“There were reports yesterday that a Foxconn employee in the Chinese city of Shenzhen has committed suicide,” Paul Kedrosky reports for Seeking Alpha. “It means that the woman, 24, is the sixth Foxconn employee to commit suicide this year (and there are three more employees who unsuccessfully attempted suicide). Perhaps best known is that a male Foxconn employee, 25 years old, killed himself after being asked questions about a missing iPhone prototype.”
“And that’s why this sad story gets so much attention. To some, the connection to Apple’s secretive ways is easy to make,” Kedrosky reports. “After all, would it be any surprise if working with one of the most militantly guarded companies on the planet led some Foxconn employees to destructive levels of pressure and strain, even to the point of suicide? The narrative fits together so neatly.”
“Or does it? …The rate of suicide in China is, according to the WHO, 13.0 per 100,000 for men, and 14.8 per 100,000 for women (China is one of the few countries where the female suicide rate exceeds the male one),” Kedrosky reports. “Given 300,000 employees at Foxconn’s massive Shenzhen facility, we should, therefore, expect somewhere between 39 and 43 suicides a year…”
Full article here.
DogGone:
Agreed.
I was just trying to point out that it’s not Apple’s fault that jobs are leaving or aren’t here. Apple does more than anyone to ensure high standards in everything it does and when it’s proven wrong makes every effort to investigate and rectify problems.
Yes, it is Apple’s fault that APPLE’s jobs are leaving here. It is their fault that they are manufacturing overseas.
That is APPLE’s choice.
If the way to be competitive is to use developing countries for cheap labor, is that progress? No, unless you don’t care about fellow humans and only care about getting luxury items at a low price. Yes, if you just want to be like every other computer maker.
Apple has taken a stand on a number of issues, design-wise and otherwise. Wish they would take a stand here also. I will buy Apple items even if they are 20x the current price. Yes, I am serious. Being the biggest computer company in the world or the most profitable is not the only measure of success.
@ breeze
Oh, only Canada and Ireland?
By the way, I just spoke to Apple tech support last week in the Philippines, so not sure what you are talking about. Your credibility decreases when you say things that are not true. Sorry breeze but I like where your allegiance lies! (no pun intended)
Re. Unions.
Without unions, workers in the US would be dying in droves, they would be working 80-100 hour 6-day weeks for starvation wages and buying from the “company store”, They would have no access to medical treatment, they would have no pensions,but that wouldn’t matter, they would be dying before 50,
Only a handful of enlightened manufacturers wanted good conditions for their workers before the advent of unions. The rest used them up like firewood. Without a voice for the worker, the modern CEOs would do the same so that they could make an even more obscene amount of money. – but I’m not bitter!
ploogman:
you are a liar
Speaking as both a consumer of Apple products and a shareholder, I’m glad you are not running Apple. Perhaps you and five other folks would be willing to pay $3000 for an iPhone, but I’m guessing not a lot more would.
Last I checked, neither Apple nor Foxconn are forcing people to work in these facilities in China – they choose to do so. BTW, I lived in China so I also know what I am talking about. Have you seen the working conditions endured by most chinese? If you did you would not be asking to have all these foreign companies pull out of China. That would not help the locals one bit. Study history and observe the present, and you will see that the trend for the average chinese worker is quite positive, precisely because of what is happening with foreign influence. BTW, if you really care about American workers, then move to the States and start a company selling the products you so desire, at the prices you are so anxious to charge. Good luck with that.
Finally, if you are calling Apple support from China did you automatically assume that you’d get an American answering the phone?
Ploogman is an imposter here to start trouble last week he was macfan….
@Jersey_Trader
“The next American challenge, AI. If we create AI and use it with robotic automation, we will not need overseas cheep labor…”
And how would this automation possibly help American workers and create jobs?
Oh that’s right, it wouldn’t. But unions actually do help help workers.
Clueless idiot.
@ Intel
ha, good intel, Intel – No, I am myself ploogman unless someone is copying my name
Here is a direct quote from an article from Wired Magazine about China and about the environmental disaster for our planet and the Chinese people due to manufacturing:
“If China’s carbon usage keeps pace with its economic growth, the country’s carbon dioxide emissions will reach 8 gigatons a year by 2030, which is equal to the entire world’s CO2 production today. That’s just the most stunning in a series of datapoints about the Chinese economy reported in a policy brief in the latest issue of the journal Science.
Coal power has been driving the stunning, seven plus percent a year growth in China’s economy. It’s long been said said that China was adding one new coal power plant per week to its grid. But the real news is worse: China is completing two new coal plants per week.
That power is being used to drive an enormous manufacturing expansion.”
last comment on this…
Now to all you naysayers and anti-union commentors, who wants to be in a country that is completing 2 new coal burning plants EVERY week. I think that sums it up and is partly why reliance on Chinese manufacturing at lowest possible cost is not good for anyone.
No, Apple is not the only company doing this. But they can choose a different course. There is always a choice even if you are a stockholder.
“Given 300,000 employees at Foxconn’s massive Shenzhen facility…”
wow.
that is a decent sized city population.
@ smaugthewyrm
Thank you, someone that gets it
Employees at Foxconn facility: 300,000
Does anyone here actually think it is good to have the entire population of the city of Buffalo, NY (40 square miles) in a cramped factory facility? Almost seems like science fiction, but it’s not. That’s just wrong.
O.k. I am glad they clarified that. So this had nothing to do with Apple, but more so with China. @ploogman, I am with you.
“Re. Unions.
Without unions, workers in the US would be dying in droves, they would be working 80-100 hour 6-day weeks for starvation wages and buying from the “company store”, They would have no access to medical treatment, they would have no pensions,but that wouldn’t matter, they would be dying before 50, ‘
That was indeed true in the early 20th century. Since that time Congress has made numerous laws to prevent the exploitation of labor. Now if they’d only crack down on the businesses which use illegal slave labor, we’d be on the right path.
@ Big Als MBP,
so suicide is the height of selfishness eh? With that one stupid comment, you damn yourself as someone who can’t even begin to understand what is going on in the mind of someone who is tortured so much that death seems the only way out.
Your shallow understanding shows exactly how unfit you are to comment on a situation that can be so complex that ‘selfishness’ doesn’t even begin to describe what’s going on.
You’re making yourself look silly. Quit whilst you’re behind.
@ Dirty Pierre,
My 15 year old nephew committed suicide less than a month ago.
His friends, immediate and extended family are devastated. He thought only of himself. He didn’t give a crap about anyone else’s feelings. Me, me, me.
It is a very selfish act. Think about it.
@ ploogman,
I have been to China.
I like your reference, Wired, shows you’ve been to China as well.
@ Big Als MBP,
Sorry for your loss but you are talking about one instance. It’s completely illogical to apply your nephew’s circumstances to everyone who takes their own life.
People kill themselves for many reasons and we know that some of them are in such a state of mind when they do it, that they’re doing something they would never consider if they were more emotionally balanced.
@ Big Als MBP
I live in China. Read much? The Wired reference is related to the number of coal burning plants completed every week since you certainly would not take my word for it.
Sorry for the loss of your nephew by the way.