I’m fairly sure most have heard about the spate of suicides plaguing iPhone manufacturer Foxconn as the deaths have hit the headlines recently, but just what makes the young workers of Foxconn want to end it all?
Well according to an article over on Gizmodo by Rosa Golijan, a 21 year old Foxconn employee known as Ah Wei spoke to Bloomberg and gave a daunting account of working for the company.
Ah Wei told Bloomberg that “life is meaningless” and “Everyday, I repeat the same thing I did yesterday. We get yelled at all the time. It’s very tough around here.”
Now while that may not seem too bad as after a time most jobs are quite repetitious, but apparently Foxconn workers aren’t allowed to speak while on the production line, are only allowed a toilet break every 2 hours, so if you have a need to go again your luck is out.
As for the protective gear, well according to Wei the noise of the factory “washes past” the earplugs and damages his hearing, and for this Wei gets paid 900 yaun, that’s roughly $132 a month which he sends to his family. One other thing, Ah Wei isn’t his real name as he’s afraid of his managers, so the person in the image isn’t the Foxconn employee.
So, when you rush out to purchase that brand new shiny iPhone 4G when it hits the shelves, remember people are literally dying to bring you that device.