Foxconn Employee Suicide Incident

The rapid development of Foxconn has become a legend. It has been No. 1 on the list of top 200 mainland exporters for seven consecutive years, and in 2009, it climbed to the 109th spot in the Fortune 500. However, in the first half of this year, nine of its employees chose to end their young lives by jumping from buildings, which forces us to explore the heavy price behind the legend.

A worker at the massive electronics firm Foxconn’s Shenzhen plant is said to have just committed suicide by jumping from the roof of a building.  This incident is a tragedy by itself, but it is made more so by the fact that this is the ninth time that a Foxconn employee has killed himself or herself in the past year. Who will be the next?   The company must initiate a thoroughgoing analysis of life on its production lines—not just roll out more superficial, short-term fixes.