Report: Mass Suicide Threats at Xbox 360 Plant

[beer]

On Jan. 2, over 300 employees at a Foxconn plant in Wuhan, China threatened to throw themselves off a building in a mass suicide. Foxconn makes Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony products. These workers manufacture Xbox 360s.

According to Chinese anti-government website China Jasmine Revolution (via Watch China Times), the workers were protesting denied compensation they were promised.

On Jan. 2, the workers asked for a raise. Foxconn told them they could either keep their jobs with no pay increase or quit and get compensation. Most decided to quit with compensation. However, the agreement was supposedly terminated, and the workers never received their payments.

Website Record China reported that the uproar the incident actually caused Xbox 360 production to be temporarily suspended.

The mayor of Wuhan intervened to talk the group down, and on Jan. 3 at 9pm, the group of 300 decided not to jump, ending what could have been a deadly game of chicken.

Foxconn made major news in 2010 when over a dozen employees committed suicide, leading to Foxconn installing suicide prevention nets at some of its facilities.

In 2010, Kotaku asked Microsoft about Foxconn and the reported abuses. Microsoft's Phil Spencer said at the time, "Foxconn has been an important partner of ours and remains an important partner. I trust them as a responsible company to continue to evolve their process and work relationships. That is something we remain committed to—the safe and ethical treatment of people who build our products. That's a core value of our company."

Kotaku is following up with Microsoft over this latest incident.

UPDATE:

A Microsoft spokeperson replied to Kotaku with the following comment on the situation at Foxconn:

"Microsoft takes working conditions in the factories that manufacture its products very seriously, and we are currently investigating this issue. We have a stringent Vendor Code of Conduct that spells out our expectations, and we monitor working conditions closely on an ongoing basis and address issues as they emerge. Microsoft is committed to the fair treatment and safety of workers employed by our vendors, and to ensuring conformance with Microsoft policy."

(

source)

Microsoft's PR statement is a bunch of fluff. They knew these happenings 2010 when foxconn was installing them nets to prevent suicide. Shame on you Microsoft.

[LeetPirate]

Sad, very sad. These corporate fascists are too greedy. It's not like things are cheaper for the consumer when corporations manufacture them in China, we pay the same high prices, it's only the greedy fat cats that make all the profit.

I'd still buy all the same items if they were made in America. I stopped caring about audiophile headphones when the companies began making them in China and selling them for the same high prices.

[DKT27]

The article clearly (and purposely?) forgets to mention that the biggest customer of Foxconn is Apple. Both iPhones and iPads are made in Foxconn factories. Why I'm mentioning this? Because whole suicide incident in Foxconn has started because of Apple products, iPhone and iPod at that time. And for the suicide prevention nets, if I remember correctly, I was closely covering the story, it was the time an Apple product was launched and had high number of sales = more heavy load on workers making it.

Having said, after all this, Foxconn itself seems to do nothing about betterment of it's employes and they are the main people responsible IMO.

It's really sad that none of the electronic things I go to buy is made outside China. Its like we live with work of poor Chinese slaves and feed the big companies of enormous profit, or just don't buy anything.

[DKT27]

Microsoft and Foxconn claim worker dispute is resolved

Microsoft and Foxconn have now said that a worker protest at one of Foxconn's Xbox 360 plants has been resolved after previous reports that workers at the plant had pledged to commit mass suicide.

On Wednesday, Microsoft said it was conducting an investigation into a possible threat of a mass suicide by workers at a Chinese Xbox 360 factory run by Foxconn. Now a new report from the Wall Street Journal has both Microsoft and Foxconn claiming that the worker dispute at the plant, located in Wuhan, China, has now been resolved.

Microsoft said in a statement that the workers at the plant were protesting "staffing assignments and transfer policies, not working conditions." Foxconn said the protest happened on January 4 and was led by 150 of the plant's workers who were told that team members in a business unit were being moved to another unit located on the same campus.

Foxconn added that after talks with company executives and local government and labor officials, 45 of the workers decided to resign while the others returned to work at the plant. Neither Microsoft nor Foxconn commented on the earlier mass suicide reports.

In 2010, a number of Foxconn employees in China did in fact commit suicide at work as reports came in of poor working conditions and low pay at those plants. Foxconn reportedly made Foxconn workers sign anti-suicide contracts in 2011.

:view: View: Original Article

[beer]

Thanks for the udpate DK27.

I am gonna take a stab at Microsoft's attempt to do PR damage control:

Microsoft said in a statement that the workers at the plant were protesting "staffing assignments and transfer policies, not working conditions." Foxconn said the protest happened on January 4 and was led by 150 of the plant's workers who were told that team members in a business unit were being moved to another unit located on the same campus.

Staffing Assignments= forcing workers to transfer to new unit with even worse working conditions.

Transfer Policies= chief of staffs playing with contracts to force unwilling workers to move.

No matter how much PR fluff they release into the public, we all know inhumane working conditions is the source of their evil. If workers were going to a better place then the probably wouldn't be protesting in the first place.