Chinese Factory worker at Foxconn Commits Suicide

This story of a recent surge of Suicides in a Chinese factory rings very similar to another article in regards to suicide in Asia by Vandana Shiva title "The Suicide Economy of Corporate Globalisation". I wish we could realize the irrationality of our "rational" systems. So that all people could live out their hopes and potential, or their species essence, and lead a life free from oppression and exploitation, a life filled with all the same enjoyments and safeties that privileged folks expeirance today. It breaks my heart that so many people have to apply to work for a Company like Foxconn, fully acknowledging the terrible conditions, because they have no other choice and need to provide for their family. I wish we designed for people not profits (although cliche it is still a vital wish). In this new design all people's happiness, wellness, safety, agency and hopes would be taken into account not cost cutting and production, production, production. People psychological well being in a factory is not found in the I-phone price tag ($300-350), and surely no price tag would be able to cover it in any kind of meaningful way.

Chinese Factory worker at Foxconn Commits Suicide

Another suspected suicide has occurred at a factory in China, the latest in a string of deaths at the plant this year, state media reports.

Xinhua said the male employee jumped to his death hours after a media tour at the plant owned by Taiwan firm Foxconn.

The firm manufactures mobile phones and electronic equipment for top brands including Dell computers and Apple.


If confirmed, the death would be the twelfth attempted suicide at the plant - two people have survived such falls.

The plant employs more than 400,000 people.

One man was also reported to have killed himself at another Foxconn plant in Hebei province earlier this year.

Apple has said it is "saddened and upset" by the recent string of suicides.
'Determined'

Police officials said the man who died on Wednesday was a 23-year-old from Gansu province, who had been working at the plant for about a year.

Witnesses said he had jumped from the seventh floor of a dormitory building, Xinhua reported.
Foxconn chairman Terry Gou in Shenzhen, China (26 May 2010) Mr Gou said the company was trying hard to prevent further deaths

The death came just hours after the chairman of Foxconn, one of Taiwan's most famous businessmen Terry Gou, took reporters around the vast Shenzhen plant.

Mr Gou apologised repeatedly, and said he had trouble sleeping but would not stop trying to solve the problem.

"We need some time," he said. "But we are confident. We are extremely determined."

The company is training counsellors and has provided leisure facilities for the workers. It has also put up nets around the buildings.

"Although this seems like a dumb measure, at least it could save a life should anyone else fall," said Mr Gou.

Labour activists in neighbouring Hong Kong have held small protests, calling for a boycott of iPhones to increase pressure on the factory.

They claim shifts are long, the assembly line moves too fast and that managers enforce military-style discipline on the workforce.

The company points out that despite the bad publicity, each day around 8,000 people still apply to work at the factory.

Apple, whose iPhones are made there, says it will evaluate what Foxconn is doing to address the problems and continue ongoing inspections of the facilities where its products are made.