Another Foxconn worker meets his maker

Flying tonight

Another worker at a Foxconn factory in China fell to a grisly end yesterday, apparently avoiding the nets the company said it would install to catch flying workers.

State news organ Xinhua said it had learned of the fatality through the Shenzhen municipal government. It not yet clear whether the worker jumped, was pushed or tripped over a pile of iPhone innards. But given that more than a dozen workers have taken the leap voluntarily this year so far, suicide is the favoured suggestion at the moment.

Foxconn famously uses much-abused Chinese workers to make gadgetry for the likes of  Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard on the cheap. Boss of the Taiwanese outfit came up with various ruses to keep his workers from topping themselves, from installing nets around factories in which to catch the blighters, to offering to increase pay to something like a living wage.

Steve Jobs famously informed the world that Foxconn factories weren't sweat shops. He knew this because he has an all-seeing eye out back, behind a Wizard-of-Oz-like curtain.