Topic: Nintendo Launches Probe on Foxconn Working Conditions

[NWR_Karlie]

Nintendo investigates working conditions in response to recent suicides at the production firm.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=23158

 MarketWatch has reported that the Japanese business daily Nikkei confirmed that Nintendo will be joining companies including Apple in investigating the working conditions at Foxconn, the company responsible for assembling Wii consoles. This is in response to the recent suicides at the Shenzhen facility, operated by Foxconn Technology Group.    

An article published on Times Business goes into further detail, suggesting that due to fears about company image, clients including Nintendo, Apple, Sony, Hewlett Packard, and Dell are all running investigations in parallel, with NintendoÂ’s investigation said to have started this year. There have been ten suicides over the last few months at FoxconnÂ’s largest factory, with workers there under severe conditions.    

Nintendo has special guidelines in place for outsourced production, and will be conducting a special survey of the factory to establish whether the factory still meets requirements.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

is Professor Layton on the case

[pyrokamileon]

I can't imagine what they must be going through...  I mean if I heard Ted across the way committed suicide that's hardly the kinda thing I'd wanna join him on...

[vudu]

I can't imagine what they must be going through...  I mean if I heard Ted across the way committed suicide that's hardly the kinda thing I'd wanna join him on...

Ever read The Tipping Point?  If not, you should--it's excellent.

Here's a very brief synopsis I found on the author's website.

One chapter, for example, deals with the very strange epidemic of teenage suicide in the South Pacific islands of Micronesia. In the 1970's and 1980's, Micronesia had teen suicide rates ten times higher than anywhere else in the world. Teenagers were literally being infected with the suicide bug, and one after another they were killing themselves in exactly the same way under exactly the same circumstances. We like to use words like contagiousness and infectiousness just to apply to the medical realm. But I assure you that after you read about what happened in Micronesia you'll be convinced that behavior can be transmitted from one person to another as easily as the flu or the measles can. In fact, I don't think you have to go to Micronesia to see this pattern in action. Isn't this the explanation for the current epidemic of teen smoking in this country? And what about the rash of mass shootings we're facing at the moment--from Columbine through the Atlanta stockbroker through the neo-Nazi in Los Angeles?

[BlackNMild2k1]

Maybe they all had good enough Life Insurance policies and decided that would be a better way of taking care of the family instead of breaking their back for a measly wage everyday.

[UltimatePartyBear]

The source article says there are 350,000 people working in the Foxconn megafactory under "pseudo military" discipline, and that "recent weeks have seen a significant spike in the numbers of young people hurling themselves to their deaths from the balconies of the company dormitories."

I don't even know where to begin, and it would probably delve into banned topics here anyway, so I'll just be flippant:  Maybe the factory's architect was a member of a doomsday cult who had it built in the shape of a summoning circle for an ancient undead horror.

Edit:  Actually, the more I read about this, the less it sounds like Chinese Lovecraft and the more it sounds like a Ghost in the Shell SAC plot.

[ShyGuy]

Foxconn makes everything. I bet half or more the circuit boards in todays electronics have a foxconn part on them.

[ThePerm]

Foxconn isn't just a factory, its an entire city. A decent sized city at that. Imagine the average u.s state capital city, except all the businesses are ran by the same company. It isn't Guiyu though, that place sucks. There things to do for stress relief. The jobs in Foxconn are super repetitive, but no more than any other job. The pay sucks, but its not farming.

[Stratos]

I can't imagine what they must be going through...  I mean if I heard Ted across the way committed suicide that's hardly the kinda thing I'd wanna join him on...

It's a copycat syndrome. If one miserable person ends their life, other miserable people, even less miserable people, begin to look at it and consider it as a possibility. I remember being a youth worker/camp counselor years ago and one of my buddies on staff committed suicide. One of the biggest concerns among us leaders was getting the kids counseling to cope with it because several of the students could very well have followed suit. So glad we had a certified grief counselor on staff. My friend's death left me devastated, I can only imagine how the kids felt.

My heart goes out to them, their families and coworkers.

[RABicle]

I remember being a youth worker/camp counselor years ago and one of my buddies on staff committed suicide.

**** ME! The COUNSELOR committed suicide? God what had the kids been telling him?

[Stratos]

It was personal guilt. A family member got him re-hooked on drugs after several years of being clean and instead of getting help or telling anybody he kept the guilt hidden and eventually killed himself over the guilt.