Report: Mass Suicide Threats at Xbox 360 Plant
On Jan. 2, over 300 employees at a Foxconn plan in Wuhan, China threatened to throw themselves off a building in a mass suicide. Foxconn makes Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony products. These workers manufacture Xbox 360s.
According to Chinese anti-government website China Jasmine Revolution (via Watch China Times), the workers were protesting denied compensation they were promised.
On Jan. 2, the workers asked for a raise. Foxconn told them they could either keep their jobs with no pay increase or quit and get compensation. Most decided to quit with compensation. However, the agreement was supposedly terminated, and the workers never received their payments.
Website Record China reported that the uproar the incident actually caused Xbox 360 production to be temporarily suspended.
The mayor of Wuhan intervened to talk down the group down, and on Jan. 3 at 9pm, the group of 300 decided not to jump, ending what could have been a deadly game of chicken.
Suicides at Foxconn made major news in 2010 when over a dozen employees committed suicide, leading to Foxconn installing suicide prevention nets at some of its facilities.
In 2010, Kotaku asked Microsoft about Foxconn and the reported abuses. Microsoft’s Phil Spencer said at the time, “Foxconn has been an important partner of ours and remains an important partner. I trust them as a responsible company to continue to evolve their process and work relationships. That is something we remain committed to—the safe and ethical treatment of people who build our products. That’s a core value of our company.”
Kotaku is following up with Microsoft over this latest incident.
My buyout package was only worth 100 Yuan…
First world problems?
And we think we have it bad here in the US…
Our workers are committing suicide?? HMMMMMMMMM… Oh, I know, instead of compromising with them, we’ll just install safety nets.
They should have let them jump…problem solved!
“If you don’t pay me more, I’ll kill myself!”
This American Life did a show on Apple that touched on the suicide problem among Chinese workers
Its one of the largest production facilities building electronic devices they would never be able to afford for shit pay. How would they not be depressed?
No wonder I’ve had so many 360’s go RRoD.
If you paid them more they wouldn’t have :).
It’d be funny if they jumped and landed on the RRoD painted on the ground.
The Chinese need to stop being such pussies and carry the Arab Spring into the Winter months.
I remember reading about that in Wired last year.
Good, Americans need jobs.
There is going to be some openings at Foxconn soon. Get your resume ready.