To be fair, Foxconn employs over 300,000 workers in Shenzen. Yes, really -- they are the world's largest electronics manufacturer. To put that in perspective, that's more than two Shenzen Foxconn employees for every living MIT alumnus. Three hundred thousand. That's a lot of people.
What has made these stories news is the suicide last July of a Foxconn employee who lost a prototype iPhone. However, suicides since then have not all been further results of product security breaches. Again, it's not entirely unexpected when you're talking about three hundred thousand people in close quarters that there will be some suicide, drama, criminality and perhaps even murder within that population. It's probably doing better by many measures than most cities of that size in the region.
In 1999 the suicide rate in China was 13 per 100,000 so my suspicion is that this story has only been up-voted for mud-slinging purposes. I'm a bit disappointed to see it on the front page — it doesn't strike me as being Hacker News.
Also, the "make iPhones" note in HN submission title is a touch misleading considering Foxconn also makes pretty much everything else when it comes to electronics. I've stopped counting motherboard components I've seen with their logo on it.
It says there are 400,000 people working for Foxconn in Shenzhen. 300,000 of these are unqualified workers aged about 20 years old. There is high turnover.
They work for 10 hours a day, with 1 hour for lunch and 10 minutes in the day to go to the bathroom. After the financial crisis they have been cutting staff and work pressure has increased. Managers intentionally introduce faults on production lines to see if workers spot the errors, if they do not, they are punished. They are also punished for talking to each other or dozing off.
There is a strict hierarchy, with little communication between managers and staff. Managers manage by shouting at staff, there is little respect for individuals. After 3 or 4 months working together colleagues don't even recognise each other.
After the spate of suicides management has increased psychological support programs, but a spokesman says with 420,000 staff they are unable to understand everybody's mental health issues.
"In the employee's pocket was a short suicide note with the wrong date. It read 'I am so sad I decided to jump off the building. Oh and I may or may not have decided to cut myself with a knife, too. Goodbye cruel world.'
Mysteriously, the employee spelled his own name wrong in the note.
Police are still investigating if this was a suicide."
If working conditions have improved since the suicides started making the news, other employees may have manufactured another suicide hoping that conditions will improve further.
A few weeks ago I heard a live presentation by IT workers in Mexiko building smart phones, and what they told was not really nice. Employers paying sublegal salaries, harassment etc. Consumers should care about that but they (I also - mostly because of missing information) don't. It's not helping that an electronic product has hundred of different components in it, and all end manufacturers share the same few manufacturers. The current "solution" is to advise cities, governments and companies about fair(er) products so that these can put more pressure on the end vendor to control the manufacturing work conditions. We've still a long way to go.
There are many ways to say sorry in Chinese - some of which imply one's own culpability/guilt, others do not. I'm not sure there's a good translation for whatever statement Foxconn expressed.
For the situation at hand, probably something like "It is with regret that we learn about the passing of Mr. Liang. We will keep his family and associates in our thoughts." Add "and prayers" if in USA.
It means the same thing, it just sounds slightly more appropriate for a corporation in 2010.
What has made these stories news is the suicide last July of a Foxconn employee who lost a prototype iPhone. However, suicides since then have not all been further results of product security breaches. Again, it's not entirely unexpected when you're talking about three hundred thousand people in close quarters that there will be some suicide, drama, criminality and perhaps even murder within that population. It's probably doing better by many measures than most cities of that size in the region.