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Explosion At Foxconn Factory Kills 2, Injures 16
arielCo writes "There are several reports in the news about an explosion in a Foxconn factory in Chengdu that manufactures the iPad 2, killing two workers and injuring another 16. 'The Chengdu Municipal government said the explosion occurred in Foxconn's "polishing plant" at around 7 p.m. Experts say it is likely a cleaning stage at the end of the production process after devices are assembled.' There's a short amateur video of the ensuing fire, taken during the evacuation. Apple said they are working with Foxconn to investigate."
Is this what happens when you make everyone sign no suicide contracts?
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Somehow I doubt that this was an accident.
Even the Foxconn buildings are trying to commit suicide now.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
I've just ordered an iPad. I hope I don't get one that has been damaged by the explosion.
Many Chengduians died to bring us this iPad?
... the rapture.
Oh god, that woman is John Romero!
The exploding battery problem has apparently not been solved:
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/08/28/1535243/Apple-Faces-Inquiries-In-the-EU-On-iPhone-Accidents?art_pos=1
I suppose, if Apple is that much of a religion to Apple fans, then does that make these lost plant workers martyrs?
... the rest were fired for leaving their posts.
no better way to make things right than to plead with some imaginary fictional being for forgiveness? The fines are minimal, there's nothing that cannot be 'forgiven'? clean slate, ready for our eternal reward system
This probably wouldn't happen in the western world because we have some expectation of safety and working conditions. In a ideal world, we'd be manufacturing this sort of thing at home. Any form of economic prosperity in one area is balanced by a social or economic cost in another.
Slashdot needs Geekcode | Can anyone recommend any good SCIFI? My tastes: Foundation, Startide Rising, CITY, Ringworld,
We demand that our toys be delivered quickly and at the lowest possible cost. We are not willing to pay a fair price for a product built by happy people earning a decent wage. You can blame Apple, Microsoft, Google or whichever company you choose but the blame rests squarely on our shoulders. Flame suit on.
Their investigation: Marketing team figuring out how to avoid bad publicity.
just ask the workers @ Upper Big Branch mine:-(
The worst thing about this story it that it would probably be unnoticed if it happened at any other factory in china. But now it's Foxconn and iPad 2 so now it's interesting.
I think the interest in publishing these stories stems from the contrast between the death and hardship suffered on the workers' side, as opposed to the blatant enjoyment and consumerism of using non-essential things like iPads, portraying a sort of class gap intending to elicit feelings of guilt. I have a rooted Android tablet (nook color); therefore I am entitled to feel good, twice!
Let's go back to the Sinclair model: we assemble our own gizmos. Really, it's more fun than unboxing, and it gives an opportunity for the geeks to interact with people who can't assemble the things by themselves.
but dead-on funny satire
dude that happened like last year, more than 20 people got killed
enjoy! right now all they have is like the stuff you could buy at Dollar Tree , but i think its only a matter of time.
they might say their working conditions are inhumane. If you asked a stockholder, they might say who cares. (cue apple logo)
Over a billion people in China so plenty more of them - they're expendable.
Jobs should keep some of the injured on life support so he has a supply of organs just in case - he owes it to us shareholders.
the 2 killed will be listed as suicides so foxconn does not pay out on there death.
Foxconn ? Is it owned by Rupert Murdoch?
Wait, didn't you mean "EXPLODEY at APPLE factory that only builds APPLE stuff and APPLE totally controls and really, really does not build stuff for anyone else and we're totally not just tying it to APPLE for page hits!"
Can we please get off Foxconn for those with too much free time on their hands.
I live in a large North American city, and if you follow the media, there has not been a suicide in this city EVER, that's how happy everyone is here in the west. I honestly don't know why the city blew a shitload of tax revenue on suicide prevention fencing on bridges, etc.
Oh but there was a worker crushed to death in an industrial accident here, but unfortunately no international news outlet picked it up.
reports are blaming it on a smoking worker? sounds like a cover up / pushing the blame on workers for likely a cost cutting lack of repair to the machines that are used.
As millions of Apple FanBois (on iPad waiting list) cried out in pain and then abruptly silenced.
Why as soon as a Foxconn story breaks out the Apple bashing start? I don't care for the company, but they seem to be the only actually trying to do something about it when these articles hit the news, while you never hear a thing from the executives of all the other companies who manufacture their product there.
Reminder: TODAY IS JUDGEMENT DAY. Cry onto almighty Jobs!
Punishing those who worship false iDols by creating a minor production inconvenience at one of their factories! Repent! Repent!
especially with all the complains of non-Apple tablets being overpriced compared to the iPad--- when being cheaper then Apple is considered to be the primary reason of buying a non-Apple tablet in the first place.
As it is, all the non-iPad competitors are having a touch time matching Apple's price & feature set as it is.. So an Android tablet entirely made in the U.S.A.? It would probably cost something like $5000.
So the BP oil platform explosion didn't happen and killed nobody. It must be a conspiracy theory by the anti-Western propagandists. Thank you for telling us about that.
I know their products are pretty good quality, but working there is nearly as much fun as working in Indonesia for NIKE in the 1970's: "No suicides. The boss will administer daily beatings till morale improves. Oh, and we've set up an employee challenge program: we will hire someone new for your job and train them. Then you and the new hire will compete for your job. Whoever creates the most perfect pieces in the shortest time wins (and gets to keep the job). Oh, and your pay will be cut by 20%. Remember, your no-suicide contract is in force even if you are fired or let go, for up to 1 week. After that, you may kill yourself if you wish. We have also decided to deduct pay from employees we are letting go, and some may have to repay the company for wages paid because the company can't tell when you productivity started to slip. Also, if you wish to be re-hired anytime in the future, you will forfeit you last months pay back to the company. Also, we reserve the right to fire any employee instead of promoting you or giving more money for experience and long service in order not to have to pay any more money. We will reconsider re-hiring long-term experienced employees (provided the last months salary is forfeited back to the company) and will take prior experience into account in hiring, but will restart wages for previous long term employees at entry level." -- Thank you, Foxconn.
So, Apple, how the iChinese 2 is working out for you? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wspKdYPQ5q4 (It's in French, but you'll probably get the point...)
economics is not a zero sum game, where someone must lose so that someone else must win. economics is a more-for-everyone game. the chinese are enjoying more prosperity than they had before. you are assuming if they weren't manufacturing iPads their life would be better. compared to the usa, indeed, their life is worse, right now. but it would be even more worse without this plant
the chinese are where the usa and great britain were in the 1800s. and they are already fighting for their rights, like workers in the west had to to enjoy protections:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/business/global/09labor.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire
the chinese will eventually become just as prosperous as the usa, eventually, if not surpassing the usa, as soon as workers start fighting for their rights. but you don't get something by not fighting for it in this world
and you don't become economically prosperous by doing nothing. and you certainly don't get to complain about not having something that someone else has because you are doing nothing while the prosperous are doing something that made them prosperous. the chinese know that, why don't you?
the end game of globalization is prosperity for everyone. of course that's not painless. but stopping globalization perpetuates inequalities, it doesn't solve them
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
People died. It's not funny,
Who gives a darn? How many baby iPads were damaged? Will they survive? How are they doing and what are their prospects for recovery?
Preliminary reports from m.i.c. gadget (an off-shore China news site, which is not subject to China goverment. censorship) say that the explosion occurred in a part of the assembly line, where the workers use a flammable dust to polish iPad screens. It is believed that a worker, who was smoking a cigarette in a prohibited area, caused the explosion. Access to the building is limited right now until the risk of secondary explosions can be minimized.
See this local article at fortune.com
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/05/21/inside-the-apple-ipad-factory/
Pretty obvious what happaned. Safety standards for the operating assembly line will need to be reviewed and enforced. As for the impact on iPad2 output remains to be seen, but preliminary reports at the Apple store speculate that wait times for iPad2 may go up 1-2 weeks. Since most of the iPad2 manufacturing was based in Chengdu, one will have to see what subsequent effect this explosion will have on manufacturing capacity.
Workplace deaths happen in every country. Over three year period one large steelworks I worked in lost four people to forklifts, three to carbon monoxide and two to a steam explosion in a great big container full of molten steel and scrap. Bad as that is the construction and mining industries have much higher death tolls.
iPad 2 - It's the bomb.
(the joke is in the title) ...but it makes one wonder. Sure they had to sign a "I will not kill myself" pledge.....but they never signed a "I will not cause an industrial accident so my family can collect the insurance" pledge.
There are 2 groups of people you can make fun of on the Internet without fear of attack. The illiterate, and the Amish.
> institutions (like business or government) it's back to biological zero-sum survival.
no, we invented institutions (u 4got 2 mention religion;-) to transcend our baser animal instincts...that we have failed to achieve perfection is no reason to give up the good fight...and wishing has never gotten anybody very far...
A few months ago there was a widely read story here (in China) that I saw poke its head above the horizon in the west as well about Chinese manufacturers complaining about Apple's requirements on them relating to iPad 2 manufacturing and worker safety. Please understand that I see people everyday at the market or (for example today at Aushan, a hypermarket) just on the street who are suffering from work related disabling injuries from burns to loss of limbs. The worker laws here are mostly non-existent, so when a manufacturer complains then it means something is bad. Why? the general rule here is that a human life in a factory is worth about 10,000 RMB (divide by @6.6 to get equivalent dollars, or @9.0 for Euros). So a major factory explosion does cost the factory something and that is what they wanted to avoid: death and disability.
They failed.
Apple, I'm sure, is very distraught about this.
Subversion of spatial scale luxury decoration ideas.
"i-died-for-an-ipad2"?
now needs 2 eye pads.