Suicide Threats and Strike Attempts at Apple Manufacturer: China's Workers Fighting for Rights at Work

Suicide Threats and Strike Attempts at Apple Manufacturer: China's Workers Fighting for Rights at Work: "Foxconn, a factory that makes iPhones and Xboxes among other gadgets, is seeing strikes by workers over low wages, long hours, and terrible conditions.

Last Friday, a riot erupted outside an Apple store in Beijing. It was widely reported that the rioters were hopeful shoppers who, having waited for hours in the freezing cold for the latest iPhone, were so furious when the launch was delayed that they threw eggs at the shop and clashed with the police. It turns out that many were actually migrant workers, hired by "scalpers" who intended to sell the gadget, a status symbol, for a higher price on the black market.

Meanwhile, a protest of another kind was just ending in Wuhan, in central China's Hubei province, thanks to the intervention of its mayor. Up to 200 workers from the Microsoft Xbox production line of Foxconn Technology, also a major supplier of Apple, had staged a strike. They were not demanding sleek new gadgets, but simply decent pay in return for making them, and proper compensation if being transferred. To drive their point home, they had threatened to kill themselves by jumping off a building...."