I'm personally in favor of workers getting paid a living wage.

I also think that "finding meaning in life" is every individual's responsibility, not a corporation's. If a person has concluded that life is meaningless, I don't think a higher salary will fix them.

However, it could very well be that what the worker was trying to say is, "The life I am now living, where all I am is a slave, seems meaningless. I need basic needs met and time for my own family." Or it could be that they are saying, "A life where I am stuck in slave labor, with no hope of ever bettering myself, is meaningless."

This is why I say there is just too little information. There is no context for the remarks.

 

[acd]

There is just too little information here for judgment.

I'm personally in favor of workers getting paid a living wage.

I also think that "finding meaning in life" is every individual's responsibility, not a corporation's. If a person has concluded that life is meaningless, I don't think a higher salary will fix them.

However, it could very well be that what the worker was trying to say is, "The life I am now living, where all I am is a slave, seems meaningless. I need basic needs met and time for my own family." Or it could be that they are saying, "A life where I am stuck in slave labor, with no hope of ever bettering myself, is meaningless."

This is why I say there is just too little information. There is no context for the remarks.

In the second article that I posted, the worker explicitly states:

"Life is meaningless, " said Ah Wei having just come off a 12 hour shift. "Everyday, I repeat the same thing I did yesterday. We get yelled at all the time. It’s very tough around here."

Which is then followed by:

Ah Wei explains how conversation is forbidden on the production line and bathroom breaks are restricted to a scheduled ten minutes every two hours. The noise from the factory has damaged his hearing and management has rejected his three requests for transfer.

Another employee says about 80 percent of the front-line production staff have to work standing up for 12 hours a day, six days a week.

I can understand how life would seem meaningless under these conditions. To think that a corporation is supposed to supply you with life's meaning is ridiculous. No one suggested that. I think the point is that these people spend a huge portion of their life working for this corporation, all the while--miserable. How do you pursue the meaning of life under those conditions? Could you imagine spending 12 hours a day, 6 days a week being forced to stand, without even the right to go to the bathroom when you need to, and also forbidden from speaking to any person at all? On top of that, for very little pay... just barely enough to survive...not enough to save up... just enough to keep you terrified of losing the job you have...

The point is that these people are not being treated like people after all... at all. And while I agree that each person should be responsible for finding their meaning in life, no one is capable of doing that without having certain human needs met. No one is going to reach self-actualization if they do not have the needs of safety and belongingness and self-esteem met. It goes back to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. So I think you're right [MENTION=4576]GracieRuth[/MENTION] when you say the worker finds life meaningless because he is basically a slave. I'm confused as to how there is insufficient information?

So what do you do? Boycott every product this horrifying corporation puts out and all their affiliates so that companies that do treat workers humanely can rise?
Collectively run them and their affiliates out of business until big business gets the hint that they need to treat people like people, and fairly?


It just blows my mind that people are killing themselves at this place they are so miserable... and enough of them are doing it that Foxconn puts nets up to catch the falling bodies as they jump off the roof. That's crazy to me! Their response says a lot about how they regard human life...Why are we allowing this monster to prosper?

 

[invisible]

bill gates should be sent to gitmo. (everyone else there gets to go home.)

 

[Lerxst]

Ever see how Chinese workers live? There was a Wal-Mart documentary a couple years back that exposed living conditions and my family has seen first-hand how these people live. Apartment Flats with 5-6 people living in a space the size of my kitchen, where everything is owned and operated by their employers.

There really is no break for these people. The work in misery and then go "home" and live in misery. Their company controls and owns just about everything in their lives.

I'd throw myself off a building too if that was all my life had in store for me!

 

[paradanmellow]

Ever see how Chinese workers live? There was a Wal-Mart documentary a couple years back that exposed living conditions and my family has seen first-hand how these people live. Apartment Flats with 5-6 people living in a space the size of my kitchen, where everything is owned and operated by their employers.

There really is no break for these people. The work in misery and then go "home" and live in misery. Their company controls and owns just about everything in their lives.

I'd throw myself off a building too if that was all my life had in store for me!

I saw a documentary too, called Last Train Home. it was pretty sad and I somehow relate for I live in a second world country too, where a lot for poverty is seen as normal living, but given the Chinese people still come to work here despite that, tells me I am pretty lucky for being here, although I moan everyday looking at how well my first world neighbors have it.

also, this:

What a horrifying world.. and all while I type this from my computer... which is manufactured through that corporation...
/self-disgust...

forever ignorant, that's what we are :usa:

 

[acd]

"Apple: Foxconn, Other Suppliers' Factories To Be Audited By Fair Labor Association"

Listen to this.

 

[Leticia Mejor]

I'm so angry right now, it's an amazing and informative piece of journalism. I will be sure to share it with my friends and family.

 

[Lex Orandi]

I'm sure I'll get flamed to death for saying this, but [gulp] here goes...

First off, the suicide rate of Foxconn employees is lower than average. That's right, before we fly off the handle into full indignation mode, we should let that fact sink in. Even with age taken into account, the suicide rate is lower than the average rate in China.

Second, nobody is forced to work there. Yeah, that sounds callous, but the CCP doesn't force anyone to work (at least not at privately owned enterprises!). Soo... it appears that despite these "horrible working conditions," around a million people still work there. I dare say they are probably lining up to work there, because...

Being such a huge manufacturer and taking on clients such as Apple, Amazon, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft (among other giants), they can afford to take better care of their employees. I'll admit this is anecdotal, but I went to school for a semester in northern Shanghai. My campus was located on the edge of multiple power plants and heavy industry complexes. Let me tell you, the people I saw crawling in and out of those places looked a hell of a lot worse off than the folks at Foxconn, and they lived in little more than huts made of concrete, metal, and plastic. (Keep in mind that this is in Shanghai, one of the most affluent regions of China, a country as large as America with about 4 times the population.) They were constantly covered in dust and soot, some of them were missing fingers, and their faces were creased and dark, prematurely discolored and wrinkled from working at steel plants and with noxious chemicals. Most of them chain smoked; a friend of mine said, with a sad smile, that it was "because the smog was so bad that smoking didn't make much of a difference."

I think you get my point. Foxconn's not great, but it's leagues better than working an average Chinese manufacturing job. Now the disclaimer part: no, I wouldn't like to work there; no, I don't approve of the way laborers are treated in China; and no, I don't think even one suicide is okay. I'm just saying that relatively speaking, things are likely much better at Foxconn. Westerners need to avoid judging China's living standards based on what we have in our countries now; in many ways, they are still at the turn of the 20th century regarding economic development and labor laws.

 

[acd]

Yeah, a lot of what you said was mentioned in the podcast I linked to.
Still, I don't think it makes everything OK and permissible.
I still think it's entirely fucked up to put up nets because employees are jumping off buildings...it's fucked up to have to work 12 and 14 hours shifts day after day after day... and it's fucked up to not be allowed to socialize with anyone around you... It's fucked up to earn only enough to survive, and never enough to save up and make a better life for yourself.

And I will judge their living standards seeing as how those workers are being exploited for very little wages so that American or whatever first world country corporation can make huge profits.
Of course they don't have to work at Foxconn.. but I suppose miserable and dehumanizing working conditions are preferable to starving or working someplace even more miserable and more dehumanizing.
So I find it all unsettling.

 

[grt$5vb]

..."Less than a dollar an hour..."

 

[Quiet]

Read this before you buy your next Apple

We have blood on our hands. These massive corporations are accountable to us and rely on us. If we make enough noise they will have no choice but to improve conditions for these unfortunate people.
These people have had the misfortune of being born in the wrong part of the world. They have no one to turn to for help. Please stand up for these people because no one will listen to them. Im sure if you were in their situation you would want someone to stand up for you. This situation has been publicised for over a year and still the problem persists.
Take action to stop this injustice- sign a petition, write a letter, boycott Apple, Microsoft, Sony, HP, Dell and Toshiba, wait for a while before you buy your next gadget, tell your friends, do something!

Whether or not you're an Apple user, it is hard to deny that the brand has revolutionised information technology. Apple is the biggest company in the world, and the millions of people who buy iPhones and iPads make Apple

 

[InvisibleJim]

Westerners need to avoid judging China's living standards based on what we have in our countries now; in many ways, they are still at the turn of the 20th century regarding economic development and labor laws.

This is a serious point that is not well understood. The reason foreign investment attracts such a large labour pool is that on aggregate, whether we believe it or not relative to our own benchmarks, it is viewed by the population of these countries that these jobs are better than the alternatives.

 

[Quiet]

This is a serious point that is not well understood. The reason foreign investment attracts such a large labour pool is that on aggregate, whether we believe it or not relative to our own benchmarks, it is viewed by the population of these countries that these jobs are better than the alternatives.

You are perfectly correct in your statement.

It still doesnt excuse the working conditions of these people. It still is not right. And there is still much we can do from where we stand to improve these conditions simply by excercising our power as consumers.