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    Foxconn suicide threat resolved, 45 workers resign

    Foxconn suicide threat resolved, 45 workers resign

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    An eight-hour, 150-person mass suicide threat was averted at Foxconn's Wuhan production facility. Foxconn makes products for many of the tech world's top companies.

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    A mass suicide threat was successfully averted at Foxconn's Wuhan production plant, reports The New York Times. About 150 of the 32,000 employees staged an eight-hour standoff with the company's management on Thursday by threatening to jump off a roof, and while details of the agreement haven't been made public, all but 45 of the plant's employees have returned to work.

    Foxconn gained notoriety in 2010 after several employees committed suicide to draw attention to poor working conditions. The company makes many of the technology world's top-selling products, including the iPhone, Xbox, and Kindle, and since the 2010 incidents many of its partners have publicly stated commitments to more oversight of conditions at its factories.

    Microsoft's own investigation concluded that the dispute was unrelated to working conditions, and instead stemmed from "staffing assignments and transfer policies." However, an anonymous Foxconn employee reported to The New York Times that the dispute actually stems from the company failing to deliver on a promised wage increase for workers transferring from the company's larger Shenzhen campus to Wuhan, where working conditions are more difficult.