Described by gaming site Kotaku as a potentially “deadly game of chicken,” over 300 workers at the Foxconn factory in China threatened suicide. On Jan. 2, a group of workers appeared on the roof of the main production facility in Wuhan and threatened to jump.
Foxconn produces devices for Microsoft (including the Xbox360), Apple (the iPhone and iPad), Sony (PlayStation3) and Nintendo (the Wii), as well as the Amazon Kindle.
According to Want China Times, the problem was related to a deal struck with the Foxconn plant’s leadership.
“(A)bout 300 employees at a plant belonging to Taiwan-based Foxconn… asked their boss for a raise. They were told either quit their positions with compensation or keep their jobs and receive no additional payment. Most employees took the first option, but the company terminated the agreement, and none of them were given the money they were promised.”
Wuhan’s mayor intervened to talk with the group and by 9 p.m. the next day, the group came down from the roof. The incident reportedly interrupted production of the Xbox 360.
Foxconn has been plagued by suicides, committed by employees working in terrible conditions.
UPDATED: New York Times reports a settlement. Kind of.
On January 12, the NYT wrote that Foxconn had “resolved” the pay dispute.
“In a statement released Thursday, Foxconn said most of the protesting workers had agreed to return to work after negotiations were held with the company and local government officials. But details of the agreement were not released. One of the workers said they had been promised additional compensation.”
I’m not sure that being promised something by someone who already promised you something they didn’t deliver is a resolution, exactly.
“One worker who participated in the Wuhan protest said by telephone that workers shifted to Wuhan had been promised about $450 a month in salary, including overtime pay, but that they had been given about a third less than that and that working conditions in Wuhan were much more difficult.”
Foxconn photo by Liu Mao Yi
