Even as the iPad breaks all sales records, something deeply disturbing is happening at Foxconn, the China-based company that manufactures the gadget for Apple.
Yesterday, an 18-year-old female worker at Foxconn became the fourth person in as many weeks to attempt suicide by jumping from one of the factory buildings.
The girl, only known by her surname, Rao, had only been working at Foxconn’s Longhua plant for a month. Fortunately a tree broke her fall, but she was severely injured. Foxconn confirmed the incident to the Chinese media, and a spokesman was quoted saying Miss Rao had been fighting with her boyfriend before she jumped.
On March 29, a 23-year-old man, named Liu, jumped out of a dormitory window at the Longhua plant at 3am, dressed only in his factory shirt and underwear. The unnamed man was a university graduate and had worked in Foxconn’s wireless technology department since he joined last August.
On March 11, at 9.30pm, a worker in his twenties, named Li, jumped to his death, again at the Longhua plant. According to Chinese media reports, the man’s bonus was stolen at Chinese New Year.
Finally, on the morning of March 7, a female employee named Tian jumped from her dormitory building and injured herself, saying that she was under a great deal of pressure.
The police in Shenzhen are investigating all the incidents, and have not given any clarification about the motives in each case. However, a spate of four suicide attempts within a month is a sign that something is rotten in the Foxconn plant. Several attempts to contact Foxconn today to comment on the conditions at Longhua were unsuccessful.
Last July, Sun Danyong, a university graduate, was the first person reported to have jumped to his death, after committing suicide in the wake of an iPhone prototype going missing.
The Longhua plant is the single largest assembly base in the world for computers, mobile phones and consumer electronics. Around 300,000 workers reportedly live and work there. To give you an idea of the scale of the place, one Foxconn consultant once told me that he had turned up at the wrong entrance to the factory and was told to travel to the next entrance along. The journey took half an hour by car.
Foxconn is incredibly secretive, and it is not clear if it is making the iPad at the Longhua plant, but we do know the factory does make iPods. Foxconn’s other clients include Sony, HP, Amazon, Nokia, Motorola, Nintendo, Microsoft, Dell and Cisco.
I’ve asked for a tour of Foxconn’s facilities, but the company has failed to respond. Similar requests to another huge technology manufacturer, Quanta, were turned down on the grounds that their clients’ products might be revealed.
Journalists from Reuters, walking too close to Foxconn’s Shenzhen headquarters, were assaulted by security. When the police arrived, they explained that Foxconn was a “special case” in the city. Which is why it is unlikely that we’ll ever find out why those Foxconn staff jumped.
No srsly, thats weird o.O