11th Suicide This Year at Foxconn that Manufacture iPhone, iPad

Believe it or not. This is the 11th suicide case at Foxconn today (25th May 2010). In total there are 9 death and 2 injuries this year. The latest is a 19-year old worker that had only worked 42 days. Foxconn is actually a Taiwan company owned by Guo Tai-Ming and they manufacture Apple products like iPhone, iPads and etc.

According to the video report, there are more than 800,000 workers in Foxconn and the latest suicide has added pressure to Guo Tai-Ming as the previous suicide is just 4 days ago.

An excerpt from Engadget,

He stated: “We believe that we are definitely not a sweatshop. It’s very difficult to manage a manufacturing team of 800,000 something. With the others around the world it adds up to almost 900,000, so there’s a lot to be done every day. However, we believe that we’ll soon be able to stabilize this situation.”

If you can understand Chinese, you can click the link below for the video and report.

Click Here to Watch the Video on the Latest Suicide Report

Foxconn has been getting bad press recently (actually in many occassions) for their strict management, long working hours on workers.

Click Here to Read the Report based on an Undercover Reporter Liu Ziyi on Foxconn Working Condition

While we are enjoying the iPhone or iPad, the conditions of the workers in Foxconn are becoming worse as the demand is high. On the report, the worker gets an average of US$130 monthly and most of them would not be able to afford an iPhone.

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When they join the company, they have to sign a voluntary affidavit committing to between 60 and 100 hours of overtime each month.

Here are highlights from Guo Tai-Ming speech to the media on the latest suicide.

Important highlights on Gou’s respond :

  • We are definitely not a ‘Sweatshop’ manufacturer.
  • There are about 800,000 employees in China’s Foxconn, it is difficult for us to handle such a huge production team.
  • We have confidence to stabilize the whole situation.
  • Many of the management issues, we must only do it instead of saying it, but we have always done well on it.
  • the press media always ‘love’ to report Foxconn’s issues, if there are really problem behind the company, it already busted, it will not wait until now.
  • At the moment, a lot of things cannot be said. We are quietly doing (solving the case).

Click Here to Read the Details

However, I think will still continue to buy iPhones/iPads/iPods. I just hope that Foxconn can do something on the current situation. I don’t think hiring 50 new counselors in past 2 days helps or getting some dummies for them to punch will solve the situation either.

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