Chinese Workers at iPad Factories Must Sign Pledge

You are NOT allowed to commit suicide

Factories making sought-after Apple iPads and iPhones in China are forcing staff to sign pledges not to commit suicide, an investigation has revealed.

At least 14 workers at Foxconn factories in China have killed themselves in the last 16 months as a result of horrendous working conditions.

Many more are believed to have either survived attempts or been stopped before trying at the Apple supplier's plants in Chengdu or Shenzen.

After a spate of suicides last year, managers at the factories ordered new staff to sign pledges that they would not attempt to kill themselves, according to researchers.

And they were made to promise that if they did, their families would only seek the legal minimum in damages.

An investigation of the 500,000 workers by the Centre for Research on Multinational Companies and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom) found appalling conditions in the factories.

They claimed that ...

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One reason to be thankful for not having an iPad. 

The existence of an Apple slave on the Chinese plantation sounds like that of one of the common people in Europe during the depths of the dark ages. Then, the temptation to commit suicide was so great that, as a deterrent, the church denied a suicide the right to burial in holy ground and required that the body be committed to the earth with a stake driven through the heart. 

Apple Corp. might consider the stake through the heart idea in China.