Hon Hai to raise China wages after spate of suicides

[panzerfaust]

Source: Independent (UK)

Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry plans to raise workers' salaries by about 20 per cent at its Foxconn unit in China, as it struggles to stop a spate of worker suicides and quell rising public anger...

...A small worker protest formed in front of Hon Hai's head office in Taipei on Friday morning, with protesters setting out candles and white flowers as security guards watched.

Hon Hai spokesman Edmund Ding said the increase in the cash portion of pay packages for all its workers in China had been planned for some time. He did not say when the raises would be implemented.

"It may help the suicide situation, because we workers just need money and the financial pressure on us is great," said a Foxconn employee surnamed Wang, reached by telephone at the company's factory in Longhua, an industrial town north of Shenzhen. "Every little bit helps." ...

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/hon-hai-to-raise-china-wages-after-spate-of-suicides-1985583.html

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The leader on the Independent's front page is: "iPad makers raise China wages after suicides" which is less obscure than the "EXACT TITLE" of the posted article...

[proudohioan]

1. Imagine THAT!

Killing half your dairy cows will result in less milk!

Is this what it's come down to? Workers committing suicide?

Extracting labor to the point of desperation for the good of the shareholders is an absolutely vile side effect of the mental illness known as unregulated capitalism. And even sadder is the fact that corporations here in America would continue business as usual, and probably slash wages even more.

Now get back to work!

[indimuse]

2. om....knr! n/t

[SocialistLez]

3. I wonder if American companies would care if their workers started offing themselves.

I doubt it.
They'll just find someone to take their place and continue on business as usual.

[ShortnFiery]

4. Massive organization into UNIONS would be much less costly.

:shrug:

[onehandle]

5. Foxconn lifting employees' wages in China by 20%

Source: Wall Street Journal

Foxconn is a unit of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the world's largest manufacturer of electronics on a contract basis.

Executives also acknowledged that the wage hike would boost morale and calm jittery nerves, particularly among the more than 300,000 workers at the Longhua industrial complex in the city of Shenzhen. More a dozen employees have jumped off buildings in the complex this year, drawing allegations of unrelentingly stressful working conditions.

"Feeling sad is contagious, and so is feeling happy,'' an unidentified Taiwanese executive from the company was cited as saying in a report by Associated Press. ``We hope the workers will have a positive attitude toward their lives."

A Hon Hai spokesman told Reuters that the wage hike was tied to the cash portion of salary packages and would apply to all its workers in China.

Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/foxconn-reportedly-boosting-wages-in-china-by-20-2010-05-28

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Foxconn produces for Dell, HP, Sony, Acer, Apple, Intel, Nintendo, Motorola, Cisco + many others. Including the Amazon Kindle, Wiis, Playstations, Xbox 360, iPhones, various computer makers' motherboards, and hundreds of models of cell phones and music players.

Additionally, the suicide rate in the Foxconn factories is lower than the suicide rate in China overall.

Slave labor is normal in China, sadly. Too bad all of our electronics are made there. Much of it by Foxconn.

[MrCoffee]

6. The employees should have held out for 20% less torture

[notadmblnd]

7. A whole 16 cents and hour?

If I recall the average wage in China for factory work is .86 cents and hour. I imagine there will be price increases at the company store now too?

[boppers]

8. SSShHHHH!

20% sounds so much better.

[tomm2thumbs]

9. +1 exactly

[girl gone mad]

11. Now they'll be able to save up for that..

100 s.f. dump of an apt in 48 years instead of 50.

[htuttle]

10. If the Chinese ever learn Henry Ford's lesson, we're really fucked

Luckily, they don't appear to have a clue about it yet.