Nov 21, 2010

The evil roots of Chinese growth

Foxconn Technology Group, makers of Apple's iPhone and iPad, is the world’s leading electronics manufacturer. It ranks 112th among Global Fortune 500 Companies. Currently, Foxconn has a workforce of 900,000 workers all over China. Foxconn took over 44% of the global revenue of the entire electronics manufacturing and services industry.

Civil society and media zoomed in on Foxconn recently not because of its prodigious workforce or its profits. Rather, it is the seventeen young workers who perished from suicides between January and August 2010 that forced the world to reflect on the plight of frontline workers at Foxconn and other factories.

Two examples from a recent report:

Sun Danyung, aged 25, an engineer at Foxconn, lost one of the 16 fourth generation iPhones in July 2009. After leaving an online message to his friends stating that the investigation over the incident was one of the most humiliating experiences in his life, he jumped from the 12th floor of his apartment building. Likewise, 19-year-old Ma Xianqian, was bullied before his death. He was forced to clean the shop floor and toilet as punishment, according to his elder sister.

The average wage is at the border of subsistence, 12 working hours daily, with a regime of one day of rest per 13 worked, a military-like treatment all the time, humiliating punishments for even the smallest mistakes and distractions...

Slaves or workers? in the name of communism China seems to be creating a system of alienation worst than capitalism, colonialism or other previous system.

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