Your iphones have blood on it. The number of suicide attempts this year in the factory that makes the iphone has grown to at least 16, with at least 12 dead. Three new suicide attempts were reported in the factory today but we don't yet know the fate of the victims.
Your iphones (and Xboxes and nintendos and ...) have blood on it.
Foxconn is a major contract manufacturer which assembles products for Apple, Dell, HP, and Sony, among others. It is registered in Taiwan and its largest factory is in Shenzhen, China. It has about 400,000 workers.
Suicides by workers in the Foxconn factory had happened in the past. Last July, the suicide of a Foxconn employee already caused a firestorm in Chinese media. But since the beginning of 2010, the high frequency of suicide attempts and deaths in this factory finally alerted the whole world that something is seriously wrong here. From the media reports that I can find, here is an incomplete summary:
Jan 8, 2010, a 19 year old male worker jumped from a building to his death after being hired for only two weeks;
Jan 23, a 19 year old male worker jumped off a building to death (hired Nov 2009);
Feb 23, a 16 year old female worker died in her bed one day after being hired;
Mar 11, a 28 year old male worker jumped off a building to death (hired 2008);
Mar 17, a female worker jumped off a building and was injured (hired Feb 2010);
Mar 29, a 23 year old male worker jumped off a building to death (hired Aug 2009) (rumor was that two people jumped together but the other person survived with injuries);
Apr 6, a 18 year old female worker jumped off a building and was injured (hired Mar 2010);
Apr 7, a 18 year old female worker jumped off a building to death (hired Jan 2010);
May 6, a 24 year old male worker jumped off a building to death (hired Aug 2009);
May 11, a 24 year old female worker jumped off a building to death (hired Aug 2009);
May 14, a 21 year old male worker jumped off a building to death (hired Nov 2009);
May 21, a 21 year old male worker jumped off a building to death (hired Mar 2009);
The suicides in the past few days I haven't been able to find the details yet. According to this report today, there were a pair suicides (two people jumped together) today and there was an ongoing suicide attempt today with the police trying to rescue.
The suicides are not limited to the Shenzhen factory. In Jan a female worker in the Beijing factory hung herself in the dorm. There were reported suicides in other Foxconn factories as well.
Poor working conditions is automatically suspected when so many suicides happen. In fact, according to this report:
Unfortunately, in China working conditions with regards to safety are not subject to the same stringent guidelines that we have in the West. Sometimes this is because of immature legislation which does not protect employees adequately. Sometimes it is through corruption. But the fact remains that something is obviously very wrong with certain parts of Foxconn’s business practices. And it seems to be coming to a head. Scant weeks ago there were what seemed like mini-uprisings inside the factory compound where workers were protesting over working conditions.
The crux of the protests seemed to be about exposure to hazardous materials during manufacture of electronics equipment. Those protests were quickly quelled by Foxconn’s own security.
But it's not just the working conditions. An investigative report says:
According to Liu, the plant makes employees work around the clock, only pausing briefly to eat or sleep. Most of the time the employees are standing, seldom able to sit down and rest their weary legs. This is perfectly legal, as employees are required to sign a special overtime document that override Chinese workplace laws and essentially allows the employer to demand whatever hours they want from you, without additional compensation.
Furthermore, there is also evidence that Foxconn security guards beat the employees.
Unlike in America, the workers don't have a union to help them. The government run Trade Union of City of Shenzhen, conducted a survey of 500 Foxconn employees on May 25 to gauge their satisfaction of the company management. The result of the survey is unknown but we are told that the employees are "dissatisfied" by the management. The union is reportedly writing a report on Foxconn, but they refuse to disclose what the purpose of this report is.
This is a perfect example of capitalism unimpeded by regulation or oversight.