A string of suicides at Foxconn Technology Group has raised concerns about conditions for workers at one of China’s most prolific factories — a massive complex that churns out iPods, iPads, Dell computers and numerous other big-selling gadgets.
The latest suicide, which happened early on Friday, was the eighth reported at the factory this year. A ninth suicide at a separate Foxconn factory was also reported on Friday.
The official Xinhua News Agency quoted police as saying migrant worker Nan Gang (南剛), 21, jumped from a four-story building about half-an-hour after finishing a night shift at the company’s vast complex in the southern city of Shenzhen. It was unclear if Nan, who worked in the logistics department, was motivated by work-related issues.
Labor activists have long alleged that Foxconn factories are hellish places to work — where employees face tremendous pressure and harsh discipline for mistakes. Rights investigators, however, acknowledge the suicides could be linked to other personal factors, such as failed romances or career disappointments in China’s increasingly competitive society.
Foxconn is part of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry — a corporate behemoth that has also produced computers for Hewlett-Packard, PlayStation game consoles for Sony and mobile phones for Nokia. Its Shenzhen complex employs 300,000 people.
Notorious for its secrecy, the company did not immediately comment on the latest fatality. Earlier this month, when a 24-year-old worker jumped to her death, a company spokesman did not explain why the worker died, but said that employees enjoy world-class treatment and that Foxconn’s social responsibility programs ensure their welfare.
After that suicide, Foxconn did not respond to reporters’ requests to tour the Shenzhen operations.
Also on Friday, Xinhua reported that another worker, Rong Bo (榮波), 19, leapt off a building and killed himself on Jan. 8 in a Foxconn plant in the northern city of Langfang, Hebei Province. Officials confirmed his death on Friday after relatives reported it to the media, Xinhua said.
It is hard to gauge whether the number of deaths at Foxconn is abnormally high, as there have been no studies about suicide rates for such a population of mostly migrant workers in China. The government and other large factories are traditionally silent about such issues and it is difficult to get figures that can be used for comparison.
In the US, Cornell University in New York State has reported six suicides this academic year at the Ivy League school with a student body of 20,000 — less than 7 percent the size of Foxconn’s workforce. Cornell says its suicide rate over time is normal for colleges.
Li Qiang (李強), founder of New York-based China Labor Watch, said his group has investigated suicides at Foxconn and other factories and has found a range of causes, such as failed romances, unplanned pregnancies, financial pressures or professional dreams that have gone sour.
He said, however, that Foxconn employees have complained in interviews about the length of the 10 to 12 hour shifts they work. The production line moves fast and workers live in fear of making mistakes as military-style managers watch over them in a sterile, joyless environment, he said.
“It is true that Foxconn provides workers with a complaint box and a hotline for psychological assistance, but few workers have ever used any of these channels,” Li wrote in a report published this week. “Some workers are even worried that if they appeal for help, the administrators will deliberately make things more difficult for them.”
As wages continue to rise in China, factories are forced to increase productivity, run leaner operations and squeeze more out of workers. This could be adding to the pressure on China’s workforce.
Anita Chan, a Chinese labor expert at the University of Technology in Sydney, said that Foxconn has struggled to overcome a reputation for bad labor practices.
“In a factory when the discipline is tough, it comes down level-by-level from the top and the shop floor becomes unbearable,” she said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS