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Xbox Workers Threaten Mass Suicide
Topic Started: Thursday Jan 12 2012, 04:31 PM (133 Views)
King Hiss
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Approximately 300 Foxconn employees who work on the Xbox 360 manufacturing line in Wuhan, China, threatened to jump from the building's roof following a rescinded pay deal earlier this month, according to reports.

WantChina Times said that according to the Chinese anti-government website China Jasmine Revolution, the employees had sought a pay rise but were denied by Foxconn management.

The company then reportedly offered staff a choice between continuing to work at current rates or taking a compensated dismissal package. Many workers chose the latter, but Foxconn reneged on the package.

In protest, the workers climbed to the roof and threatened to jump, but were apparently talked down from the ledge by Wuhan's mayor.

Foxconn Technology Group, the world's biggest contract manufacturer of electronics, said in an e-mailed statement today to Bloomberg that 150 workers at the plant in Wuhan had protested on January 4 about a plan to transfer them to another unit.

The company said the issue was resolved the same day after talks with executives and local government officials.

''After talking with workers and management, it is our understanding that the worker protest was related to staffing assignments and transfer policies, not working conditions,'' Microsoft said in its statement.

The majority of the protesters at Foxconn chose to return to work, Microsoft said.

Foxconn said 45 of the 150 workers resigned, according to its statement.

Microsoft's Phil Spencer said that Foxconn had "been an important partner" of Microsoft's. "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."

WantChina Times reported that 14 Foxconn employees committed suicide in 2010. Employees frequently complained of long working hours and discrimination.

Microsoft issued a general statement saying it took the working conditions in factories that manufacture its products "very seriously".

"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."


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That will be one juicy RROD! :D

Someone had to say it....
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Dude, too soon.

I'm still not over how devastated I was by my first RROD.
yo listen up here's a story
about a little guy that lives in a blue world
and all day and all night and everything he sees
is just blue like him inside and outside
blue his house with a blue little window
and a blue corvette
and everything is blue for him and hisself
and everybody around
cos he ain't got nobody to listen to

i'm blue da ba dee da ba die...
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King Hiss
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When you put it like that, I'm surprised there weren't some former Xbox owners up there pushing them off.

I guess they didn't jump. I wonder what their actual plan was? Count to 3 and all go at once? What about that one poor sucker that isn't smart enough to change his mind at 2? Was this a union decision? Should they all be out of work right now anyway and stuck in mental hospitals until they are assessed as no longer wanting to harm themselves?

Didn't think that through, did they?
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I may have this completely wrong, but Im sure I read that they where protesting not getting the pay rise they where promised after a bunch of workers actually did jump a few months back...

People read this stuff though and think its an example of how fucked up things are in china, when the fact we want cheap shit is what causes the demand and therefore the issue in the first place.

Another thought.... Perhaps if a few Aussie workers threatened to jump, we may still have a manufacturing industry...
yo listen up here's a story
about a little guy that lives in a blue world
and all day and all night and everything he sees
is just blue like him inside and outside
blue his house with a blue little window
and a blue corvette
and everything is blue for him and hisself
and everybody around
cos he ain't got nobody to listen to

i'm blue da ba dee da ba die...
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King Hiss
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Dude, threatening to kill yourself over a shitty job IS fucked up. And if that really is their only option in life, then things really are fucked up in China.

I also think that pointing the finger at our demand for gadgets is passing the buck as well. The problem runs much deeper than that, and alot of it comes from all the hands trying to grab a share of the profit out of that product before it even reaches you.

Are our appliances really cheap? Would you pay more for them? If they were more expensive, would be as bothered with these devices? They're just priced to our sweet spot of what is reasonable in our market. If a 2 grand iPad came out this year, how many people would really be lining up outside an Apple store?

The real problem is shareholders and those big knobs at the top. Why make a billion bucks profit when you can squeeze out another couple of million? CEO's exist to appease shareholders, and shareholders exist for the sole reason of recieving profit. See a company go from private to public and watch any morals they had go out the door with it. If we are guilty, then this is how, with all our bleating about things like super annuation that lives off all this action. The means of manufacture and the sale of the end product are just a vessel for money for nothing. Considering our own countries have laws that protect the workers, most of this can probably be knocked on the head if governments put restrictions in place for overseas manufacture and all forms of outsourcing, but yay for globalisation, right?
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