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That Apple independently investigated this and is taking some effort to change how their suppliers operate is both impressive and (from my understanding) very unusual in the industry.
Edit: Downmod because why, exactly? Is it bad that Apple is doing this investigation?
I find this article difficult to believe re the wage. 900 yuan is a very difficult wage to live on in Shenzhen, and I doubt that people are leaving their home towns to go and work in shenzhen and just earning 900yuan. Or does this exclude board and food?
My impression was that it did -- that typically Chinese workers get food and housing in addition to their cash pay -- but I can't find the blog post that told me so, so maybe I'm wrong. I thought it was Bunnie Huang's series on Chinese manufacturing, but I can't find the reference in there.
I live down the street from Lowell, Massachusetts, which in the early 19th century was the Shenzhen of New England. Based on what I know of the history of industrial America, this article sounds really familiar, right down to the company dorms where extremely young workers eat company food and sleep on company beds. This is how factory towns work. AFAIK it's how they have always worked.
Dupe, or well, a more sensationalist dupe. In the original discussion someone pointed out that Foxconn has around 300000 employees. That's quite a lot of people, and statistically, you will have the same problems as you would in a town of that size.
So, in a plant of 400,000 over a four month period they should expect 17 suicides. A rate of 7, then, seems "good".
Bunk article.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_the_Peoples_Republic...
EDIT: Wolfram Alpha claims estimated figures for 2002 were 21 per 100,000. But i am not sure how much to believe it. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=china+suicide
"Foxconn's Shenzen plant that builds Apple's iPads, iPods, and iPhones has 400,000 employees" I can not even imagine what a plant like that looks like. Also, how much stuff does Apple sell? Or are these just really slow workers? Even if they could only manufacture one item per employee per day, it would seem like a lot of items to sell.
It's just another pathetic way to attack Apple. "Only Escape From _Hellish Apple iPhone Factory_ Was Suicide". Oh come on. Foxconn is the largest manufacturer of electronics and computer components worldwide and they don't make just iDevices. According to Wikipedia Foxconn make these products:
1) Mac mini, iPod, iPad, and the iPhone for Apple 2) Intel-branded motherboards for Intel 3) various orders for Dell and Hewlett-Packard 4) motherboards for Zoostorm 5) PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 for Sony 6) Wii for Nintendo 7) Xbox 360 for Microsoft 8) cell phones for Motorola 9) Amazon Kindle 10) Cisco equipment
It's a news only cause it's cool to attack Apple. I bet you to find a single electronics product around you that isn't "Made in China". And we all know that work conditions in China are terrible and what has happened in the last 30 years.
It's not a 2010 news.