Demonstrators at the Foxconn factory yesterday, with a poster showing the company founder, who was "accused of abuses," according to the New York Times.

Sad news: Just two days after our previous report on Foxconn Technology — the Chinese “hell factory” producing Apple iPads — a New York Times story by David Barboza reports, “A 19-year-old employee was found dead Tuesday morning in what appears to have been the ninth suicide this year” at the factory. According to police reports, “a young man they identified as Li Hai had apparently jumped to his death at 6:20 a.m. Tuesday at Foxconn.” The Foxconn factory is located in Shenzhen, China.

As the Times report notes, “Nine Foxconn employees have committed suicide since late January in Shenzhen, according to the police, and two others attempted suicide but survived with serious injuries.”

While the Times reports that some “sociologists” are calling the suicides “copycat” acts, other “labor rights groups have accused Foxconn of operating military-style factories and abusing workers. They also have called some of the deaths suspicious and have asked for an independent investigation.”

According to the report,

On Tuesday, labor rights advocates staged a protest outside one of Foxconn’s campuses in Shenzhen, demanding that the company improve its management and labor conditions and pay higher wages to workers.

“From our recent research outside a Foxconn’s facility in Shenzhen, most of the workers agree that they feel stress in the production lines,” one of the labor groups, Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior, said in a statement late Tuesday. “They are not allowed to talk to each other when working. Even in the same production line, workers do not have chance to get to know their colleagues.”

Foxconn had no comment on the most recent death. Meanwhile, “China’s state-run news media also reported Tuesday that Foxconn was building tall fences at its dormitories to prevent workers from jumping to their deaths.”