# Foxconn workers forced to sign promise not to commit suicide due to working condition



## The Exception (Oct 26, 2010)

Foxconn workers forced to sign promise not to commit suicide due to working conditions 

The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom) have published a research report documenting the terrible working conditions at the giant Chinese manufacturing company Foxconn, best known for making the iPad and iPhone: 
■ Excessive overtime is routine, despite a legal limit of 36 hours a month. One payslip, seen by the Observer, indicated that the worker had performed 98 hours of overtime in a month. 
■ Workers attempting to meet the huge demand for the first iPad were sometimes pressured to take only one day off in 13. 
■ In some factories badly performing workers are required to be publicly humiliated in front of colleagues. 
■ Crowded workers' dormitories can sleep up to 24 and are subject to strict rules. One worker told the NGO investigators that he was forced to sign a "confession letter" after illicitly using a hairdryer. In the letter he wrote: "It is my fault. I will never blow my hair inside my room. I have done something wrong. I will never do it again."
■ In the wake of a spate of suicides at Foxconn factories last summer, workers were asked to sign a statement promising not to kill themselves and pledging to "treasure their lives". ​


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## JMoney (Apr 16, 2011)

now THAT is f*cked


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## Vaan (Dec 19, 2010)

Agreed with above post


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## amon91 (Feb 1, 2011)

All this so we can have our shiny iPhones while Jobs can get build his huge mansion. Furthermore, Foxconn builds a lot of computers nowadays, from Dell to HP and of course Apple. They're not the "Apple Maker".

But yeah, sad.


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## dagnytaggart (Jun 6, 2010)

Huge population....limited number of shiny, coveted "American" jobs = this.


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## kittychris07 (Jun 15, 2010)

This is really terrible. Why doesn't FoxConn somehow try to fix the working conditions for its people, and deal with the real problem?


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## amon91 (Feb 1, 2011)

kittychris07 said:


> This is really terrible. Why doesn't FoxConn somehow try to fix the working conditions for its people, and deal with the real problem?


Because that would increase production and maintenance costs, which would be passed down to customers (i.e. Apple, etc) which would then be passed down to us, and we want our cheap gear! Even with these terrible work conditions, Foxconn lost money in the past quarter, and is in the process or relocating at least some of their workforce to places with even lower labor standards.


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## sprinkles (Feb 7, 2010)

A lot of people in the US work similar hours. I've actually known people who had to do the one day off in 13 thing. I don't think it is good, just saying that it isn't "just China". The bad workplace exists here too.


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## Mei (Feb 5, 2011)

The working condition in the US is no way as bad as that in China, where you cannot even control your own life, and have to sign a waiver to your company. Where is one's freedom? If people find this shocking, and feel sorry for these poor workers, then they should indeed do something about it. Like, NOT buy an iPhone, iPad, or whatever. Cos it is your demand that drives the cost to be low, and their working conditions to be as such... 

There is another article about an iphone prototype or other going missing, and this scared the worker, and she also did kill herself in the end or other. This is how bad the working conditions have become. I know that Apple and other high tech companies also make their employees sign security waivers too. Companies are slowly losing their humanity....


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## sprinkles (Feb 7, 2010)

I just found it odd that the number of hours and overtime are the first points mentioned. I did not address the other things. And I haven't and wouldn't buy an i-anything, even if I wanted to. Which I don't.


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## Khar (May 21, 2011)

amon91 said:


> Because that would increase production and maintenance costs, which would be passed down to customers (i.e. Apple, etc) which would then be passed down to us, and we want our cheap gear! Even with these terrible work conditions, Foxconn lost money in the past quarter, and is in the process or relocating at least some of their workforce to places with even lower labor standards.


I don't mean to argue the overall point of your post, but it is worth noting that a worker's wages do not translate into the end cost of the good, but into the actual profit margins of the company. What sets the price of these goods at the end is the demand for the good and the available supply of that good. Costs of producing that good do not get transferred onto the customer so much as the company is forced to take a bite out of their own profit margin to be able to pay workers more. 

If a good is not profitable, either because people will not buy it or because the costs to produce it are too much, either the firm must find alternatives to how they are supporting that good or they must drop out of that market. Wages effect profitability, not pricing. It's a good thing to keep in mind down the road, since it is a lynchpin of many economic-related debates, ranging from minimum wage through globalization.


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## XO Skeleton (Jan 18, 2011)

amon91 said:


> All this so we can have our shiny iPhones while Jobs can get build his huge mansion. Furthermore, Foxconn builds a lot of computers nowadays, from Dell to HP and of course Apple. They're not the "Apple Maker".
> 
> But yeah, sad.


I don't really know if Apple is to blame. I mean, if it wasn't for the IPad, then it would just be for another company with another product. Isn't it more of the Chinese communist government that's to blame for this? You have to remember, they aren't working 250+ hrs a month cuz they want to.


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## timeless (Mar 20, 2010)

Dementia in Absentia said:


> ■ In the wake of a spate of suicides at Foxconn factories last summer, workers were asked to sign a statement promising not to kill themselves and pledging to "treasure their lives".
> [/INDENT]


I bet that the penalty for not treasuring your life is death.


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## Mei (Feb 5, 2011)

XO Skeleton said:


> I don't really know if Apple is to blame. I mean, if it wasn't for the IPad, then it would just be for another company with another product. Isn't it more of the Chinese communist government that's to blame for this? You have to remember, they aren't working 250+ hrs a month cuz they want to.


There are many parties who can be "blamed". Though, as a consumer, your input does start the chain of events. You can actually help these employees by making a stance basically. Encourage others not to buy Apple products. 

Look at the effect of the Danish cartoon episode a while back. The companies boycotted the Danish goods, and this affected the production, and the Danish government was onto the case asap and consider to put pressure on the newspaper for a retraction. The GDP was definitely affected during those times.


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