According to International Business Times, China Labor Watch (CLW)—an organization for Chinese workers’ rights that is based in the US—reports that a worker died on January 6 after jumping off of a building at a Foxconn iPhone factory Zhengzhou, China.
The labor organization also posted video footage of the scene and says that the man, 31-year-old Li Min, worked at Foxconn through an agency for about two months before his death.
As CLW makes clear, the reasons for Min’s suicide are unknown, but this is far from the first suicide at a Foxconn plant that produces Apple products. In 2009, International Business Times reported that a Foxconn employee “committed suicide after he was reportedly beaten up by security guards for losing a prototype iPhone.” An estimated 14 people working at Foxconn committed suicide in 2010, and there were accusations of a “sweatshop environment.” In a New York Times piece that year, a Foxconn executive commented, “Maybe this spate of suicides will also serve us as a wake-up call […] We realize we must do a better job.”
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