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Monday, July 27, 2009, 08:45 am
Foxconn official says employee had suspicious history
After a Foxconn employee allegedly committed suicide when an iPhone prototype vanished, an official with the Chinese manufacturing company said the former employee had demonstrated a pattern of suspiciously losing products.Speaking with The New York Times, James Lee, general manager of China operations, said the employee's explanation for the missing phone did not seem credible.
“Several times he had some products missing, then he got them back,” Lee said. “We don’t know who took the product, but it was at his stop.”
A Times reporter was given a tour of the Chinese company's facilities, but was not allowed to see the assembly line to protect trade secrets. When the reporter spoke with employees outside of the company's control, one of about 15 admitted they were forced to work overtime beyond the legal limit.
Sun Danyong allegedly killed himself after a prototype he was responsible for -- reportedly a fourth-generation iPhone -- went missing. Prior to his death, friends said he told them he was subjected to "unbearable interrogation techniques" by Foxconn employees, leading some to believe he was beaten. Sun reportedly had his property seized and was held in solitary confinement before he jumped from a 12-story building last week.
The Times also reported that Foxconn paid Sun's family a settlement of about $44,000 and an Apple laptop computer. As a translator spoke to the family last week, a security guard, joined by two men in Foxconn shirts, threatened the translator and told them to stop asking the family questions. Foxconn officials later said the person was not on their staff.
When the story of Sun's death first began to spread, Apple issued a response.
"We are saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death," an Apple spokesperson said. "We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect."
Industry experts overseas have said it is unlikely that Apple will end its manufacturing partnership with Foxconn.
The alleged suicide is one of numerous scandals that has hurt the Chinese company's image. Apple audited Foxconn in 2006 after reports surfaced in a British newspaper about supposed poor working conditions in the Chinese factories. And this month, the company's foreign factories , as a new investigation found that 45 of the 83 factories that built iPhones and iPods in 2008 weren't paying valid overtime rates, and 23 weren't even paying some of their workers China's minimum wage.
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Previous Comments View All
We will never know of course. There are many possible scenarios one of which is he was pushed I guess ... but that could have been by the people he was perhaps working with to acquire these devices i.e. a competitor of Apple, now realizing he may talk. It is the stuff movies are made of!
So he has a suspicious history, but the trust him to handle what's likely their most protected new product? This story sounds pretty suspicious.
Foxconn manager #1: We need to send 16 iPhones prototype to Apple headquarters. Who should take care of that.
Foxconn manager #2: We'll have Sun Danyong do it.
Foxconn manager #1: Sun? But he has a history of suspiciously losing products.
Foxconn manager #2: What's the big deal? They're only super secret fourth-generation iPhones, why would anyone want to steal those?
The posthumous definition of a man's character by those who stand accused of involvement in his death should be taken with a grain of salt me thinks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PG4G 
This is... very worrying.
Chinese "honesty" doesn't really convince me - from the Government, or from their businesses. They are both of a country and culture where they say one thing, and do something totally different.
This is... very worrying.
Chinese "honesty" doesn't really convince me - from the Government, or from their businesses. They are both of a country and culture where they say one thing, and do something totally different.
Partial quote
I hate to be cynical but US tobacco companies, banks, real estate appraisers, insurance companies and many other examples in our free enterprise, democratic model don't seem to be paragons of virtue in these respects either. Where money and people are involved you can expect strange stuff going on. Sad but true.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mystigo
The posthumous definition of a man's character by those who stand accused of involvement in his death should be taken with a grain of salt me thinks.
The posthumous definition of a man's character by those who stand accused of involvement in his death should be taken with a grain of salt me thinks.
yes but typically wouldn't you also take it with a grain of salt when the only proof of something is 'friends of'. friends that could have been in a scheme to photograph etc one of these prototypes. and after caught are trying to say that the man was tortured etc. tis curious.
also curious is how the item was missing apparently for 4 days before reported. or supposed noticed as missing. which actually fits with this newest story of 'losing' things and then 'oops, nope, there it is'. consider the number of rumors sourced from 'in china' and 'insiders at a chinese supplier'.
and then there is the two very different stories about how the missing prototype was found to be missing. widely different stories. one with the employee apparently having an unsealed box and 'realizing' it was missing and thinking he left it at the factory by accident. and the other story of having it discovered when the box reached Apple and someone thinking "hey weren't they supposed to send us 16, not 15 and looking up and finding yes, it was supposed to be 16".
all of this makes things questionable. and somehow I doubt we will ever find out the truth.
Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalclips
Partial quote
I hate to be cynical but US tobacco companies, banks, real estate appraisers, insurance companies and many other examples in our free enterprise, democratic model don't seem to be paragons of virtue in these respects either. Where money and people are involved you can expect strange stuff going on. Sad but true.
Partial quote
I hate to be cynical but US tobacco companies, banks, real estate appraisers, insurance companies and many other examples in our free enterprise, democratic model don't seem to be paragons of virtue in these respects either. Where money and people are involved you can expect strange stuff going on. Sad but true.
Perhaps. But there is very little transparency here.
In America, or Australia where I live, someone would take a picture of how things are, and it would be all over the news, and the government would regulate and actively control and enforce law.
China is different. There is no accountability (or very little) to hold a company to the law. And China will actively ignore the law if it works to their own benefit. They're not worried about their employee's working conditions. They're only worried about their "bigger picture" - how China can succeed as an economic superpower.
Quote:
After a Foxconn employee allegedly committed suicide when an iPhone prototype vanished, an official with the Chinese manufacturing company said the former employee had demonstrated a pattern of suspiciously losing products.
Oh, well that's different then. Driving a man to kill himself on a first offense is over the top, but if he's got a history of misplacing electronic gadgets with a shelf-life of 12 months...
Shame Apple.
Looks like that if you steal from Foxconn you really are for the high jump!
As my brother used to say, "If you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas." This sort of press is just the price of doing business in China. It is naive to think that work conditions and human rights would be the same in a factory in China as it is in America. That is why companies do business there in the first place. If Apple wanted to make sure that all employees were treated with respect and dignity with a decent wage for work ratio, they would build the products in America. This is the result of saving money at any cost.
This is the inevitable conclusion of lying down with a totalitarian state. Just ask Google.
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This is... very worrying.
Foxconn seems to have very little respect for its employees, and with China's record on trying to maintain "public image" over "true integrity", there seems to be very little that Foxconn WOULDN'T say. I personally find anything that Foxconn says to be hard to believe in fullness.
Anything Foxconn says will be tainted with business interest, not integrity. Their business is based on Apple's buying from them, and thats based on public image and integrity. If they lose that, people may not be happy with Apple, and Apple may be FORCED to change. We don't see what happens in the factories. That means they can say whatever they like, and not let anyone actually SEE what's going on.
Chinese "honesty" doesn't really convince me - from the Government, or from their businesses. They are both of a country and culture where they say one thing, and do something totally different.