Foxconn looking to hire an exorcist, Wintek dealing with lawsuit

Look guys, I realize you need a photo, any photo to sell a story. But using a Buddhist monk to go with this story was a poor choice.

Apple should have responsibility, as do Nike and other companies who outsource manufacturing. Apple obviously has enough leverage on Foxconn to get a prototype recovered from an employee by harrassment and threats (who then committed suicide).

The n-hexane thing really bugs me. They build these items exactly as Apple asks them to. I doubt the use of such a chemical was the factory's idea. They may not be taking safety measures, but I bet it was specified as the propper cleaning agent.

Paying someone else to make things for you does not absolve you of responsibility. Ask Toyota.

Exorcist to Foxconn workers: "What does this ghost look like and what does it do?"

Worker: "He wears bluejeans, a black mock turtleneck and demands that everything is PERFECT! almost daily!"

Suicide is Counter-Revolutionary. It is the ultimate running dog Capitalist act of propaganda and must be stopped. The Party has thusly ruled.

Exorcist? That's crazy. All they need to do is adjust their Feng Shui and Workers Paradise will be fine.

My understanding is that this is all being blown out of proportion. Not that Foxconn shouldn't attempt to help it's employees be happier, but let's not get to worked up about the suicide (as sad as it honestly is).

My understanding is that suicide rates in China are an average of ~240 per 1 million people. Since Foxconn employs about 400,000 people, you'd expect a suicide rate of 8 successful suicides per month when it comes to Foxconn employees; instead the news that I've seen is that there have been 8 ATTEMPTED suicides in THREE months - with only one being successful. So let's look at what Foxconn is doing right, including potentially boosting morale by bringing in an exorcist (don't underestimate the power of persuasion), and congratulate them on cutting the average suicide rate by 95%.

Misguided righteous anger can only make things worse. If people start making too much trouble for Foxconn, they could potentially close down, then all of these 400,000 employees will have to leave the, admittedly less-than-stellar, working conditions and take jobs that are even worse.

Let's not fool ourselves, if we paid Foxconn employees the same amount that Americans would expect to get paid, people would stop buying the electronics that Foxconn builds because they'd be too expensive. It's simple economics. The second best thing you can do for a Foxconn employee is buy a Foxconn product; the absolute best thing you can do for a Foxconn employee is find a charity and donate money directly to these people. Everything else is foolish, or actually making things worse.

Religious ceremonies to mollify the employees? If you don't want to offer them real solutions, there's nothing like superstition to fool them with.

Oh geez.

It's tempting to blame Apple for this, as always. But Apple really have no power over these guys unless using contract as a threat. However, there is only a handful of companies that will do the manufacturing so...

What really is the problem are worker exploitation in China by companies, whereas it's North American, European, Taiwanese (foxconn is Taiwanese) or Chinese themselves. Basically, the mentality is to move manufacturing to places where workers don't/can't complain.

Now that Chinese people are more educated about workers right and more willing to fight the companies... Guess what, now there is talks to move the factory to Vietnam, India or even Africa... again going down the ladder...

I really don't see a solution for this. As Dilbert has once said, "I love helping people, but I also love cheap sneakers."