Foxconn Mass Suicide Threats

[mlee49]

From The Atlantic Wire:

As American consumers ogle over shiny new gadgets at this week's Consumer Electronic's Show, the workers that make those products are threatening mass suicide for the horrid working conditions at Foxconn. 300 employees who worked making the Xbox 360 stood at the edge of the factory building, about to jump, after their boss reneged on promised compensation, reports English news site Want China Times. It's not like this is the first time working conditions at Foxconn have made news outside China. But iPhone and Xbox sales surely haven't lagged in the wake of those revelations and neither Apple nor Microsoft has done much of anything to fix things.

Instead of the raise they requested, these workers were given the following ultimatum: quit with compensation, or keep their jobs with no pay increase. Most quit and never got the money. That's when the mass suicide threat came in. The incident actually caused a factory wide shutdown, reports Record China.

Read more here:
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/01/foxconn-still-hard-place-work/47193/


Think about that when you turn on your Xbox or iPhone.

 

[Andrei23]

^this

 

[Frick]

Makes me glad I don't have an Xbox or an iPhone. This is simply unacceptable

Foxconn makes .. well pretty much everything. I'm sure pretty much every electronic device on the planet have some foxconn-made stuff in them.

But it's a bit hypocritial of us as well imo. We like our shinys cheap and mass produced, and that comes at the price of this.

 

[mlee49]

Foxconn makes .. well pretty much everything. I'm sure pretty much every electronic device on the planet have some foxconn-made stuff in them.

But it's a bit hypocritial of us as well imo. We like our shinys cheap and mass produced, and that comes at the price of this.

exactly


Sadly it's mostly American driven consumerism that causes crap like this. China needs to manner up their labor laws and stop employing 13 years full time. Hell China needs to get some labor laws to start with.

 

[Batou1986]

Glad more ppl in china are standing up for themselves, with as much money as foxcon and all its partners make the workers are poorly compensated.

Ive known a few ppl that have come from "factory towns" overseas, in particular china.
From a workers aspect there imagine working 6 10 hr days a week with and make about 250$ for two weeks with no better options.

It has less to do with consumers and more to do with corporate greed imo.

 

[the54thvoid]

Foxconn makes .. well pretty much everything. I'm sure pretty much every electronic device on the planet have some foxconn-made stuff in them.

But it's a bit hypocritial of us as well imo. We like our shinys cheap and mass produced, and that comes at the price of this.

Unfortunately what Frick says is true. Except i-'products' aren't cheap. It's not like a Primark Indian sweat shop making £15 jackets. Apple and Microsoft and Nike and etc etc etc turn a blind eye to these things.

It's what drives the Western Capitalist world. If you want equality of pay for workers across the globe the whole BRIC structure would disintigrate and with it bring a global catastrophic financial meltdown.

Every great empire was built on cheap labor, from the Roman Empire to Black slavery to the chinese and Irish workers on the trans american railways.

So make a choice, growing economy and exploitation of someone or global stagnation, that's modern 'desire driven' capitalism as opposed to the notion of needs driven consumerism.

 

[Solaris17]

i own an orginal xbox the 360s i have like 20pcs and iv owned every iphone since the 3g. if this makes me a bad person everyone posting in this thread is too. Do you think EVGA treats them better? Do you think ECS is totally cool with them? does your mobo have a foxconn socket on it? or foxconn sata connectors? because your just as bad. the issue here isnt EVER going to be as simple as boycotting apple and microsoft. you need to boycott almost EVERYTHING. in order to make in impact on foxconn.

 

[the54thvoid]

i own an orginal xbox the 360s i have like 20pcs and iv owned every iphone since the 3g. if this makes me a bad person everyone posting in this thread is too. Do you think EVGA treats them better? Do you think ECS is totally cool with them? does your mobo have a foxconn socket on it? or foxconn sata connectors? because your just as bad. the issue here isnt EVER going to be as simple as boycotting apple and microsoft. you need to boycott almost EVERYTHING. in order to make in impact on foxconn.

Skynet will make all the bad men go away.

 

[rcodi]

I feel no remorse about owning my little gadgets because they weren't cheap, it's not my problem the companies that produce them can't take a small cut in profit to improve the working conditions of their backbone.

 

[Solaris17]

I feel no remorse about owning my little gadgets because they weren't cheap, it's not my problem the companies that produce them can't take a small cut in profit to improve the working conditions of their backbone.

honestly this int a situation that customers can do something to fix.

 

[ShiBDiB]

exactly


Sadly it's mostly American driven consumerism that causes crap like this. China needs to manner up their labor laws and stop employing 13 years full time. Hell China needs to get some labor laws to start with.

Its more lack of chinese regulations then anything... Love how sweatshop labor is always americas fault yet it could be solved simply by the countries their operating in having some laws.

 

[AphexDreamer]

Sadly we help fuel shit like this.

We buy the products from American Companies that use foreign manufactures who treat their workers like shit.

This isn't the only example.

African slaves many children are being forced to mine for many of the minerals used in most of our electronic products. Companies like Nokia, Motorola, and many others all fall guilty of such horrendous acts and even more so, so do we for buying their products without giving a flying ...

http://earthfirst.com/african-minerals-and-electronics-technology-soaked-in-blood/

Some companies are taking some initiative to "reduce/prevent" these things from happening but the way the system is setup their isn't a real way to find out. Their is a documentary out there, forgot what it is called but they interview the children and basically they are promised pay but in the end get stuck.

It is sad to see that they can't even resort to a strike but have to put their lives at risk to get any real change. Perhaps if we as consumers demanded change? Is it not worth sacrificing our entertainment so other can live normal lives? I think many Americans find that hard to do.

 

[iKhan]

It's not Foxconn alone. All Chinese factories treat their employees like this. There's a video on YouTube showing a Chinese press machine (can't post due school web filter block). There's no safety at all. We as consumers can't do anything...it's not like SOPA where you transfer your domain names from GoDaddy.

Weird thing is...I read on article on Gizmodo that made it look like working for Foxconn was a good thing.

 

[iKhan]

On one hand Foxconn looks like a good place to work...
http://gizmodo.com/5679706/exclusive-look-living-at-foxconn

On the other hand there are suicide threats...

 

[Steevo]

This isn't the issue, Apple making billions per year is the issue. Microsoft making billions per year is the issue.


Steve Jobs is a Buddhist asshole who is going to hell.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/20/apple-profits-up-iphone-sales


He was willing to turn a blind eye on how his products are made in order to make more money, despite numerous safety violations & suicides. If that isn't the description of a twat I don't know what is.

 

[Bo$$]

this is stupid, we really need this to stop.

 

[Widjaja]

These suicide threats make Foxconn sound like the working conditions there are no better than the conditions in a battery hen farm.

There must be some serious negligence of workers in behind the scene over there to causes such a mass suicide threat.

 

[trickson]

Made in CHINA !!!

 

[_JP_]

It isn't like I haven't mentioned this one time or another. Foxconn employees are salves.
Apple products are the most controversial, because Apple knows about this, sends people over to China to inspect the assembly lines, the representatives sweet-talk them to look elsewhere, feed them well and off they go back home. And then Apple products are expensive (I guess the abundant cheap stuff isn't true for all products). Same applies for all consoles as well.
Oh, and if you think Foxconn only makes small components for motherboards, think again. If you have a socket 775 Gigabyte board, it was made there.

 

[trickson]

It isn't like I haven't mentioned this one time or another. Foxconn employees are salves.
Apple products are the most controversial, because Apple knows about this, sends people over to China to inspect the assembly lines, the representatives sweet-talk them to look elsewhere, feed them well and off they go back home. And then Apple products are expensive (I guess the abundant cheap stuff isn't true for all products). Same applies for all consoles as well.
Oh, and if you think Foxconn only makes small components for motherboards, think again. If you have a socket 775 Gigabyte board, it was made there.

Every thing is made in China . Tell me ONE electronics company ( Computer wise ) That is made in America ! Because I really do not know . In fact I bet there are none at all . American workers may ask for more in terms of pay and treatment but that is because we are worth it ! And Apple made in CHINA ipad , ipod Ibook and every thing else is NOT cheap at all !

 

[whitrzac]

This isn't the issue, Apple making billions per year is the issue. Microsoft making billions per year is the issue.


Steve Jobs was a Buddhist asshole who is in hell.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/20/apple-profits-up-iphone-sales


He was willing to turn a blind eye on how his products are made in order to make more money, despite numerous safety violations & suicides. If that isn't the description of a twat I don't know what is.

fixed....

 

[the54thvoid]

Steve Jobs is a Buddhist asshole who is going to hell.

Eh?

Even if he says he's a Bhuddist, he's an afront to Bhuddism.

And he's not gone to hell, he's been re-incarnated as a tea boy at Google HQ.

 

[Super XP]

Corporate Greed and Slave Labour is the problem. Lately there’s been an attack on the middle class families all over the world.

And we have companies like Ap*le paying out $ multi-millions $ to it's board of directors while screwing the little guy.

 

[trickson]

Child labor , Slave labor and slave wages yet all over the world we still keep buying from them ! We all know just what China is doing and how they treat there people yet we HAVE to keep buying from them as there are no other choices ! We all have to boycott China in a BIG way . Stop buying any thing MADE in China . Or any other country that uses its people like slaves . Mass suicide ? Maybe not suck a bad thing really .

Oh yeah there is no longer a Middle class in America Obama seen to that !

 

[Solaris17]

Child labor , Slave labor and slave wages yet all over the world we still keep buying from them ! We all know just what China is doing and how they treat there people yet we HAVE to keep buying from them as there are no other choices ! We all have to boycott China in a BIG way . Stop buying any thing MADE in China . Or any other country that uses its people like slaves . Mass suicide ? Maybe not suck a bad thing really .

Oh yeah there is no longer a Middle class in America Obama seen to that !

and This just became a political thread and now it will be locked.