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A file photo of workers on an assembly line at a Foxconn plant in Shenzhen, China. Kin Cheung/AP

Apple supplier Foxconn shuts plant after 2,000-worker brawl

40 people were injured after a “personal dispute” among workers escalated into a larger dispute.

A MAJOR BRAWL at a Chinese manufacturing plant operated by Foxconn, which assembles products for Apple and other tech firms, involved some 2,000 workers and left around 40 people injured, its parent company Hon Hai said today.

The incident happened at around 11pm local time yesterday (4pm Irish time) in a privately-managed dormitory for Foxconn workers at a factory in Taiyuan in northern China, Hon Hai said in a statement.

It said the incident started “as a personal dispute between several employees” and that local police brought the situation under control at around 3:00 am Monday morning.

“The cause of this dispute is under investigation by local authorities and we are working closely with them in this process, but it appears not to have been work-related,” it said.

Hon Hai spokesman Simon Hsing told AFP he could not confirm if the Taiyuan facility was shut in the wake of the brawl, though it has been widely reported that production was halted for some time.

The Taiyuan plant employs 79,000 workers and manufactures automobile electronic components, consumer electronic components and precision moldings.

Foxconn is the world’s largest maker of computer components and assembles products for Apple, Sony and Nokia. It employs about one million workers in China, roughly half of them based in its main facility in Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong.

The company has come under the spotlight after suicides and labour unrest at its Chinese plants since 2010, which activists have blamed on tough working conditions.

- © AFP, 2012

Read: Investigation finds ‘significant issues’ at Apple manufacturer’s factories

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    Mute Albert McEinstein
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:09 AM

    “Privately managed dormitory”…..hmmm… what a beautiful euphemism for a sweatshop.

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    Mute Mick Byrne
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:11 AM

    You are too kind sounds to me like a Gulag

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    Mute The Baxter
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:40 AM

    Gulags they never went away or closed down….

    34
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    Mute Dec Kavanagh
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:07 AM

    Poor sods. Worked to the bone with little or no rights.. No wonder they cracked under that pressure.

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    Mute Rob Hunt
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:10 AM

    While I fully agree with your sentiments it did say it was a dispute between workers rather than workers vs management…

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    Mute Jason Culligan
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:31 AM

    Rob, while it said in the article it began as a personal dispute two people arguing in an office space in Dublin doesn’t degenerate into an all-out brawl that leaves 40 injured. Some serious questions need to be asked about the ethics of this.

    Products which are currently made in China among other low income countries offer us the consumer no financial benefit. All this leads to is large companies who can afford massive marketing bills. Yet we accept that as a society. I think every one of us shares a part of the blame for what happened at this plant because we all blindly accept it.

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    Mute Partysauras Rex
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    Sep 24th 2012, 9:26 AM

    Jason, you would have to be incredibly naive to think the consumer get’s no financial benefit from the manufacture of goods in China. If these goods were produced in Europe, the US or similar their costs would be considerably higher than they are now, and you can guarantee that would be passed on to the consumer. It was estimated that the likes of the iPhone, Samsung Galaxy S, etc would need to be priced in the region of €1.000 to make it worth the companies while to manufacture those devices in the west.

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    Mute Jim Brady
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    Sep 24th 2012, 10:01 AM

    Interesting partysaurus, how your largely factual comment is difficult to disagree with. And yet so many red thumbs. A few cases of wishful thinking I fear.

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    Mute A O'Brien
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    Sep 24th 2012, 10:48 AM

    @partysaurusrex. Whilst I agree entirely with your post such a situation might help alleviate our obsession with constantly upgrading gadgets long before it is necessary to do so. At the same time providing better conditions to workers whether they be in the West or the East. An added bonus would be a reduction in the electronic waste we are currrntly generating en masse.

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    Mute Barry O'Brien
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    Sep 24th 2012, 10:50 AM

    @partysaurusrex If they were produced in the US/Europe at a higher cost then the manufacturers would just have to take a profit hit because there would f*** all sales at those kind of prices. Currently the reason why China is so popular for manufacturing is not because it saves the consumer money but because it gains more profit for the manufacturer.

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    Mute Jason Culligan
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    Sep 24th 2012, 3:16 PM

    Partysauras, I study an international business course which includes topics such as outsourcing and the economic advantages and disadvantages. Most companies could easily manufacture in Europe while still charging the same amount. How do you think sports stars earn so much money? Because clothing brands charge the same amount for their clothes while reducing their costs to about a quarter of what they would be here. So they have millions to spend on sponsorships while still making record profits.

    Funny how ridiculous wages in sports pretty much coincides with the push to produce in China. Or how about Apple having massive sums of cash in their accounts?

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    Mute Mike Hall
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    Sep 24th 2012, 7:41 PM

    Well Dec, it looks like the thrust of your comment is correct.

    Channel 4 News have some witness reports & mobile phone footage. The violence was not a ‘personal dispute’ but directed against the company following the beating up of an employee (around the dormitory area) by a company security guard. Apparently 5,000 police in riot gear were brought in to stop workers trashing the factory.

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    Mute Shane Kitt
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:26 AM

    Take everything that comes out of China with a pinch of salt. That could have been a protest gone awry and we’d never know. Sadly because China is so productive the world turns a blind eye to the human and workers rights violations going on there every day.

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    Mute Barry O'Brien
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    Sep 24th 2012, 10:56 AM

    According to /. it was over security guards beating up a worker:
    http://apple.slashdot.org/story/12/09/24/0147200/riot-breaks-out-at-foxconn

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    Mute mattoid
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:10 AM

    A company that employs a million workers, and a single plant employing 79,000! Mind blowing!
    Anyone know the latest figure for how many people are in employment in the whole of Ireland?

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    Mute Steve Wright
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:18 AM

    Was it not about 1.4 million? Seem to remember that figure from an article last week sometime.

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    Mute Neil McAuley
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    Sep 24th 2012, 10:28 AM

    There are factories in highly industrialised western nations that also employ many thousands of workers. The whole of Ireland has the population of a medium sized Chinese city, so things there operate on a completely different scale. Remember China has 1.4 billion residents.

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    Mute mattoid
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    Sep 24th 2012, 10:34 AM

    The fact that it is on a completely different scale was precisely my point.

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    Mute Barry O'Brien
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    Sep 24th 2012, 10:53 AM

    If I’m not mistaken, their biggest plant in China employs over 250,000 people. It has it’s own internal transport system, shopping areas, apartment blocks for employees, etc. It’s a factory that is a city.

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    Mute Datalore
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:02 AM

    Wow.

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    Mute fitszenpatrik
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:55 AM

    It all started when one employee said he’d rather be a slave for Samsung than apple and that iOS 6 sucks, android rules.

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    Mute Biggins31
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:26 AM

    Pack the likes of Sardines in a can and eventually with those conditions, bad pay, long hours and heated state – something got to blow.

    Apple are NOT the only ones that use the Foxconn area however, others including Microsoft, also use the production zone/staff there.
    …And I say that NOT as a fan of Apple (who’s stuff I wouldn’t touch with a barge-pole anyway).

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    Mute Emmet Purcell
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    Sep 24th 2012, 9:27 AM

    Bad pay? A Foxconn’s monthly salary is nearly twice the Chinese average industrial wage http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/05/28/apples-foxconn-to-double-wages-again/.

    AFP have no idea what caused the brawl and to link Apple into the headline is disengenuous and tabloidy, especially when the company is only featured in the article once, with the line “Apple, Sony and Nokia”.

    I’d love to know how many bleeding hearts left comments here from their ‘fair trade’ smartphones – which were of course built by ethically-conscious developers in first world countries at over 3x the price of Apple/Samsung/Microsoft products, right?

    Obviously some of the stories that come out of Foxconn and worker’s rights are troubling but there are far more worrying things happening in that country than 2,000 well-paid workers having a brawl. If AFP couldn’t link a story like that it to western consumer devices then it wouldn’t be read by anyone.

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    Mute Joseph Bosh
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    Sep 24th 2012, 10:36 AM

    People travel by train for days just to queue up for another 2/3 days just for the opportunity to work at Foxconn. And have you ever seen the amenities they provide for staff? As for the privately managed accommodation, it is just that accommodation. It’s not compulsory, you don’t HAVE to live there.

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    Mute Paddy Rodgers
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    Sep 24th 2012, 10:40 AM

    Biggins

    You wouldn’t touch Apple products with a barge pole you say. Is that because you believe them inferior or you can’t afford them.
    From a technical perspective I find them outstanding and I use them across the entire range wit IPad iPod iPhone and desk top.

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    Mute Biggins31
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    Sep 24th 2012, 12:14 PM

    I personally avoid Apple not because I hate their phones (I don’t – they DO make good phones).
    I avoid Apple because I’m unhappy about the methods in which they operate world-wide, their condescending attitude towards competition and customers.
    I avoid Apple because I’m unhappy about the way they make user rights restricted when possible at every turn, be this by DRM or by using a socket that forces others to only avail of their pricey (another issue) more limited range – or sometimes no sockets/port at all to allow direct access to put stuff on independently.

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    Mute James Stapleton
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:59 AM

    Surely a ‘Fair trade’ products in the electronics industry would be a good idea.

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    Mute Pani
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    Sep 24th 2012, 9:24 AM

    Apple = biggest tech company in the world. They didn’t get to where they are by having strong ethical procedures. And even if they did Bring it in now, apple don’t own Foxconn, they can always distance themselves from any scandals. Apple hired the fair labor association to audit Foxconn earlier this year which meant yet they had reservations about them. Still didn’t stop the launch dates of their new products so its all good on their side. Conscience salved and profits up. 40% of the worlds tech is made by them, hon hai,so don’t expect any big changes soon.

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    Mute Emmet Purcell
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    Sep 24th 2012, 9:36 AM

    Actually it would be a terrible, loss-making business venture in the fastest moving, most competitive industry in the world, which is why it hasn’t happened.

    No giggling at the back but Apple actually joined the Fair Labor Association in January of this year, not that it calls for anything more than “greater transparency” in supply chains: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/apple-joins-fair-labor-association-137285303.html.

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    Mute Pani
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:28 AM

    Apparently the argument started over breakfast and the lack of food. So there was 79000 people in one place arguing over who gets a cup. Sounds like Croke park.

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    Mute Pierce2020
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    Sep 24th 2012, 9:02 AM

    A couple of years ago Foxconn employees were throwing themselves off the roof of the factory just so their families would get the $20,000 death in service benefit. Really sad.

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    Mute Emmet Purcell
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    Sep 24th 2012, 9:47 AM

    Do you know their intentions behind the suicide for a fact? It seems that for such a harrowing subject as suicide it would be insensitive to chalk every single employee’s motive down to one reason, no?

    One person at Foxconn has committed suicide this year and four took their life last year – in an organisation that in 2011 had approximately 1.2 million workers.

    Even in 2010 – when there was 14 suicides – the rate of suicide was tiny compared to the country’s average rate of 20 deaths per 100,000 persons – which would be around 240 for the same number of Foxconn workers.

    So if the national average for 1.2 million Chinese people would be 240 suicides and in nine months only one worker has committed suicide out of 1.2 million workers, working conditions must have improved substantially, nevermind the doubling of their wages a few months ago.

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    Mute Partysauras Rex
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    Sep 24th 2012, 10:00 AM

    Suicide rates within Foxconn are less than they are in Ireland. Imagine how shit conditions over here must be!

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    Mute Will
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:11 AM

    “Brawl”, my arse.

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    Mute Racso Yhporb
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:17 AM

    Surely they meant well-mannered intellectual debate.

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    Mute Paul McDonnell
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:44 AM

    Can you imagine how long it’ll take HR to process this?

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    Mute Wayne Yore
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    Sep 24th 2012, 8:50 AM

    79,000 workers , that’s why they have a dorm, be time to go home if yer at the end of the queue on the way in …

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    Mute Shanners
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    Sep 24th 2012, 9:32 AM

    Gotta love the journal comments, one thread has people up in arms over the prospect of forgiving Chris brown while this one has people making jokes about the working conditions of 79,000 Chinese lads.

    “the death of one is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic” Nietzsche

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    Mute Paul Mallon
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    Sep 24th 2012, 10:23 AM

    Why have “Apple” in the title here?? Everyone know’s who Foxconn is. They make EVERYTHING, not just Apple stuff.
    Their major customers according to wikipedia:

    Acer Inc. (Taiwan)
    Amazon.com (United States)
    Apple Inc. (United States)
    Cisco (United States)
    Dell (United States)
    Hewlett-Packard (United States)
    Intel (United States)
    Microsoft (United States)
    Motorola Mobility (United States)
    Nintendo (Japan)
    Nokia (Finland)
    Sony (Japan)
    Toshiba (Japan)
    Vizio (United States)

    12
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    Mute Michael Gazda
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    Sep 24th 2012, 10:34 AM

    I was just going to post about that. Foxconn makes parts big and small that find there way into most electronics directly or through suppliers. So before you think this is about Apple, the fact is if you have used the Internet to read this you have almost certainly interacted with a Foxconn product and your usage has been less expensive because of it.

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    Mute Brian Daly
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    Sep 24th 2012, 2:34 PM

    Apple should absolutely be fingered here! Why? They are apparently (one of) the worlds most valuable companies , huge brand awareness and you have to look at how they portray themselves as a lighthouse brand. In reality, the huge profits are built on the backs of cheap labour in China in conditions that no Western iPhone wielding person would like to find themselves in. Yes, the other companies are no different but they don’t have the stature Apple enjoys.

    Years ago, Nike bore the brunt of the “sweatshop” allegations in the footware industry because they were the biggest brand. It put pressure on them to make changes. Which they did. Apple are in a position as a leader to also make changes – and they should do. It doesn’t stop them being innovative (they were innovative when the manufactured in California) but it will reduce the super-profits.

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    Mute louise
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    Sep 24th 2012, 9:00 AM

    Sent from my iPhone

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    Mute Jill :D
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    Sep 24th 2012, 10:11 AM

    Working at 11pm at night. If those workers were paid fair wages or the us/eu minimum wage then iphone would cost well over a grand. This is why I hate myself for owing an ipod. We shouldn’t support companies like this. Apple factories have suicide nets installed for God sake.

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    Mute Jack Bowden
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    Sep 24th 2012, 10:00 PM

    They weren’t working at the time. They were in their dorms although I’m sure the factory runs 24/7.

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    Mute Lukek
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    Sep 24th 2012, 10:19 AM

    The cost of iphone parts is approx $150. Apple makes 600-700 out of it. Thats what i call globalisation. The exploitation of poor

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    Mute Jack Daniels
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    Sep 24th 2012, 11:43 AM

    Who owns Apple !

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    Mute Colie
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    Sep 24th 2012, 7:52 PM

    Could it be that this fight broke out because some of the security staff were supporting Mayo and did not like how the All Ireland was going?

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    Mute Peter McKenna
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    Sep 24th 2012, 5:36 PM

    They were fighting over which is better — the iPhone 5 or the Samsung Galaxy S3.

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    Mute Denis Gallagher
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    Sep 24th 2012, 9:53 AM

    Hard to comprehend 79000 people employed its always difficult to manage numbers like that. At the end of the day its all about cheap labour and profits and we all buy into it . Denis

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    Mute teamdave™
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    Sep 24th 2012, 11:11 AM

    2,000?!!! sounds like one of those old kung fu movies

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    Mute Declan Noonan
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    Sep 24th 2012, 11:30 AM

    And there are no brawls in Ireland?

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