Foxconn, again

[ravan]

I understand their suicides are up to 12 now at the plant that makes the Apple crap. Aren't you happy to support that?

EDIT: Now they are working people to death at Shenzen, too: Another Foxconn Employee Dies, After Working 34-Hours StraightBTW, the suicides are JUST AT ONE PLANT, not across all of FoxConn. This does not count all of the

Comments

[fizzyland]

Steve Jobs is an ass, I'm not shocked to find out that the Cult of Apple also runs sweatshops.

[turgid]

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/foremski/media-gets-its-facts-wrong-working-at-foxconn-significantly-cuts-suicide-risk/1356

[ravan]

That looks like an interesting puff piece. The workers aren't elderly, which are the highest suicide group in China, as the guy points out. He then plays shell games with statistics, trying to say that Foxconn is lower than average.

If average is 14/100,000 and the elderly are more like 21/100,000, 10/100,000 may be "expected". But the 7 this year are not across all of FoxConn - they are at ONE PLANT only, it does not mention how many are associated with their other operations where employees do not live on site. So it's not 7/330,000, it's 7/20,000, or however many work at that one plant.

[turgid]

China's age structure is heavily biased towards young individuals. Only 8.1% are over 65; even if the suicide rate were 2x the national average rate, that only drops the rate for the under 65 crowd to 12.8/100,000 (assuming suicides are equal amongst 0-14 and 15-64 year olds, which is a faulty assumption, but one which only biases the working-age rate down).

Plus, read all of the citations. The Shenzhen Foxconn plant employs 330,000 people. So 7/330,000 is correct, and still far lower than national average, even adjusted for age.

Finally, why are people villifying Apple over Foxconn? No one's giving Microsoft, IBM/Lenovo, Dell or Sony trouble, and they all use Foxconn to manufacture for them.

-Jon