Reports have circulated the internet that a 25-year old worker at Chinese manufacturer Foxconn, which produces all the iPhone models for Apple, committed suicide last week following revelation that a fourth-generation
iPhone prototype, one of the 16 iPhones he was responsible for, had gone missing. Some stories circulating have described illegal searches of the man's apartment and interrogation involving physical abuse by other Foxconn employees. While not confirming the case being a suicide or the cause being the disappearing device, a spokesperson for the Cupertino-based company did release a statement corroborating the news of his death, saying that it is "saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee, and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death. We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect." The status of the missing iPhone prototype, which may or may not have been one that earlier this month
found itself on eBay given the timeframe (although a 3GS model and not "fourth generation") remains unknown. Our hearts go out to all involved.
Read - Statement form Apple
Read - iPhone prototype goes missing; Chinese worker investigated, commits suicide
posted Jul 21st 2009 11:23PM
I'm a little bit confused... they have factories in China like a lot of companies, but isn't Foxconn's headquarters in Taiwan? So, if that is the case.. wouldn't it be considered Taiwan's Foxconn just as HTC is from Taiwan as well? It is tragic about the 25-year old worker. Must of been really scared and distraught about the missing iPhone prototype. Such sad and tragic news.
Yeah, Foxconn is a Taiwan company. But judging from the sources of the news reports, the death of the twenty-five-year old seems to have occurred in China and worked a Chinese subsidiary or contractor of Foxconn.
Apple probably got to him............just like they got to steve, eh hem the leave of absence.....he was recovering from his yearly beatdown from apple...must've been pretty bad that time.
This is a tragic story, it shows how bad the working conditions really are for Chinese employees, especially those involved in large scale American owned projects...
If after all of this he decided his easiest route was suicide, think about how bad things must've been for him!
I can't help laying some of the blame on Apple, they've got pretty notoriously bad business practices not really accepting much responsibility, and delegating it all to their suppliers, including underpaid & overworked employees, child slave labor conditions etc etc
This is definitely sad but it is also a true reflection of the immense pressure that is placed on the working class in China. Whether you are a factory worker or an automobile executive and anywhere in between you are usually worked to death.
I read in the venturebeat article that these young men usually know nothing more than work and when things like this arise they feel that they have no outlet as they really don't know much about legal affairs; so they end up offing themselves in record numbers.
Apple has great products whether you agree or choose to disagree, I would be lying if I said I didn't join in on some good ol' american iPhone bashing, but this story has honestly nothing to do with Apple; if you are looking for a company to blame take a look at Foxconn. But, again, technically this is not anything new for China....it's simply just more highly publicized because of it's association with the electronics giant.
As a smart ass among smart asses, this is unusual for me but I can only hope that everyone here will be respectful of this tragedy and my condolences go to the family of this gentleman half a world away.
I see the links quite clearly here- Apple gets really obsessive over keeping products in development under wraps. If they mentioned being like that to the OEM they could very well have gone that far. If Apple wouldn't be so nutso about that we might very well not have seen this happen.
...Where did my comments go...
You're right, it's not the first time.
But all my friends here in China, and of course I, just cannot hate this kind of things a little bit more.
I believe companies on both side of Pacific should take responsiblity. Especially some Taiwan-based company which is famous of low wage, heavy work load and failing to show proper respect to Mainland employees.
It was a cost too high to take a young life for an stupid iPhone, no matter if it was a prototype or of some commercial security matter or of any of those shXt things.
I wanna see someone in Foxconn punished, badly.
A bit more infos here about foxconn practices:
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2009/7/21/fourth-generation-iphone-claims-its-first-life.aspx
80 hours overtime ?! Do i understand this right, does this mean 120+ weekly hours of work ?
Add to this a court order to freeze two journalists' assets after a bad article...
And my thoughts go to the victim's loved ones
That'd be a little over 17 hours a day, 7 days a week. You would probably only have enough time to sleep maybe 7 hours or less and eat while you work, that's it. Of course, it's all about making labor cheap as possible to milk profits.
This is what Americans have to look forward to. As long as other countries continue to pay poverty-level wages and work their employees to death, Americans will not be able to compete. There's no way you can counter cheaper wages with more productivity when the competition is also working every waking hour.
So who else here is secretly hoping it was Paul a. Chapel?
hehe, look at this kind of hypocritical company. just wanna earn more and more, declare human rights in his land and treat people as pigs in developing countries. it's not the first time and it won't be the last time.
apple controls foxxcom, foxxcom needs apple.
apple earns a lot, foxxcom earns poor.
apple is the commander, foxxcom is the murderer.
apple is hypocritical, foxxcom is cruel.
hope apple could really do something not keep playing a hypocrite.