Multiple Sources Reporting Mass Suicide Protest Threat at FoxConn

Want China Times and Giz-China, citing the China Jasmine Revolution movement, are reporting that on January 9th up to 300 discharged workers threatened to jump from the roof of a FoxConn factory in Wuhan, China. Pictures of the event were reported by the UK technology reporting site The Register to have appeared at Weibo, the Chinese photo sharing web service.

The mayor of the town, after hours of negotiation, defused the threat. Talks between representatives of the workers, the factory, and local government resolved the situation. The factory makes parts for the Microsoft Xbox gaming platform, as well as parts for other PC manufacturers such as HP.

The company reneged on promises to raise employee salaries at the beginning of the year. It instead offered a severance package to dissatisfied workers who wished to resign. When up to fifty employees opted for the package, the company took back the offer and discharged them without severance, leading to the dispute.

Previous reports indicated that the Wuhan factory was opened specifically to alleviate pressure which resulted in several suicides at the company's Shenzhen plant. The Wuhan plant employs approximately 30,000 workers.

Numerous reports have cited FoxConn for inhuman working conditions, the most famous (translation by EnGadget) being a month long undercover investigation by the China digital newspaper Southern Weekend (in Chinese only). The basis for the charges is that due to the failure to pay a livable wage, workers must work an unbearable amount of overtime hours in order to pay the costs of relocating and living near their jobs and still be able to send support back to their families.

FoxConn publishes annual "Corporate Social & Environmental Responsibility" reports to document its efforts to "to ensure that social responsibility remains a core part of its strategy and highlights numerous achievements and performance indicators." The document does not attribute any of the report's contents to The Onion, and it may suprise some to learn that "FoxConn" produces no results within The Onion's site. Their editorial staff may have missed one.