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Holes in Foxconn's 'safety' nets
By Wang Yong |
May 28, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
SEALING a building with steel fences and putting up safety nets may prevent distraught workers from jumping to their death but these measures won't prevent suicides in many other ways.
On Wednesday night, a 23-year-old worker surnamed He jumped to his death from a dormitory building of Foxconn in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. He was the 10th Foxconn employee who died in 12 suicide leaps this year.
Hours before his jump, Foxconn chairman Terry Gou promised to build a 1.5 million-square-meter net to cushion and save future fallen employees.
He called it aixinwang ("the net of a loving heart") as he accompanied reporters on a tour of the Shenzhen factory that is rarely open to outsiders. It hires hundreds of thousands of employees to assemble electronic products for global IT giants such as Apple and Dell.
It's a pity that Mr He jumped to death before "the net of passion" began to be woven. But for someone determined to die, a net is not an obstacle. So what's the use of a 1.5 million-square-meter or a 15 million-square-meter net of concern if someone is determined to kill himself or herself anyway? It's too cruel to recount the litany of suicide methods here.
This vast "net of a loving heart" is more of a PR campaign and a demonstration of crocodile tears than an expression of real repentance. Indeed, Terry Gou insisted on Wednesday afternoon that the spate of suicides had nothing to do with his management, although he did belatedly bow and apologize to those who lost their lives and to their families.
The chairman of the world's largest contract electronic manufacturer begged reporters to write more positively about his company. Sure, the majority of Foxconn's employees have not killed themselves or attempted suicide, and some even seem to smile all the time, especially those security guards who often treat their fellow workers as nonpersons, or worse.
Sure, the factory turns over a handsome amount of tax to the local government every year.
But how "positive" can the situation be when the chairman acquitted himself and his company of any responsibility in the death of 10 employees in less than half a year?
Blame it on the fragile psyche of those poor dead souls. You killed yourselves because of yourselves. Yes, I feel pity for you, I will compensate your families (although I will reduce the amount of compensation lest you're "encouraged" to die), but it's your own fault.
Terry Gou is not the only one who blames the scary series of suicides on the weak mentality of the victims. Many psychologists, academics and officials have joined the choir. A survey conducted in February by the Chinese Academy of Science claimed that Foxconn's employees, many born in the 1980s and afterwards, were mentally weaker in facing difficulty than in many other factories in Shenzhen. But the survey covered only 143 HR managers at Foxconn and hardly spoke to an employee.
The Shenzhen government has sent more than 30 psychologists to Foxconn in the belief that psychological counseling can work wonder. The issue is, who or what drives Foxconn's employees to "mental illness" in the first place, if they were really ill enough to kill themselves?
Impersonal assembly lines and monotonous work may be one culprit, but why at Foxconn, why in Shenzhen? Why Apple and Dell, which continue to hire Foxconn as their contractor and pay lip service to their so-called protection of workers' rights?
The case of Foxconn suicides in Shenzhen may eventually prove to be more than the psychological problems of a few poor guys.
And "the net of a loving heart" may eventually prove to be a disquieting net of interests arrayed against hundreds of thousands of farmers-turned workers who have nothing to sell but their labor in an urbanization era in which they have been shoved off their farmland.
On Wednesday night, a 23-year-old worker surnamed He jumped to his death from a dormitory building of Foxconn in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. He was the 10th Foxconn employee who died in 12 suicide leaps this year.
Hours before his jump, Foxconn chairman Terry Gou promised to build a 1.5 million-square-meter net to cushion and save future fallen employees.
He called it aixinwang ("the net of a loving heart") as he accompanied reporters on a tour of the Shenzhen factory that is rarely open to outsiders. It hires hundreds of thousands of employees to assemble electronic products for global IT giants such as Apple and Dell.
It's a pity that Mr He jumped to death before "the net of passion" began to be woven. But for someone determined to die, a net is not an obstacle. So what's the use of a 1.5 million-square-meter or a 15 million-square-meter net of concern if someone is determined to kill himself or herself anyway? It's too cruel to recount the litany of suicide methods here.
This vast "net of a loving heart" is more of a PR campaign and a demonstration of crocodile tears than an expression of real repentance. Indeed, Terry Gou insisted on Wednesday afternoon that the spate of suicides had nothing to do with his management, although he did belatedly bow and apologize to those who lost their lives and to their families.
The chairman of the world's largest contract electronic manufacturer begged reporters to write more positively about his company. Sure, the majority of Foxconn's employees have not killed themselves or attempted suicide, and some even seem to smile all the time, especially those security guards who often treat their fellow workers as nonpersons, or worse.
Sure, the factory turns over a handsome amount of tax to the local government every year.
But how "positive" can the situation be when the chairman acquitted himself and his company of any responsibility in the death of 10 employees in less than half a year?
Blame it on the fragile psyche of those poor dead souls. You killed yourselves because of yourselves. Yes, I feel pity for you, I will compensate your families (although I will reduce the amount of compensation lest you're "encouraged" to die), but it's your own fault.
Terry Gou is not the only one who blames the scary series of suicides on the weak mentality of the victims. Many psychologists, academics and officials have joined the choir. A survey conducted in February by the Chinese Academy of Science claimed that Foxconn's employees, many born in the 1980s and afterwards, were mentally weaker in facing difficulty than in many other factories in Shenzhen. But the survey covered only 143 HR managers at Foxconn and hardly spoke to an employee.
The Shenzhen government has sent more than 30 psychologists to Foxconn in the belief that psychological counseling can work wonder. The issue is, who or what drives Foxconn's employees to "mental illness" in the first place, if they were really ill enough to kill themselves?
Impersonal assembly lines and monotonous work may be one culprit, but why at Foxconn, why in Shenzhen? Why Apple and Dell, which continue to hire Foxconn as their contractor and pay lip service to their so-called protection of workers' rights?
The case of Foxconn suicides in Shenzhen may eventually prove to be more than the psychological problems of a few poor guys.
And "the net of a loving heart" may eventually prove to be a disquieting net of interests arrayed against hundreds of thousands of farmers-turned workers who have nothing to sell but their labor in an urbanization era in which they have been shoved off their farmland.
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