The Price of the iPad... in blood.

[BearBoi]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100602/3consumertech/as_taiwan_china_foxconn

iPad maker raises pay in China after suicides

By Annie Huang, The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan - The Taiwan company that makes iPads and other gadgets is raising the pay of its workers in China after a spate of suicides.

Foxconn Technology Group, shaken by the suicides at its China plants, says today it is raising the pay of workers by 30 per cent, a greater increase than first planned.

The company, which makes iPhones, iPads and other electronic items, says the pay increase will take effect immediately at its plants across China.

A Foxconn official said: "With the pay raise, we hope workers don't need to work overtime as much and thus gain more time for leisure and have a happier working environment."

"It may also help cut the turnover rate and raise productivity and product quality level."

The basic salary at Foxconn's China plants is about 900 yuan ($130) per month.

Foxconn had been considering raising pay for months to cope with a labour shortage following China's recovery from the global recession. The eventual raise is higher than the 20 per cent the company had initially planned.

Ten workers have killed themselves and three have attempted suicide at Foxconn's operations in southern China this year, involving mainly workers who jumped from buildings.

The most recent suicide attempt involved a 25-year-old man who slashed his wrists in the factory dormitory last week. One additional Foxconn worker in northern China also committed suicide this year.

Labour activists accuse the company of having a rigid management style, an excessively fast assembly line and forced overwork. Foxconn denies the allegations.

The company, part of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., is the world's largest contract maker of electronics. Its long list of big-name customers include Apple Inc., Sony Corp., Dell Inc., Nokia Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co.

Last week, Foxconn chairman Terry Gou led a media tour of the company's mammoth industrial park in Shenzhen and promised to work harder to prevent more deaths.

Safety nets were being installed on buildings and more counsellors were being hired. He also said all employees were being divided into 50-member groups, whose members would watch for signs of emotional trouble within their group.​

Forced overtime without pay is not an uncommon practice in major manufacturing plants in several parts of Asia, so I don't buy the companies denial. Also, didn't they just say, "With the pay raise, we hope workers don't need to work overtime as much..."?

Anyway, thoughts?

 

[JB3]

What you need to understand is that the suicide rate is actually quite low. Foxconn employees 400,000 people at that plant; having 10 suicides in a year means a suicide rate less than the US'.

It is also unclear if these suicides are related to their jobs. To be quite frank, nobody knows.

 

[andysayshi]

While these deaths are tragic, and very worthy of thorough investigation, here's some information to put some perspective on this story.

Foxconn employs 800,000 people in mainland China. 11 suicides in 6 months equates to an annual suicide rate of 2.75 per 100,000. The annual suicide rate in the US is around 11 per 100,000. So the suicide rate at Foxconn China is significantly lower than the general rate in the US. It's reasonable to assume that any company that employs almost a million people will experience a wide range of social issues amongst its employees that may or may not have anything to do with the workplace.

And, while the heavy media attention on the iPad has made this story slant toward Apple in the news, Foxconn don't just make Apple products. They make Intel-branded motherboards for Intel Corp.; various orders for American computer manufacturers Dell and Hewlett-Packard; motherboards for UK computer manufacturer Zoostorm; the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 for Sony; the Wii for Nintendo; the Xbox 360 for Microsoft, cell phones for Motorola, the Amazon Kindle, and Cisco equipment.

I'd like to re-stress that none of these details excuse what appears to be inhumane and unreasonable treatment of employees at Foxconn, and ALL of the companies listed above need to rapidly crack down on the actions of the providers of their components.

Edit: Droid beat me to it!

 

[GhostPhoenix]

It's sad and tragic that working conditions are as bad as they are there. That however is not directly anyone's fault other then Foxconn. It is their factories, they negotiate their contracts with Apple, and other vendors. It is Foxconn's responsibility to take care of its workers.

Now I'll grant you that any large company doing business with Foxconn can exert some significant influence on the quality of working conditions for Foxconn's workers, but why is it Apple, Intel, Microsoft, Nintendo, Motorola, Amazon, Cisco, etc's responsibility?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the fair treatment of employee's, but I'm tired of seeing big names thrown around that don't make the decisions at Foxconn a company they contracted out too.

I love how they are now increasing pay, and saying they hope this helps alleviate their labor shortage. I find it surprising that in a country with BILLIONS of people that there is a shortage of laborers. Maybe someone should knock some sense into the management of Foxconn. Employee's treated fairly tend to 1) Not kill themselves, 2) Have higher productivity, 3) Produce higher quality products.


GP

 

[Paws]

Everybody now points at Foxconn for being the bad guys, but still we wear our clothes made in unknown Chinese sweatshops where the crimes against human rights don't get into the news.

 

[BearBoi]

I was under the impression that these suicides were at one of their plants, since the article specified a certain geographical location. I could be wrong.

Either way, if working conditions are so horrible that people are killing themselves, something isn’t right. Yes, we can play the average game, but I don’t think even 1 (for those reasons) is acceptable.

What this article does not mention is that many companies like this also force workers to wear company uniforms, which they have to buy at inflated prices, and to pay rent on their dormitories (inflated prices), and to buy food from them (inflated prices), etc. At the end of the month, they are basically indentured servants.

Oh, and I wear Free Trade clothing. No sweat shops on my back! They actually don’t cost that much more, and you know you aren’t helping to enslave people.

 

[JB3]

I was under the impression that these suicides were at one of their plants, since the article specified a certain geographical location. I could be wrong.

Either way, if working conditions are so horrible that people are killing themselves, something isn’t right. Yes, we can play the average game, but I don’t think even 1 (for those reasons) is acceptable.

What this article does not mention is that many companies like this also force workers to wear company uniforms, which they have to buy at inflated prices, and to pay rent on their dormitories (inflated prices), and to buy food from them (inflated prices), etc. At the end of the month, they are basically indentured servants.

Oh, and I wear Free Trade clothing. No sweat shops on my back! They actually don’t cost that much more, and you know you aren’t helping to enslave people.

No one's sure yet why those people committed suicide. Because they live on the campus of the factory, people assumed it was because of the company. They're doing investigations now, however, to figure out what the cause was. (when you have 400,000 people working in the same complex, it isn't inconceivable that some will have mental problems)

 

[USEDCAR]

Its funny how people complain about Walmart having crappy Chinese products and apple openly admits to making its products in china.

Why isn't anyone bitching about apple products?

 

[andysayshi]

The same reason nobody's bitching about Dell, Sony, HP, Intel, Amazon, Nintendo, Microsoft and Cisco's Chinese-manufactured products.

Everybody cares until it hurts their wallet. Then they turn a blind eye.

 

[MercuryJones]

Its funny how people complain about Walmart having crappy Chinese products and apple openly admits to making its products in china.

Why isn't anyone bitching about apple products?

I'm not sure crappy Chinese products are the major complaints against Walmart. They're not the complaints I've heard most often.

And, as was pointed out, almost no one can bitch about Apple because almost everyone has the same problem.

 

[navinator]

Why isn't anyone bitching about apple products?

Foxconn's Chinese factories are also responsible for producing computers for HP and Dell as well as producing the three major consoles - the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3. People aren't bitching about Apple products because most manufacturers outsource to other countries to begin with (kind of like how animation studios tend to outsource most of the work to Korea, exact same kind of scenario).

Additionally, the "crappy Chinese products" people complain about are just that - crappy Chinese products. Companies like Foxconn are involved in making professional products that have been developed over many years and from parts made by other professional companies (like Intel and Nvidia processors/chips for example). The things that people tend to complain about are horrible Chinese knockoffs that are cheaply made just to look like the real deal, but shortcuts are made and they're made from inferior parts and very little attention is paid to making a decent product.

 

[CumAlong]

Poor souls...having to make apple products. May they RIP in heaven without apple products.

 

[MercuryJones]

^^

Wow - using suicides as a vehicle to air an anti-Apple gripe?

Stay classy.