Violent protests erupt at Foxconn iPhone factory in China. Video reportedly shows Foxconn workers clashing with security in hazmat suits over what seems to be wages, COVID restrictions, and also poor food rations.
Violent Protests Erupt At Foxconn iPhone Factory in China
Employees at the biggest Apple iPhone plant in China clashed with police and security personnel in a protest that started on Tuesday night and then lasted into Wednesday. Mounting tensions over restrictions intended to suppress a COVID-19 outbreak immediately led to unrest at the campus situated in Zhengzhou.
Over 100 workers at the Foxconn plant were seen to be leaving their dormitories and then pushing past outnumbered guards in videos which is sent by eyewitnesses to Bloomberg. One very clip showed several people wearing what appeared to be white haz-mat suits striking a man on the ground with sticks, while another video showed people charging through barricades as onlookers at the scene chant “fight, fight!”
The Reason for the Protest
The protest is said to erupt overnight over unpaid wages and fear of an infectious outbreak at the plant, a witness revealed. And by Wednesday morning, thousands of employees rallied outside the dorms to face off against the security teams of the plant, as per Associated Press. Many workers were injured in the melee just before the order was restored by the police. The videos, which were broadcast live on the Kuaishou short video platform, couldn’t be verified immediately by CNET and other major news outlets.
Foxconn, which employs about 200,000 people, is Apple’s biggest iPhone maker, manufacturing about 70% of iPhone shipments worldwide.
The Reported Violence Underscores the Growing Tension at the Zhengzhou Plant
The said violence underscores the growing tension at the Zhengzhou plant ever since the latest lockdown started in October. Many workers have left the plant in recent weeks over frustrations in regards to how the outbreak was handled as well as insufficient food rations.
What Foxconn Has To Say about the Incident
Foxconn in a statement on its website denied that employees who tested positive for COVID-19 have been staying in its onsite dormitories. The company claimed also that “allowance has always been fulfilled” in regard to paying employee contracts. Representatives of Apple and Foxconn did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
