300 Chinese Foxconn Workers 'Threaten Mass Suicide' At XBox Plant, Reports Claim

[ilvtofu]

Link

That's one way to ask for a raise...
If there's truth to the story it scares me to even imagine the conditions they work in that would convince that many to consider a mass suicide in this day and age

Around 300 Chinese workers who manufacture XBox consoles took to a factory roof and threatened bosses with mass suicide over a dispute about pay, unconfirmed reports have claimed.

The workers were employed at the Foxconn Technology Park in Wuhan in Hubei province. Foxconn is an independent, global manufacturing partner to companies including Apple, Microsoft and Sony.

Microsoft said on Wednesday that it is investigating the incident.

According to unverified reports emerging from anti-government Chinese news websites, about 300 workers took to the roof of the Taiwanese-owned factory on 2 January to protest against their employers.

Those reports have sinced been repeated by websites including Kotaku, but neither Foxconn or Microsoft has yet confirmed the incident took place.

According to the reports the employees had asked bosses for a raise but in response were told to either quit with compensation or keep their jobs at their usual salary.

Most workers apparently decided to leave, but the company did not hand over the money as promised.

According to the China Jasmine Revolution website, the workers were only dissuaded a day later when the mayor of Wuhan talked them out of committing suicide.

Foxconn factories in China have been the scene of several suicides by workers in the past, including 14 in 2010 alone at its Shenzhen plant, after complaints of low pay and poor conditions.

[BaoTurbo]

Exploiting your own countries' people to get the top of the manufacturing market was never a good idea in the end. China....

[Gridlock]

Workers realize their role in the global manufacturing marketplace, and demand raises and unions. Companies continually seek out cheaper places to manufacture. Eventually, they return back to North America with its IP protections and trained, and now eager workforce.

[Everymans]

The apple factory has a major issue with suicide rates as well. These young men with high education work for like 20$ a day when they have to spend 15$ of it to live. And that's after 12 hours of work. They then go to a cramped "workers campus" where they play wow. I'm on the fence about outsourcing. Sure it brings jobs and industry to china, but it will only do it if they get paid less to make stuff specifically for Americans. It's an abuse to the country that there only means of creating industry is to take advantage of their people and turn out goods for other countries. What about the people? What about creating jobs that support china within it's own boundaries? Someday this will all collapse, this trade organization that america and china has. Once china's people realize they are being abused because they have no other choice they will revolt like they did here. I should really watch Last Train Home now. This rant has fueled my need for knowledge on the subject.

[TOPEC]

Originally Posted by BaoTurbo

Exploiting your own countries' people to get the top of the manufacturing market was never a good idea in the end. China....

foxconn is taiwanese owned, so its not really exploiting ur own people

[bensta]

would us as consumers pay more to help cut down abusive outsourcing companies, and bring jobs back over this way?

[kuruuze]

That there Xbox is made in China? Is that why my console keeps getting the red ring? Purdy awful. Haha like everything else in China workers were probably FAKING the suicide threat.

[twitchyzero]

Originally Posted by bensta

would us as consumers pay more to help cut down abusive outsourcing companies, and bring jobs back over this way?

would be cool if my electronics were still made in Japan.

[Ulic Qel-Droma]

it's okay, they'll all be replaced by efficient, cheap to maintain robots in the future. no more whining. and cheaper products for us westerners. oh yeahhhh...

[RRxtar]

Originally Posted by bensta

would us as consumers pay more to help cut down abusive outsourcing companies, and bring jobs back over this way?

thats the big problem. everyone has a sense of entitlement where they deserve iphones and xboxes and 60" TVs and everyone wants them as cheap as possible because they actually dont make enough money to buy them. companies outsource manufacturing to china where its cheaper so they can lower costs. now the same people wanting the products, who were the ones making them, are out of jobs, and blame the company. and occupy wall street.

would any of these people buy an iphone if it was made in america, by people in their town, but cost 30% more? i bet you none would.

[b0unce. [?]]

just be like apple and install nets on top of the roofs to prevent this

[ilvtofu]

Originally Posted by bensta

would us as consumers pay more to help cut down abusive outsourcing companies, and bring jobs back over this way?

It's all about profit maximization, as a producer in the market you have a choice to raise costs to ensure ethical treatment of the employees but as long as there are other producers who can undercut you because they exploit workers instead, you can't compete.

Outsourcing doesn't necessarily have to be abusive and you have to consider that there are a bunch of self entitled workers in First world countries that force companies to outsource.

[2damaxmr2]

They are bluffing.

[Culture_Vulture]

Originally Posted by 2damaxmr2

They are bluffing.

this

and if they aren't...well, the world could use 300 less nutbags

[nsmb]

picturing the apple daily video in my head

[unit]

Originally Posted by b0unce. [?]

just be like apple and install nets on top of the roofs to prevent this

its the same company that you're referring to...

[StylinRed]

Originally Posted by Gridlock

Workers realize their role in the global manufacturing marketplace, and demand raises and unions. Companies continually seek out cheaper places to manufacture. Eventually, they return back to North America with its IP protections and trained, and now eager workforce.

no, Africa is the next China... sadly for the USA though, China has been prepping Africa to be its "china" for some years now

[PiuYi]

Originally Posted by BaoTurbo

Exploiting your own countries' people to get the top of the manufacturing market was never a good idea in the end. China....

its not exploitation. its just economics. willingness to work and at what pay is their own decision based on available jobs or their own opportunity costs.
slavery is exploitation. human trafficking is exploitation. this is just low wages
(not saying exceedingly low wages are good, but that's how the economy works, this is the only way they'll climb up the global wealth ladder)

Originally Posted by bensta

would us as consumers pay more to help cut down abusive outsourcing companies, and bring jobs back over this way?

that would be massively inefficient. it's all about comparative advantages. north americans are more efficient at service-industry jobs (finance, consulting, etc.) and countries like China are more efficient at labour-intensive jobs like manufacturing. switching them around would just increase costs for everybody and nobody would be better off.

[bing]

Originally Posted by Everymans

The apple factory has a major issue with suicide rates as well. These young men with high education work for like 20$ a day when they have to spend 15$ of it to live. And that's after 12 hours of work. They then go to a cramped "workers campus" where they play wow. I'm on the fence about outsourcing. Sure it brings jobs and industry to china, but it will only do it if they get paid less to make stuff specifically for Americans. It's an abuse to the country that there only means of creating industry is to take advantage of their people and turn out goods for other countries. What about the people? What about creating jobs that support china within it's own boundaries? Someday this will all collapse, this trade organization that america and china has. Once china's people realize they are being abused because they have no other choice they will revolt like they did here. I should really watch Last Train Home now. This rant has fueled my need for knowledge on the subject.

and what was their "life" before all this happened? I bet they were in even worse condition without their current job living on less than $1/day
welcome to capitalism, once it becomes too expensive to manufacture, companies can move elsewhere. tons of developing countries would gladly take these jobs.

[twitchyzero]

maybe i'm too young but i dont ever recall consumer electronics mass produced in north america...or europe for that matter.

[Spectre_Cdn]

Originally Posted by twitchyzero

maybe i'm too young but i dont ever recall consumer electronics mass produced in north america...or europe for that matter.

In the 1980's, many home audio speakers were made in Canada for Panasonic, Pioneer, Sanyo and also for domestic brands. Apparently, this was due to the yen's rise in value in the mid-80's, making it more economical to manufacture speakers here.

[The_AK]

Originally Posted by PiuYi

its not exploitation. its just economics. willingness to work and at what pay is their own decision based on available jobs or their own opportunity costs.
slavery is exploitation. human trafficking is exploitation. this is just low wages
(not saying exceedingly low wages are good, but that's how the economy works, this is the only way they'll climb up the global wealth ladder)




that would be massively inefficient. it's all about comparative advantages. north americans are more efficient at service-industry jobs (finance, consulting, etc.) and countries like China are more efficient at labour-intensive jobs like manufacturing. switching them around would just increase costs for everybody and nobody would be better off.

This
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[Great68]

Originally Posted by RRxtar

thats the big problem. everyone has a sense of entitlement where they deserve iphones and xboxes and 60" TVs and everyone wants them as cheap as possible because they actually dont make enough money to buy them. companies outsource manufacturing to china where its cheaper so they can lower costs. now the same people wanting the products, who were the ones making them, are out of jobs, and blame the company. and occupy wall street.

would any of these people buy an iphone if it was made in america, by people in their town, but cost 30% more? i bet you none would.

I don't have the option to buy a locally built Iphone, but have no problem spending more money on locally grown food as much as possible.

[Hehe]

They are bluffing...

The workers in China now have this weird mentality that they are a resource too valuable for the company to lose.

The fact is, for a company like Foxconn who's super cost sensitive, they would simply move to a cheaper place. Be it another place in China (they already done that) or another country all-together (Foxconn is moving to Brazil and is even negotiating for some tax reform for pro export, which I think it's likely to pass)

Even if Foxconn raise anything, they would simply close the factory with *demands* once the spotlight is not on the company. That's what they basically did last time.

Now, workers, a constant 1500RMB paycheck for a foreseeable future or 2000RMB paycheck for the next 3month? your move.

[booge_man]

Originally Posted by Spectre_Cdn

In the 1980's, many home audio speakers were made in Canada for Panasonic, Pioneer, Sanyo and also for domestic brands. Apparently, this was due to the yen's rise in value in the mid-80's, making it more economical to manufacture speakers here.

Shocker never knew that
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