New suicide attempt at Foxconn, Apple China
p2pnet view P2P:- An other suicide attempt has been reported at Foxconn, the disgraced Chinese company which makes components for many (most?) Apple products.
An 18-year-old worker “became the fourth person in as many weeks” to try to kill herself by “jumping from one of the factory buildings”, says the Telegraph.
“The girl, only known by her surname, Rao, had only been working at Foxconn’s Longhua plant for a month”, it says, continuing >>>
Fortunately a tree broke her fall, but she was severely injured. Foxconn confirmed the incident to the Chinese media, and a spokesman was quoted saying Miss Rao had been fighting with her boyfriend before she jumped.
On March 29, a 23-year-old man, named Liu, jumped out of a dormitory window at the Longhua plant at 3am, dressed only in his factory shirt and underwear. The unnamed man was a university graduate and had worked in Foxconn’s wireless technology department since he joined last August.
On March 11, at 9.30pm, a worker in his twenties, named Li, jumped to his death, again at the Longhua plant. According to Chinese media reports, the man’s bonus was stolen at Chinese New Year.
Finally, on the morning of March 7, a female employee named Tian jumped from her dormitory building and injured herself, saying that she was under a great deal of pressure.
iPhone death
Workers building Apple iPods, mostly young women from rural areas of China labouring in 15-hour shifts, were, housed in dormitories from which outsiders are banned, and regularly pay about half their wages for room and board charges, p2pnet quoted a UK newspaper as saying in 2006.
Then, 25 year-old Sun Danyong committed suicide after a fourth-generation iPhone prototype he was responsible for went missing,” said Digital Beat, going on:
“It’s a story, from what tech-industry friends in China tell me, of how Apple’s secretive ways send extreme pressure all the way down the company’s international supply chain.”
A recent Reuters story explains in detail how Foxconn security is rigidly controlled and enforced.
Now, says the Telegraph >>>
The police in Shenzhen are investigating all the incidents, and have not given any clarification about the motives in each case.
However, a spate of four suicide attempts within a month is a sign that something is rotten in the Foxconn plant.
Several attempts to contact Foxconn today to comment on the conditions at Longhua were unsuccessful.
Violating trade secrets
In February, “Apple is held in religious awe by people who buy its over-priced products, and by the mainstream media who idolise Jobs”, I wrote, adding >>>
However, it will go to any lengths to guard its secrets, up to and including destroying its own supporters.
Ask Nick Ciarelli, aka Nick dePlume.
The Wall Street Journal called his Think Secret, founded in 1988 when he was only 13, “one of the most influential Web sites” about Apple.
Then Think Secret ran rumors of a new Mac and a new word-processing application.
Apple claimed its reports violated trade secret law and used its cash and legal teams to totally destroy the site.
And it’s just as evil when it comes to promoting products.
“I wonder where Annie Leith is today and what she thinks of her appearance?” – I asked recently, going on:
“Does she believe it was right for Apple and Pepsi to hold her and her friends up to be falsely accused by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s RIAA as criminals in front of hundreds of millions of people in a warped iPod commercial?”
Apple? Rotten through and through.
And the secrecy cited by Reuters and others is really paranoia.
A little while ago I ran an item suggesting if corporations are legally ‘persons’, then Google could safely be labelled a psychopathic personality.
The same can be said for Apple.
Times 10.
Jon Newton – p2pnet
(Cheers, Filip)
..… and identi.ca
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Telegraph – Four suicide attempts in a month at Foxconn, the makers of the iPad, April 7, 2010
p2pnet – Apple iPhone worker kills himself, July 21, 2009
Digital Beat – iPhone prototype goes missing; Chinese worker investigated, commits suicide, July 21, 2009
Reuters – For Apple suppliers, loose lips can sink contracts, February 17, 2010
rigidly controlled – Apple and its paranoid secrecy, February 18, 2010
totally destroy the site – Apple crushes Think Secret, December 20, 2007
asked recently – Apple, Pepsi and the RIAA SuperBowl scandal, July 5, 2009
psychopathic personality – Corporate Persons: I, February 12, 2009
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April 11th, 2010 at 4:10 am
While I agree that Apple isn’t innocent in all this, why does none of the blame fall on China, a country that allows such conditions to exist?
April 11th, 2010 at 10:53 am
@ RW: “why does none of the blame fall on China”
It does. And very much so.
Cheers!