Suicidal Foxconn workers talked down from factory roof Scores of workers at the Foxconn factory in Wuhan, China, threatened mass suicide during a protest last week. Foxconn - which makes a good chunk of the world's tech gear - said that the dispute began after staff were told they would be transferred to another business unit due to a shift in production lines. The electronics …
Well, his join date is years earlier than yours; I'm guessing he's just resisted the temptation to become a dick much longer than you. Then you emphasise your personality defect by being condescending. After an incorrect statement, too - most people here actually blame the world's ill on Microsoft. You're just a big parcel of failure, aren't you?
er... they didn't kill themselves, just used some collective bargaining power [a.k.a. realistic threat] to raise instant political pressure to assist their employer in backing away from his cheap ploy to cheat them. Hence, the enemy lost this round. Now, back to your remedial logic ...
Except Victorian England was one of, if not the, worlds superpowers, whereby it got to travel the globe, dictate trade agreements, set the price of tea and other exotic goods. One thing that Victorian England didn't have was a manipulative global collective of corporations and territories with vested interests in making sure that Victorian England stayed Victorian enough for them to make significant technological advance for low cost.
Look at the state of some parts of the Middle East. Is that really because humanity has failed to progress there, or is it because every 20 years some American President comes along and wants to bomb the shit out of the place?
Why do 3rd world citizens earn so little and lack autonomy? Because we dictate market prices by sourcing many countries and many suppliers. We ensure our currencies are worth so much more than theirs, that it is a huge expense for them to leave their country as opposed to relatively little we pay to leave ours.
Victorian England progressed because she did not have to compete with anyone other than herself and her own best interests.
"The fact that some accepted a termination of employment with a months pay as severance is probably better than they would have been offered say 2 years ago"
I may have misunderstood something, but I thought the protest was because the Management reneged on the severance pay after workers had resigned...
The real problem in China is that unless your people were living in the cities that are currently enjoying the boom times before the sixties and the Cultural Revolution you do not have the same rights as the locals do you do not have free health care you pay for it also you do not get free education for your children you pay for it and then some.This goes for all internal migrants,even if you only move a hundred miles if that distance takes you into a neighbouring district you are looked on as the scum of the earth and treated worse.
"The welfare of our employees is our top priority and we are committed to ensuring that all employees are treated fairly and that their rights are fully protected. The operational changes that were the basis for this incident are being carried out in accordance with all relevant laws and regulations."
If this is totally true, which I suspect it is, then the simple fact that Foxconn can drive employees to suicide, while still fully respecting their 'rights', and "in accordance with all relevant laws and regulations." - this doesn't say much about worker's rights in China.
So what was Communism supposed to be about? If I remember Marx and 'Das Kapital' - it was not this.
Sounds like China has about reached that point in capitalist development where organized labour rears its head. That should set them up for 30-odd years of reducing productivity, at least until they reach the same level of negotiated labour/conditions that the civilized world has stabilized at. I wonder where the next supply of cheap slave labour will come from?
Stop conflating Marxism with Communism. Marx was a critic of communism, and it is this failing to understand the distinction between marxism/socialism and communism that plagues western capitalist thinking and leads to the American idea of "liberalism/socialism" being somehow evil and wrong.
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