CHINA 分析:Foxconn 富士康深圳員工自殺和生命尊嚴

Do you trust a microblog? Most people will require more proof.

瞎扯淡


Foxconn Longhua building C4, double suicide reported widely on Internet: Numbers 14, 15 suicides at Foxconn, Xiang Jianxin, Sina.com microblogger, lastest scoop, at around noon, double suicide at Foxconn Longhua C4 building, terrible sight at the scene, the scene has been sealed off. Details need to be confirmed.
富士康龙华C4栋双人跳 富士康惊人14跳15跳 16跳
May 27, 2010 Views Comments 0 富士康龙华C4栋双人跳已经在网络流传:富士康第14,15跳,项建新,新浪微博,最新爆料,12点左右,富士康龙华C4栋双人跳,现场惨不忍睹,现场被封锁。具体如何,还需要进一步确认。
富士康15连跳已经让在现场的媒体感到恐惧,有些记者已经打算不再跟了。到底是遭到诅咒还是压力的传染?有记者朋友怀疑富士康发给自杀者家庭40多万再加上其父母每年3万的养老金,让这些贫穷的打工者有样学样愿以一死换来家庭的保障。论调确实冷血,但如果是真的那就是我们整个社会的责任和悲剧。如果他们的死,是为了补偿金的话,那就另当别论了。富士康最新消息:欲16跳的人爬上了C3栋




BBC中文網記者 立行

深圳富士康員工在流水線上“每天像機器人一樣工作”
生產iphone、諾基亞等名牌產品的深圳富士康的員工頻頻跳樓自殺,原因到底何在?

截至今日,深圳富士康公司半年多內已有13人自殺。公司總裁坐鎮和當地政府的“高度關注”並未能阻止員工繼續自殺。

在第11名員工跳樓死亡後,富士康母公司的大老闆郭台銘週三罕見地親自陪同大批記者進入堔圳富士康園區,參觀該公司的“良好的”工作環境、運動娛樂設施和心理關懷中心。公司還建起各種防自殺的設施。

與此同時,深圳市政府發言人也就此召開記者會,表示“高度關注”。

但這一切為何沒能阻止當天就有第12名員工跳樓死亡,隨後第13名員工割腕自殺未遂。

關注富士康連續自殺事件的香港民間組織“大學師生監察無良企業行動”(簡稱SACOM)商務幹事陳詩韻女士指出,富士康員工工作壓力太大,工會或運動設施形同虛設,工人缺乏申訴壓力管道,導致悲劇不斷。

香港的社會學者丁學良也指出,到目前為止,企業沒有查找深層原因,而政府還在講空頭大話,沒有真正採取系統性的措施來防止悲劇繼續發生。

“智慧型機器人”

郭台銘否認其員工連續跳樓事件和工作壓力與企業管理有關。他將其歸咎于現在大陸年輕人心理承受能力不夠。

而深圳的官員說,富士康事件是社會轉型期的特殊問題,員工,企業,社會多方面的原因都有。但唯一沒提政府的監管失責。

就富士康的企業責任,SACOM近日在廠區外尋訪了一些富士康員工,這些員工都抱怨企業給他們的巨大壓力。

早有媒體透露,在富士康,勞動和睡覺幾乎成了大多數工人生活的全部,午飯從排隊到吃完只允許半個小時。由於在流水線上不停繁忙,工人之間也溝通很少,工作程式把工人們變成了流水線上的一個個“智慧型機器人”。無休止的加班加點則是常態。

SACOM的陳詩韻女士指出,富士康的運動休閒設施恐怕不是所有員工都能自由使用的。有的工人透露:“同樣一個動作就做十個小時,然後下班吃飯然後回宿舍睡覺”。在這種工作狀態下,誰還有精力去使用?也許管理層可以?

對於這種缺乏基本勞動保護的狀態,SACOM的陳詩韻女士指出,富士康的工會不代表工人利益,因為富士康工會主席就是大老闆郭台銘的秘書。

如何讓這些工人信賴由資本家領導的工會呢?

獨立工會

很多勞工組織指出,富士康的問題並不只是郭台銘個人或一家企業違反中國勞工法的問題。

上個月美國的非政府組織全國勞工委員會發現中國為微軟、HP和其他品牌加工的工廠工人在高溫下每天工作長達15個小時,一些企業還有性騷擾和監工淩辱員工等各種問題。

勞工權利活動人士指出,亞洲的“血汗工廠”不一定是像黑磚窯一樣,很多企業有寬敞明亮的廠房,但他們的工作模式都是長時間工作,低薪酬,沒有勞工權利,特別是沒有獨立申訴管道。

富士康2006年就受到過“血汗工廠”的指責。除了它在深圳的分廠外,這些年來它在中國大陸其它地區的分廠也多次出現過工人非正常死亡事件。

丁學良和陳詩韻都分別指出,解決富士康的問題除了企業查找自身原因,政府進行透明監管以外,必須讓工人成立他們自己的工會組織。

生命的尊嚴

一些當下的評論把富士康員工自殺稱作“意外”,還有評論說“富士康”的自殺率低於全國平均水準,言下之意,這沒什麼。

什麼樣的自殺或者什麼人的自殺才能震撼人們對他人生命的同情呢?

美國作家海明威因為不想再糾纏與疾病的折磨中,用獵槍自殺以維護尊嚴。他的自殺被人譽為樹立了“性格剛烈、自尊心堅強的男子漢形象”。

也許決不能拿富士康自殺的員工和海明威相比,他們沒那名氣、學識、地位,他們也許不像海明威一樣,懂得什麼叫做信仰。就像丁學良指出的那樣,他們沒有被當做人,而是被當做機器上的小螺絲釘。

不過,這些大概都沒讀過甚至不知道海明威的小人物之死,也同樣是出於不屈服於命運擺佈。

或許,也可以把這些不屈服於命運擺佈者稱作“有心理疾病的人”,甚至簡稱“精神病”,因為他們和我們“正常人”想法不同。但丁學良指出,必須認識到,這一代年輕人不再會像他們的父輩那樣很容易受到奴役。

我想起魯迅先生一百年前說過:“時間永是流駛,街市依舊太平,有限的幾個生命,在中國是不算什麼。”

也許一些中國人的財富在世界上“崛起”到21世紀了,但他們的精神狀態仍停留在魯迅鄙夷的一百年前。

Taiwan iPhone-maker Foxconn suffers another death
Page last updated at 14:46 GMT, Thursday, 27 May 2010 15:46 UK
E-mail this to a friend Printable version Critics say Foxconn employees work under military conditions Another suspected suicide has occurred at a factory in China, the latest in a string of deaths at the plant this year, state media reports.



Xinhua said the male employee jumped to his death hours after a media tour at
the plant owned by Taiwan firm Foxconn.

The firm manufactures mobile
phones and electronic equipment for top brands including Dell computers and
Apple.

The death would be the 10th suicide at the plant this year - two
other people have survived similar falls.

One man was also reported to
have killed himself at another Foxconn plant in Hebei province earlier this
year.

On Thursday, another employee in Shenzhen attempted to kill
himself by cutting his wrists but survived after medical attention, said Xinhua.

The Foxconn plant in Shenzhen employs more than 400,000 people.

'Determined'

Police officials said the man who died on Wednesday
was a 23-year-old from Gansu province, who had been working at the plant for
about a year.

Witnesses said he had jumped from the seventh floor of a
dormitory building, Xinhua reported.

Mr Gou said the company was trying
hard to prevent further deaths The death came just hours after the chairman of
Foxconn, Terry Gou, one of Taiwan's most famous businessmen, took reporters
around the vast Shenzhen plant.

Mr Gou apologised repeatedly, and said
he had trouble sleeping but would not stop trying to solve the problem.

"We need some time," he said. "But we are confident. We are extremely
determined."

The company is training counsellors and has provided
leisure facilities for the workers. It has also put up nets around the
buildings.

"Although this seems like a dumb measure, at least it could
save a life should anyone else fall," said Mr Gou.

Labour activists in
nearby Hong Kong have criticised alleged poor conditions at the factory and
called for a symbolic boycott of iPhones in protest.

The activists claim
shifts at the plant are long, the assembly line moves too fast and that managers
enforce military-style discipline on the workforce.

Foxconn points out
that despite the bad publicity, each day around 8,000 people still apply to work
at the factory.

Companies which commission work from the plant have said
they are concerned by the reports.

Sharon Zhang, a spokeswoman for Dell,
told the AFP news agency the company was investigating the reports.

"Any
reports of poor working conditions in Dell's supply chain are investigated and,
if warranted, appropriate action is taken. We expect our suppliers to employ the
same high standards we do in our own facilities," she said.

Hewlett
Packard said it was "investigating the Foxconn practices that may be associated
with these tragic events".

Apple, whose iPhones are made at the plant,
said it was "deeply committed to ensuring that conditions throughout our supply
chain are safe and workers are treated with respect and dignity".

Apple
has said it will evaluate what Foxconn is doing to address the problems and
continue ongoing inspections of the facilities where its products are made.




媒體為何回避富士康員工跳樓真正原因?
時間:2010-05-27 16:25
作者:徐明天

  當媒體鋪天蓋地指責富士康員工“十連跳”是企業管理和代工模式的原因,我們卻發現幾乎沒有紙面媒體披露員工跳樓的具體的真正原因。


  據我的瞭解,第一跳馬向前,家屬至今不承認是自殺,先說是其主管對其虐待所致,後說是被其老鄉打死,現在又說是環安科將其打死。


  第二跳是因為家庭經濟壓力,父親有病,家庭貧窮;第三跳是自己春節加班費被偷;第七跳是精神有問題,五一期間公司派其兩位同學陪伴,在其得知其父母第二天要到深圳,兩位同學陪他在公司賓館住宿,並企圖攔住其跳樓沒有成功。第八跳是因感情問題;第九跳家屬認為與工作調動有關係;第十跳原因公佈,南某欠下賭債數千元。


  一個多月來,富士康阻止了30多起不正常情況,多數為情感問題,女性為多。其中有一名員工要求其同在富士康已經分手的女友見面,並威脅要富士康為其支付25萬元,否則就要跳樓。一對湖北籍的男女員工,男員工打罵女員工逼其跳樓,說可以拿到賠償款。還有一個小夥子因女友分手,發短信給家裡說要跳樓,深圳、山西兩地發動眾多社會資源,才找到這個小夥子。


  另一個被回避的事實是,“十連跳”者多是進富士康幾個月的員工,最長的一年半,最少的只有28天。


  媒體回避的另一個事實是,富士康員工的自殺率遠遠低於社會的平均率。根據世衛組織2009年年底發佈的研究報告,09年全球自殺人數約100萬,中國自殺人數占全球的26%。以13億人口總量計,即每10萬人中自殺約20人(20/10萬)。該報告稱,在中國自殺已成為第五大死因,自殺居年輕女子的死因之首。


  媒體為什麼回避這些基本的事實呢?


  第一,為的賺眼球。其他公司有員工跳樓自殺,沒有人會報導。但是華為Huawei和富士康有員工自殺,就大版炒作。因為華為和富士康有名。比如,4月份深圳一天就有兩人跳樓,幾乎無人報導。廣州兩老鄉相約喝農藥自殺,一人自殺成功。杭州有三個“貧二代”集體自殺。這一類的事情多,但並沒有見諸報端,見報也無人關注。現在全國的媒體就守候在富士康門外,時刻準備報導跳樓事件。


  第二,深度報導就要推理企業管理方面的深刻原因。如果報導和分析員工跳樓的具體原因,就可能得出90後的心理和社會環境等問題,很難和企業扯到一起。如此,媒體就失去了焦點和深入報導的理由,媒體的此類報導顯得相當無知。這些記者根本就懂什麼是企業,什麼是管理,什麼是製造。


  第三,實際上,富士康員工“十連跳”和同期已經發生的10起學校暴力慘案,與媒體不負責任的報導有關係,國外將這種現象稱作“自殺傳染”和“暴力傳染”。特別是10起學校暴力慘案,有近百名兒童幼兒死傷,媒體根本無法講出某個學校的管理問題,是典型的媒體報導引發的“暴力傳染”。相對于學校暴力慘案,富士康員工跳樓事件相同地點、相同方式的“自殺傳染”更為典型。因此,媒體已經是國內年輕人跳樓事件的罪魁禍首。我在4月中旬就呼籲這個問題,但媒體至今不敢面對。


  第四,競爭對手已經借助這件事企圖打敗富士康。最近有一個富士康環保科打死員工再將員工從樓上拋下的貼子在網上廣泛散佈。這個貼子的原始出處是“安徽”,有人以此能猜測出幕後黑手來自何處。2005年,某媒體富士康“血汗工廠”的報導最早起自富士康國外的競爭對手,企圖撬走蘋果的訂單。現在媒體的報導,也有人猜測是受競爭對手的操縱。


  不過我認為,媒體應該客觀報導,才是負責任的。不應該為私利製造新聞。


來源:第一財經日報

Why Are The Media Evading The True Reasons Why Foxconn Workers Are Jumping Off Buildings?

(05/27/2010) (Xu Tianming at 21ccom.net)


At a time when the media are flooded with accusations that the "ten successive jumps" by Foxconn workers are due to their corporate management/sub-contractor model, we find that no press media are telling us the specific reasons why they are committing suicide.

My understanding is that the first suicide case was Ma Xiangqian, whose family still refuses to accept that he killed himself. First, they said that he died after being assaulted by his supervisors; next, they said that he was beaten to death by hometown workers; now they are saying that he was beaten to death by security guards.

The second suicide case was due to economic pressure on a person who has an ailing father and impoverished family circumstances. The third case was someone whose spring vacation overtime pay was stolen from him. The seventh case was a man with a mental problem. During the Labor Day holiday, Foxconn assigned two fellow students to keep him company. His parents were supposed to show up in Shenzhen the next day. The two fellow students stayed with him in the company hotel, but they failed to stop him from jumping. The eighth case was a person with romance problems. The family of the ninth case thinks that it had to do with a job transfer. The stated reason for the tenth case was that he owed several thousand yuan in gambling debt.

During the last month or so, Foxconn has already stopped more than 30 "abnormal" cases. Most of these involve emotional problems for women. One Foxconn worker demanded to meet with his ex-girlfriend who works at Foxconn. He also demanded 250,000 yuan from Foxconn or else he threatens to jump off the building. There was a couple from Hubei with the guy beating and berating the woman to jump off the building so that he could collect the compensation. Another young man broke up with girlfriend and sent a text message to his family to state his intention to commit suicide. This person was finally located after people in Shenzhen and Shanxi worked hard to find him.

Another unmentioned fact is that the "ten suicide cases" were relatively new workers at Foxconn, with tenure between as little as 28 days and as long as 6 months.

The media also do no mention the fact that the suicide rate at Foxconn is far less than the national average. According to the 2009 World Health Organisation research report, about 1 million people committed suicide around the world in 2009 of which 26% were in China. Assuming a population of 1.3 billion in China, the suicide rate is about 20 persons per 100,000 persons per annum. This report said that suicide is the fifth most common cause of death in China, and the most common cause among young women.

Why are the media evading these facts?

First, they want to earn eyeballs. When workers from other companies commit suicide, nobody cares. But when Huawei and Foxconn workers commit suicide, they will have full-page coverage. This is because Huawei and Foxconn are famous. For example, two persons jumped out of buildings in Shenzhen and died in April. Virtually no media reported that. In Guangzhou, two men took pesticide in a pact and one died. Three "second-generation poor persons" committed suicide together in Hangzhou. These suicides were unreported in the newspapers; even if reported, nobody cares. But the national media are stationed outside Foxconn, ready to report on more suicides.

Secondly, an in-depth report requires an exploration of corporate management. If one analyzes the specific reasons why the specific individuals committed suicide, one may get a good picture of the psychologies and social conditions of the post-90's generation but one cannot tie this easily to corporate management. In this way, the media lose their focus and the reason for running an in-depth investigation, and their reports therefore seem ill-informed. These reporters simply don't understand what corporations, or management, or manufacturing are about.

Thirdly, the "ten successive Foxconn suicides" and ten school ground murder cases are related to irresponsible media reporting. Overseas, these phenomena are known as "suicide contagion" or "violence contagion." In those ten school ground murder cases, almost 100 children died or were injured. The media were simply unable to explain administrative problems at specific schools. Therefore their reporting can only be called the classical "violence contagion." Compared to the school ground violence, the Foxconn workers' choice of locations and methods are even more classical "suicide contagion." Therefore, the media are the arch-criminal in leading young people to commit suicide in China. In mid-April, I called for attention on this issue but the media has been unwilling to address it.

Fourthly, Foxconn competitors are using these incidents to attack Foxconn. Recently, there was a popular Internet post about how Foxconn security guards beat up a worker and then tossed him out of a building. This post came originally from "Anhui" which allowed some people to figure out where the prime mover behind the scene is located. In 2005, a certain "Foxconn sweat shop factory" media report came from an overseas competitor who wanted to pry the Apple account away from Foxconn. So there are some people who think that some of the current media reports are being manipulated by Foxconn competitors.

I believe that the media should make objective reports. That is how to act responsibly. They should not manufacture news for personal interests.

[ESWN comment: Why do the Chinese media and Internet users seem to want to see Foxconn dead? I cannot not help but go back to August 2006 when Foxconn sued a newspaper editor and a newspaper reporter for 10,000,000 yuan each on defamatory reporting. They did not sue the newspaper -- they sued the media workers for huge sums of money. (The Unpublished FoxConn Story) "The FoxConn method of litigation was particularly vile. If they succeeded with this, all reporters would live in fear of litigation about their reporting. This was a challenge to the entire field of journalism in China as well as the freedom of press. Therefore, the reaction of the field of journalism contains an instinct of self-preservation. FoxConn had used a similar method to prosecute Commercial Times reporter Joyce Kuang in Taiwan, but they retreated under pressure from the Journalist Association. From thereon, very few reporters in Taiwan dared to report on Foxconn and even fewer dare to criticize Foxconn." A suicide cluster is a valid news story and therefore the Chinese media are using this occasion for payback time. That is one way to look at it.]


Suicide Rates At Foxconn (05/27/2010)
How many people commit suicide in China each year?

From The Irish Times , "About two million Chinese attempt to take their own lives each year, and 280,000 of those die."

What is the population size of China?

From China Population and Development Research Center , the population clock at this moment is 1,337,445,409.

What is the suicide rate (per 100,000) in China each year?

100,000 x 280,000 / 1,337,445,409 = 20.9 suicides per 100,000 persons each year

How many persons committed suicide at Foxconn (Shenzhen campuses) this year?

10 persons died after falling out of buildings. Two more fell down buildings but survived. Another slip the wrist but survived.

How many people work at the Foxconn (Shenzhen) factories?

From Xinhua , "Of Foxconn's 800,000 employees in China's mainland, 420,000 are based in Shenzhen."

What is the suicide rate among Foxconn (Shenzhen) workers?

100,000 x 10 / 420,000 = 2.38 suicides per 100,000 persons each year

So what is the big deal on Foxconn? The suicide rate (2.38) there is much lower than the national average (20.9). So there is nothing here -- you should all go home ...

Oh, wait. But this is not how these comparisons should work.

First, only about 5 months have passed out of the 12 months this year. Under an assumption of a constant suicide rate, there are expected to be 2.38 x 12 / 5 = 5.71 suicides per 100,000 persons this year.

What specific factors affect suicide rates in China?

From The Irish Times , "The rates of suicide are particularly high in the countryside, with rural suicide rates three times higher than in the cities." Therefore, the national suicide rate is raised by the rural areas. A proper comparison ought to be against the urban areas only.

From the World Health Organisation suicide rates (per 100,000) in selected urban areas by gender and age in China for 1999, we see:



The Foxconn workers are young persons in the 15-24 to 25-34 age groups. So the suicide rate (per 100,000) may be taken to be (3.5 + 6.3) / 2 = 4.9 suicides per 100,000 persons per annum.

From the World Health Organisation , the overall suicide rate in selected urban and rural areas in China for 1999 is 13.9. These are 1999 data. If we assume the same ratios between 15-34 and total population, the suicide rate (per 100,000) for persons 15-24 in Chinese urban areas today is 20.9 x 4.9 / 13.9 = 7.37 suicides per 100,000 persons.

Unfortunately, the assumption of constant suicide rates for the rest of the year will not hold. If you look at the first five months, there is a clear acceleration already in suicides/attempted suicides:

1. January 23, 2010
2. March 11, 2010
3. March 17, 2010 (attempted suicide)
4. March 29, 2010
5. April 6, 2010
6. April 7, 2010
7. May 6, 2010
8. May 11, 2010
9. May 14, 2010 (attempted suicide)
10. May 21, 2010
11. May 25, 2010
12. May 26, 2010

Why would the suicide rate pick up? See Wikipedia on Copycat Suicide:

A copycat suicide is defined as an emulation of another suicide that the person attempting suicide knows about either from local knowledge or due to accounts or depictions of the original suicide on television and in other media.

The massive wave of emulation suicides after a widely publicized suicide is known as the Werther effect, following the Werther novel of Goethe.

The well-known suicide serves as a model, in the absence of protective factors, for the next suicide. This is referred to as suicide contagion. They occasionally spread through a school system, through a community, or in terms of a celebrity suicide wave, nationally. This is called a suicide cluster.

To prevent this type of suicide, it is customary in some countries for the media to discourage suicide reports except in special cases.

...

Various countries have national journalism codes which range from one extreme of, "Suicide and attempted suicide should in general never be given any mention" (Norway) to a more moderate, "In cases of suicide, publishing or broadcasting information in an exaggerated way that goes beyond normal dimensions of reporting with the purpose of influencing readers or spectators should not occur. Photography, pictures, visual images or film depicting such cases should not be made public" (Turkey) Many countries do not have national codes but do have in-house guidelines along similar lines. In the US there are no industrywide standards and a survey of inhouse guides of 16 US daily newspapers showed that only three mentioned the word suicide and none gave guidelines about publishing the method of suicide. Craig Branson, online director of the American Society of News Editors (ASNE), has been quoted as saying, "Industry codes are very generic and totally voluntary. Most ethical decisions are left to individual editors at individual papers. The industry would fight any attempt to create more specific rules or standards, and editors would no doubt ignore them."

What will the Chinese and western media do? Camp outside the factory and try to scoop the next suicide? Or stay mum on future suicides to quell the copycat suicides?

(ESWN comment: There was a suicide at the neighborhood shopping mall today. Someone jumped from the seventh floor of the building into the flower bed on the ground level. The area was immediately blocked off and the body was quickly taken away. One hour later, shoppers wouldn't know what happened earlier. I understand that they will bring monks into the mall after midnight to say prayers. I wonder if I will read about this in the Hong Kong newspaper tomorrow.]