Yet another worker with Foxconn technology manufacturers has died after falling, or jumping, off a building – the tenth such death at the company this year, the Washington Post reports:
Police have yet to determine if the 19-year-old worker committed suicide, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Foxconn did not immediately provide other details about the male employee.
The death is the ninth at Foxconn’s massive plant in the southern city of Shenzhen, which employs more than 300,000 people. Two other workers have tried to kill themselves by jumping from buildings in Shenzhen but they survived. Another suicide occurred at a smaller plant in northern Hebei province in January.
Labor activists say the string of suicides back up their long-standing allegations that workers toil in terrible conditions at Foxconn. They claim shifts are long, the assembly line moves too fast and managers enforce military-style discipline on the workforce.
Also, a little dark Foxconn humor, via Shanghaiist: “Foxconn’s HR website vandalised by mischievous hacker.”
Update: See “Suicides roil factory in China” from the Los Angeles Times and “Foxconn “Suicides” & “Secrets”, Chinese Netizen Reactions” from chinaSMACK.
