Recently as January 2012 there was a mass attempted suicide in Wuhan china at the rooftops of factory. This was a protest to the treatment of one company: Foxcon.

Foxconn is a a multinational electronics manufacturing company. In other words, these are the guys that make our iPhones, iPads, PS3s, Xbox360′s etc. Additionally it’s well known for being the greatest provider of these things in china. So, if your new iPad or iPhone says “made in china” it probably came from here.

Other than the sheer size of the company and it’s exporting capabilities they are also known for one additional detail: Suicide.

Foxconn is credited, by 20 Universities  in Hong Kong who studied the company with: Suicides, poor labor conditions, illegal overtime and management style that the universities referred to as  ”inhumane and abusive”.

So now that you know, here’s the jist of it. Recently, due the conditions that the workers suffered there was a mass protest in which a total of 150 workers (I also heard elsewhere that it may have been double that) threatened to commit suicide in mass if their salary was not raised. Well, what happened you may ask.

“The employees had asked for a raise but were told they could either quit with compensation or keep their jobs with no raise. The employees quit, but did not receive their compensation.”

-Wikipedia article on Foxconn

“But did not receive compensation”… Did I read that right?!

Think about it like this. If this were happening in your country, what would happen? What if that one factory taht is somewhat colse to your hose had people jumping of it every once in a while, ad then had 150 attempt the same? I don’t know about you, but even our government would take action. That “factory” would be under the unwavering eye of our justice system, but maybe it’s just me. Still this is not a common occurrence, at least not in the US, but out there it’s accepted as normal, but does it mean that it’s right? I’ll let you decide that.

If you want to read up on a lil’ about it here’s a link from my buddies at Wikipedia, if you mistrust the Wiki, then by all means use other mediums, you’ll come up with the same thing wither ways.

Finally here’s a Vid ABC news did about Foxconn, though be aware that all of this is after the attempted suicides, Foxconn is trying to look pretty so now they’re moving stones and pebbles to make things right, still here it is.