FoxConn, Manufacturer of Apple, Sony, HP, Nintendo: Adds Suicide Nets for Unhappy Employees
The next time you pick up your iPhone or iPad or any of the other Apple products, as well as Nintendo, Sony and HP, you might want to think about your humanity and the cost of that technology products. While we all know that these items are manufactured in China at the FoxConn plant, did you know that the working conditions are so bad that the employees threatened suicide? And the answer to the problem? Not better conditions, but instead Foxconn erected suicide nets.
In November, 2011, I listened to an interview with Steve Jobs on NPR, in which he stated that the reason Apple made the decision to build their manufacturing plants in China was because he couldn’t find the large quantity of qualified engineers that they needed in the United States. While not wishing to speak ill of someone that has passed, I point blank rejected that statement. Everyone knows that outsourcing to other countries, where the labor is so much cheaper, is simply a profit decision. The bottom line greed is what this is all about, and nothing else. Technology investment is a major player in global economics and profits are what every board of directors and their investors want to see.
Well now, the shameful face of such companies as Nintendo, HP, Sony and Apple is showing at its FoxConn manufacturing plant, where workers are stating that the conditions are so incredibly bad that they threatened mass suicide. This isn’t new for this plant. In 2010, there were eighteen suicide attempts, resulting in fourteen deaths. The environment is so bad that every month, five percent of their work staff (over 24,000 people) simply quit.
The workers have reported a military style environment at the plant, with incredibly long work days and intensely unhealthy working conditions. The final mass threat came when the upper management made a decision to relocate over six hundred workers to a new manufacturing line. The workers are paid in the ‘piece meal’ fashion with the production lines running so fast that in one day, all of the workers had blisters all over their hands, blackened hands from the dust and the air was filled with choking dust.
The workers used to be given an option that if they wished to quit, they would be given a month’s severance pay. This quickly changed when a higher percentage of workers kept quitting. The situation at FoxConn was so bad that the workers banded together and threatened a mass suicide. The answer that FoxConn gave was to erect suicide nets and contact the local police. While the situation was peacefully diffused, and the workers that started the protest voluntarily resigned, it did not resolve the main problem at Foxconn: Lack of a humane environment for the workers.
Manufacturing in other countries is nothing new. In years gone by, various countries benefited from the U.S. industry’s world of greed. It used to be Japan, then Taiwan, then Puerto Rico, then the Philippines, then Pakistan, then India, and the list is pretty much continues. It just so happens to be China at this point in our society. The topic of inhumane treatment of workers has covered the gamut over the years, including child labor in the production of clothing. However, it’s about time that the manufacturers of the world stop the greed and start placing human life as a priority. Until that happens, they will continue to find cheap labor, bad manufacturing practices and more money in their own pockets. The only way to stop it is for the general public to express an outcry and stop buying and supporting their products. Technology investment will only turn around when we, as a world, acknowledge these unacceptable practices.
The information supplied in this article is not to be considered as medical advice and is for educational purposes only.
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 Investment Strategies 25 Jul 2012 |
