Foxconn is an electronic manufacturing company located in Tucheng, New Taipei, Taiwan. It employs more than 1.2 million workers producing electronics for companies such as Apple, Sony, Nintendo and Amazon with an estimated $81 billion dollar net income in 2011 (1). Its Shenzhen facilities cover approximately 1.16 square miles (2). These are impressive numbers, but not all of them are positive. Unfortunately 18 attempts of suicide were reported in 2010 with at least 14 deaths (3). The guardian recounts the struggle of a 17-year-old Taiwanese teen factory worker who attempted suicide and is now paraplegic (4). Her story is the same as countless others who work at Foxconn. Workers face Poor labor conditions, 12 hours of work 6 days a week, punishments involving public humiliation, isolation from other workers and low wages.
The revealing of what was happening inside the plants created mass outrage forcing Foxconn to raise wages and open its doors to meticulous audits, some commended by Apple itself. Rina Shimizu blogged about China changing some of its policies regarding social media to seem more attractive for business investors. Taiwan (which is governed by China) has to do the opposite in this situation by enforcing harsher laws with serious penalties against the inhumane and abusive treatment received by workers. Considering that Apple is the second-most profitable company in the world and that Foxconn was ranked as the 40th by Global Fortune 500, it is clear that there is a misdistribution of wealth between the corporations and its workers. It disgusts me to know that 7 more workers have committed suicide since then and that Foxconn hasn’t paid any penalties for what has happened other than installing safety nets and implementing an anti-suicide pledge which was retracted after public outcry.
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn
(2) http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20067246-1/just-how-big-is-foxconn/
(3) http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505124_162-57597168/what-happened-after-the-foxconn-suicides/
(4) http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/05/woman-nearly-died-making-ipad