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Apple Suicides At Foxconn

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A notable scandal involving Apple’s suppliers is the suicides at Foxconn. It is one of the the largest contracted electronics manufacturers in the world, including Sony and Dell. Foxconn is the outsourcing factory of iPhones and iPads and has over 900,000 workers. This production plant covers 15 factories, including dormitories, a hospital, a bank, a grocery store and eateries. The workers live and work inside this area. In 2006, a Chinese local press reported on the excessively long working hours and the discrimination of Chinese workers by Taiwanese superiors. In May 2010, several media sources reported several cases of suicide at Foxconn factories. From 2009 to 2010, there were about 13 workers had committed suicide. The first worker, Sun Danyong, committed suicide after he had been interrogated on the loss of an …show more content…

Some believed that the working conditions at smaller factories are even worse. One of Foxconn’s workers asserted the media had exaggerated the scandal. In February 2011, the media reported the child labour issues had worsened at the suppliers for computers, iPods and iPhones. Apple’s Supplier Responsibility Report 2011 revealed 91 underage workers at the suppliers. After those suicides, several attentions were noticed for Foxconn. For essence, concerning workers’ health and safety conditions at the suppliers, two workers were killed and sixteen employees were injured during an explosion at Foxconn in May 2010. In the same month, “The Guardian” reported that workers from Wintek had been poisoned by n-hexane, a toxic chemical used to clean the touch screens of iPhones. The employees complained that the compensation Wintek offered for the health damage was not sufficient. The workers who did receive compensation were asked to resign from their jobs.

2.4 Apple and its CSR policy

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