Samsung Apologizes For Workers' Leukemia 150
itwbennett writes: "In an emailed statement, Samsung offered its 'sincerest apology' for the sickness and deaths of some of its workers, vowing to compensate those affected and their families. So far there have been 26 reported victims of blood cancers who worked in Samsung's Gi-Heung and On-Yang semiconductor plants. Ten have died. Other alleged workplace-related illnesses include miscarriages, infertility, hair loss, blood disorders, kidney troubles and liver disease."
Cue typical Slashdot response (Score:2, Interesting)
"If they don't like cancer, they're free to find another job!"
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You need to add something about obamacare and hosts files.
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workers comp issue (Score:2)
workers comp issue so under workers comp you do not use your own obamacare plan.
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"Impersonate me"... Do us a favor - grow up!
Dear hypocrite,
Please recognise that this is the feeling a lot of us experience when reading your puerile drivel. You, as a fifty-something-year-old man should be truly ashamed of yourself and your antisocial behaviour. But you HAVE no shame, because you're too busy being so very, very impressed with yourself.
Clue: Don't mess with your BETTERS then (in myself))... apk
Listen up, you arrogant cunt: you are NOBODY'S better. You are the sock-puppeteer, the liar, the crap-flooder, the hypocrite, the off-topic stalker, the troll and above all the laughing-stock clown of
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You say "Apple Foxconn employees", as if Apple was the only Foxconn client and Samsung didn't do the exact same thing.
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I was replying to the troll part of the sarcasm.
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"If they don't like cancer, they're free to find another job!"
Don't forget "If you like your cancer, you can keep your cancer"
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In gp's imagined libertarian dystopia, where he disasterbates regularly, one presumes there are no journalists to loudly ask people why they continue to buy product X when that company's workers die an inordinately large amount of time, and presumably there are no prosecutors to prosecute managers that order unaware people to their deaths for murder.
I'll risk the asinine belief "Hey, do it or lose your job". I just wish we could see it, because they'd probably be about 30 years ahead of us with net far few
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People have tried to make publicity campaigns to discourage companies from doing certain things. Some of them have been successful, in that companies at least give lip service to their cause. However, these tend to overload consumers real fast, and discourage them from any sort of boycott. For one or two causes, they can have some effect. However, worker cancers tend to rank below rainforest destruction and conflict minerals in the activists' minds.
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Where in the article does it say that Samsung caused the cancer?
So they apologized for it. Companies apologize for things that aren't their fault all the time. That's not a confession of guilt, that's a public relations ploy, and is solely based on whether people blame them for causing cancer, not whether they really caused any cancer.
Besides, if you read the apology carefully, it's not even worded as a confession. It doesn't say 'we apologize for giving people cancer'. They're just apologizing for makin
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Well, that is true. Don't like the current working situation, leave.
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This is why North Korea is Best Korea (Score:1)
Yes?
"I'm sorry I caused all that cancer." (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Only apologies? (Score:1, Flamebait)
Yeah don't offer any kind of financial assistance. That shit's expensive.
Re:Only apologies? (Score:4, Informative)
Addendum: OK, TFA says Samsung will compensate the families. Seems like something that should have been in TFS.
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In an emailed statement, Samsung offered its 'sincerest apology' for the sickness and deaths of some of its workers, vowing to compensate those affected and their families.
First sentence of the summary.
First.
Sentence.
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vowing to compensate those affected and their families.
Could you not even finish reading the first sentence of the summary?
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Yes, his not reading the summary was precious. As is your sig in this story.
Samsung stealing again (Score:1)
As a Canadian, I am deeply offended by the fact that Samsung apologized to its workers without buying genuine Canadian apologies first.
And as a Canadian, I apologize for this lame attempt at a joke.
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Didn't you know? There's a world shortage of "Saw-ree" right now.
Wouldn't it be cheaper... (Score:2)
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Cheaper? It hasn't cost them any money yet.
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In the long-term, yes, but shareholders only care about the current quarter's bottom line.
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I'm curious (Score:4, Interesting)
How was it contracted?
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Isn't it a bit ironic (Score:5, Interesting)
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Yep you did. Solar for some is a religion and not a technology. Too bad really since it is useful but not as they used to say a "golden bullet".
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In James Bond it is a golden bullet moron... Really get over it...
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Just pointing out the irony.
Please continue explaining, because I believe you'll have a hard time:
irony
noun
the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
Eg: "Clear as mud"
a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result.
plural noun: ironies
Eg: Ronald Reagan getting shot due to bullet ricocheting off his bullet-proof car
a literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character's words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.
E.g: Pick a random Shakespeare play
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Whatever you say, Alanis. In the same way that electric cars became bad the first time a driver ran over someone's dog in a Tesla.
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never a death attributed to coal! sooo clean!
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there are less deaths caused by digging other natural substances out of the ground?
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Is this post a joke? Samsung was fighting the workers and denying there were any problems for more than 7 years and some of the workers did die from the cancer before owning up to it.
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It's still clean energy. Humans are carbon-neutral.
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Yeah, when you don't give a shit about safety (as like, beyond the regulations, which are a bare minimum for preventing you from dying *on the spot*), stuff like this tends to happen in a factory handling and/or producing chemicals. The company I work for is in the same business, but never heard of any similar incidents in my workplace.
Dear workers, (Score:1)
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As opposed to denying any problems for more than 7 years and letting a number of the affected workers die of the cancer they got from the job? Yeah, Samsung was ever so benevolent...
fuckyourshittysubjectcuntcuntcunt (Score:1)
I'm installing Samsung printer drivers now. I think I know where the leukemia comes from...
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And yet, their employees do not jump off the factory roofs.
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And yet, their employees do not jump off the factory roofs.
Well, this is the first article ever on Slashdot about Samsung killing its employees. (It was reported elsewhere, but on Slashdot I'm generally surprised about the headline calling them "Samsung" and not "Apple supplier"). Numbers about other deaths at Samsung factories haven't been reported. Seems unlikely that their employees die from cancer and are invulnerable to accidents. Numbers of suicides haven't been reported. Seems unlikely that there aren't any, but reporters in South Korea trying to report nega
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Nice try, but the situation at Foxconn factories where Apple products are made is not really comparable. This is about Samsung's factories in SK, where standards are generally high and wages quite reasonable. Workers don't live at the factories, and aren't forced to do insane shift patterns. They don't use child or unpaid "intern" labour.
What happened here is that they had all the safety equipment and protection in place, but there was pressure from management to disable it in order to keep production up. O
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If the plant is killing them slowly with leukaemia, maybe they'd be better off if they did?
Seriously though, the suicide rate at Apple contracted Foxconn plants was blown way out of proportion. The suicide rate at the plants was LOWER than in the general population. Try to have a little perspective. People commit suicide all the time. It's tragic, and doesn't usually have anything to do with the one specific job they were working at the time. As far as I know, Foxconn employees were never barred from quitti
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I suggest you follow your own advise. The population at large includes many groups that have a high suicide risk. You should be comparing against employees at other firms; IIRC someone did that and they found on that measure that the suicide levels at Foxconn were well above standard but I can't be arsed hunting out a source so feel free to take with a hefty pinch of salt.
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I disagree that using other factories is somehow a better measure. The conditions that lead to suicide are multi-faceted, and a job is only going to be part of the equation, one way or another. The population at large is a good baseline--is a worker's life in one of these factory's better or worse than the general populace, all things be being equal? If the suicide rate deviates strongly above that baseline, then there's probably a fundamental problem with the factory. If the rate is no higher, than you're
Good for them (Score:1)
While I don't know the backstory, I applaud Samsung for stepping up and taking responsibility for the problem and compensating the workers who have suffered. SamSung over the years has struck me as a responsible company over and over, for multiple diverse reasons. This is just another to ad to the list.
A company cannot help that there are problems, but it can help by trying to do the right thing afterwards, and trying not to be evil.
I note that a number of the slashdot comments are cynical to the extreme, b
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They only "stepped up" after 7+ years of workers and their families fighting Samsung who was denying there were any problems at the plant. What have they done to deserve praise? That they did something nearly a decade after they should have?
Re:Good for them (Score:4, Insightful)
A company cannot help that there are problems, but it can help by trying to do the right thing afterwards, and trying not to be evil.
It's too easy to be cynical while living in the 1 percent of the worlds wealth.
Not sure if troll....
A company can most certainly adhere to basic safety standards instead of sacrificing a bunch of lives for profit in places where the safety standards are not legally mandated.
In this particular case, an organization owned and operated by a bunch of 1%ers wrecked the lives of numerous poverty-stricken workers and their families through gross negligence. And they are unlikely to suffer impactful financial consequences as a result.
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And denied that there was anything wrong for nearly a decade. It's a farce that anyone would applaud them for this.
Re:Good for them (Score:4, Informative)
Samsung is the largest of 5 companies that control 90% of the SK economy. Most of the SK govt is literally on their payroll. Look up the term "Chaebol". In the SK you don't even /talk/ about Samsung because if anything you say might be perceived as negative you're basically unable to find a job for the rest of your life.
They're about as monstrous and amoral as a company can get.. But it's tolerated because the SK economy has such rapid growth. The moment that's over shit is going to hit the fan.
Horrible! (Score:1)
Also IBM and Leukemia: Fabs vs. Watson (Score:4, Informative)
From a law firm (biased, perhaps): http://consumerjusticegroup.co... [consumerjusticegroup.com]
"Workers at IBM and at other microchip fabs, or "fabrication plants," are exposed to benzene and other toxic carcinogens that can cause birth defects, leukemia, and other serious, debilitating medical conditions. While "bunny suits" prevent dust, hair, and skin cells from coming into contact with microchips, too often not enough is done in microchip factories to prevent the person inside the suit from breathing dangerous cancer-causing chemicals like benzene and formaldehyde while at the workplace. Since 2000, IBM has faced lawsuits from more than 250 former microchip plant employees. And since 2000, IBM has worked to suppress scientific findings showing the increase of cancer incidences in their microchip plant workers."
And also: ... "We found out that IBM had two faces in this community," said Matt LaTessa, a barber whose shop is on Monroe Street in The Plume. "One was a nice face, beautiful, big buildings and a lot of jobs. But underneath they were rotten. They were poisoning us." ..."
"Life In The Plume: IBM's Pollution Haunts a Village"
http://www.syracuse.com/specia... [syracuse.com]
"But for much of its history, Big Blue routinely polluted its birthplace. Tons of industrial solvents used to clean computer parts were dumped down drains or leached from leaky pipes into the ground for years before environmental rules required that such "spills" be reported. In 2002, scientists discovered the ground was exacting its revenge: The large underground chemical plume was releasing gases into homes and offices in a 350-acre swath south of the plant. The main chemical was a liquid cleaning agent called trichloroethylene, or TCE, that has been linked to cancer and other illnesses. IBM took responsibility and launched a multimillion-dollar cleanup. At the same time, the company announced plans to sell the plant and to ship many jobs overseas.
Versus:
"MD Anderson Taps IBM Watson to Power "Moon Shots" Mission Aimed at Ending Cancer, Starting with Leukemia"
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us... [ibm.com]
"MD Anderson's Oncology Expert Advisor powered by IBM Watson is designed to integrate the knowledge of MD Anderson's clinicians and researchers, and to advance the cancer center's goal of treating patients with the most effective, safe and evidence-based standard of care available. Starting with the fight against Leukemia, MD Anderson's Oncology Expert Advisor is expected to help MD Anderson clinicians develop, observe and fine-tune treatment plans for patients, while helping them recognize adverse events that may occur throughout the care continuum. The cognitive-powered technology is also expected to help researchers advance novel discoveries."
Although, consider:
"Eat For Health - The Anti-Cancer Diet"
https://www.drfuhrman.com/libr... [drfuhrman.com]
Also Vitamin D and iodine can help prevent cancer...
When I worked at IBM Watson as a software developer, part of that time my workstation was put in windowless old labs that has been used for who knows what... To his credit, my supervisor tried really hard to make sure the second lab had been fully renovated...
Someone from Switzerland who saw other windowless offices at Watson said all that would be illegal in Switzerland, to have people working in windowless rooms... Not sure what the Swiss lawas are on chemical exposure... Back then was when I thought a lot about how all fabs and related labs should be 100% roboticized on the production floor. Bunny suits in that sense are such a quaint 20th century idea...
And this means what, exactly? (Score:2)
How many employees work at these plants? How do the per-capita rates of these illnesses compare to the rates for those not employed by Samsung? "26 workers contracted leukemia!" sounds bad, but if the rates are commensurate with the overall population then Samsung probably isn't at fault.
(Please note that I'm bitching about shoddy reporting, not trying to be an industry apologist.)
Advice to help Chairman Lee Kun-hee (Score:2)
who just had a heart attack: http://www.forbes.com/sites/go... [forbes.com]
"The man credited with turning Samsung into one of the world's most powerful companies is in recovery after suffering a heart attack on Saturday night. In an official statement Samsung confirmed Chairman Lee Kun-hee, 72, was rushed to hospital and treated with CPR. Both the company and hospital officials have declined to say how long he is expected to be hospitalised."
We have a Samsung SSD, a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Tablet, and quite a few Samsu
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Get rid of all these soulless mongrels.
I'm totally for that, at least from where I (geographically) sit.
Bit hard on the rest of the countryside though, using nuclear weapons for such small targets as the White House and the Pentagon? ;-)