'Mass suicide' protest at China Foxconn factory

[happenstance]

Yeah, the scenario where people are paid off has to include Daisey, Glass, and the translator which stretches the boundaries of introductory believability. Daisey's career is either ruined or drastically altered (for worse, one would presume) forever.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Nonsense, he's got a bright future ahead of him now: he's famous and there's no shortage of demand for truthy bullshit. Everyone said James Frey was finished and he's worth many millions more today.

http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/69474/

My prediction is that Mike Daisey will get a job at Stratfor.

[happenstance]

Hey I said ruined OR drastically altered. Didn't make the call! It'll be fascinating to see...

[crikkett]

After all, didn't Daisey's admission confirm her truthfulness?

Agree 100% -- he never stuck up for his story, just immediately back-pedaled into art major semantics.

Immediately back-pedaling after what lawsuit/pistol was shoved in his face, is what I wonder.

[streeb]

I saw The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs last year and it was outstanding. For quite a few people, I know that it was the first time that they heard, from a self-confessed Mac-addict, that their favourite toys were made by slaves. I'm not sure when or why Daisey started presenting the show as 'journalism', coz that's not what he called it when I saw it. It's a monologue, about many, many things, including Daisey's trip to Shenzhen, where he claimed he posed as a business person to penetrate the walls of Foxconn. He says he spoke to workers there, some of them 14 years old. Is anybody denying this happened?

Daisey and everybody else is either back-pedaling to stay safe, or he lied about his dangerous trip to China and hoped that nobody would bust him on the incendiary nature of the allegedly bogus information he included in his monologue; information that is a) actually true, and b) very likely to upset some very powerful forces with the resources and ability to make sure everybody back-pedals to stay safe.

I more inclined to think he got burned. But I dunno. FWIW, he also upset the CoS a few years ago with a monologue about Hubbard called Great Men of Genius.

[elephant]

Daisey didn't just make tell these stories on stage — he repeated these things in interviews as well. He lied and now uses his art form as an excuse.

Tacky.

His manipulation exploits the labor injustices in China as much as reveals them.

[crikkett]

KQED's Forum is spending a whole our on trashing Mike Daisey (This hour is "The Ethics of Documentary Theater") http://kqed.org/radio/listen

:barf

[2012 Countdown]

China says 100 Foxconn workers riot after eatery dispute
June 8, 2012 1:22 AM ET.

BEIJING (Reuters) - About 100 workers at a southwestern China plant of Foxconn, Apple Inc's main manufacturer, went on the rampage this week after a dispute in a restaurant turned violent, a government website said.

Seven workers at a Foxconn factory in Chengdu went to a restaurant near their dormitory, but began making a ruckus after an argument between the eatery's owner and his wife "affected their meal", said a statement on the Sichuan government website (www.scol.com.cn) released on Thursday.

After the restaurant owner called the police, the workers ran back to their dormitory shouting "they are beating us", upon which around 100 of their colleagues came in and joined the disturbance, throwing bottles, the statement added.

Police came and detained four drunken workers overnight, it added. There were no injuries.

"Foxconn is cooperating with local law enforcement authorities on their investigation into this incident," the company said in a statement.

Foxconn Technology Group, Apple's main global contract manufacturer run by Taiwanese tycoon Terry Gou and employing 1.2 million workers in China, has come under fire in recent years for running massive "sweatshops" to mass produce high-end iPads and iPhones.

Following a spate of critical reports detailing unsafe factory practices at Foxconn plants that have triggered worker deaths and suicides, Apple this year allowed the U.S.-based Fair Labor Association to conduct a high-profile and extensive probe of Foxconn's China factories.

The report, released in March and based on 35,000 worker interviews, unearthed labor violations including extreme work hours and unpaid overtime. As a result, Apple and Foxconn pledged major improvements including cutting workloads, improving safety protocols and upgrading workers' housing and quality of life.

Hon Hai Precision Industry is the listed unit of the Foxconn group.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Ron Popeski)

http://money.msn.com/business-news/arti ... d=15200959

[2012 Countdown]

Foxconn Says Another Worker Committed Suicide
Reuters | Jun. 14, 2012, 10:07 AM


Foxconn Technology Group, the main supplier of Apple Inc, said on Thursday a worker at a Chinese plant jumped from his apartment on Wednesday, the first suicide since the company agreed with its U.S. client to improve work conditions.

The 23 year-old worker fell to his death from his apartment located outside the plant in the southwestern city of Chengdu, according to a statement by Foxconn. The worker had joined the company last month and police were investigating the death.

Apple and Foxconn reached an agreement in March to improve conditions for the 1.2 million workers assembling iPhones and iPads, a landmark decision that could change the way Western companies do business in China.

According to the agreement, Foxconn would hire tens of thousands of new workers to reduce overtime work, improve safety protocols and upgrade housing and other amenities.

The move comes after Apple, criticized over working conditions at its sprawling chain of suppliers in China, agreed to an investigation by the independent Fair Labor Association earlier this year to stem criticism that its products were built in sweatshop-like conditions.

A series of suicides among young workers were reported at Foxconn in 2010, and three workers died in an explosion at a Foxconn plant in Chengdu last June.

Foxconn also announced in mid-February it had raised wages for workers by 16 to 25 percent.

Hon Hai Precision Industry, which makes iPhones and iPads for Apple, is the main listed unit of the Foxconn group, while Foxconn Internationalmanufactures handsets for clients such as Nokiaand Sony Ericsson.

About 100 workers from Foxconn's Chengdu plant went on the rampage earlier this month after a dispute in a restaurant turned violent.

(Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Ron Popeski)

-
http://www.businessinsider.com/foxconn- ... ide-2012-6

===

Report: Poor conditions continue at Apple's China suppliers
FOXCONN
May 31, 2012|By Paul Armstrong, CNN

The biggest manufacturer of iconic Apple products including the iPhone and the iPad has again come under fire for the alleged treatment of its workers -- this time by a Hong Kong-based rights group.

Workers at Foxconn's giant plants in the Chinese cities of Shenzhen and Zhengzhou are subjected to long, punishing shifts for low pay, regular humiliation and harassment by management, and harsh living conditions in cramped factory dormitories, according to a report released Thursday by Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM

-
http://articles.cnn.com/2012-05-31/asia ... _s=PM:ASIA

[2012 Countdown]

Foxconn Suicide Followed by Suspicious Rumors
JUN 14, 2012
This week, a 23 year-old Foxconn worker fell to his death from a Foxconn company apartment. It's believed to be a suicide. Today, Foxconn confirmed the worker's death, which happened outside Foxconn's Chengdu plant at a company apartment.

The suicide is the first since Foxconn and Apple reached agreement over improving conditions for its 1.2 million workers who make the world's electronics. Foxconn workers don't only assemble the iPhone and the iPad, but also the Wii, the Xbox 360, and the PlayStation 3. According to rumors online in China, it's a suicide that authorities also tried to cover up.
It's also the first suicide since reports earlier this month when apparently as many as a thousand workers rioted at Foxconn's Chengdu complex, the location of this week's suicide. The riot seems to have broken out over declining work time that is cutting into worker pay. The actual number of participants is unconfirmed, and it could be much lower.

Online in China, there were rumors that after this week's suicide, Chinese police officers ordered all eye witness at the Chengdu complex to delete all photos and videos. Those who did not were threatened with arrest. These rumors, however, are unconfirmed. Moreover, the Chengdu police did announce the death on its website, so if there is a cover-up, it's not a very good one.

Above is a photo that was not deleted. It supposedly shows the 23 year-old man before he jumped to his death. It's believed that this suicide is somehow connected to the recent riot in Chengdu.
-
http://kotaku.com/5918367/foxconn-suici ... ous-rumors
==

Chinese Police Investigate Foxconn Worker's Fatal Fall
By Michael Kan, IDG News Jun 14, 2012

http://www.pcworld.com/article/257587/c ... _fall.html

[Joe Hillshoist]

The image of that guy sitting on the roof - he seems so lonely.

[8bitagent]

"Daisey lied". This is like if someone claimed a journalist embellished some facts while visiting Dachau.

Apple is a scourge on this planet, a contributing factor of why the modern era sucks, and is a corporate 180 anathema from their origins. Shame on them, and Im glad Im not
an iZombie.