FOXCONN’s Main Assembly-Factory Sees Violent Protests From Staff Due to COVID-19 Policy
According to reports, the Apple manufacturing partner made the offer on Wednesday via a text message from its human resources division asking staff to “please return to your dormitories” and vowing to uphold wage agreements.
Video from Foxconn’s main iPhone assembly factory in Zhengzhou, China, shows violent altercations between iPhone employees and police. Workers claim that the corporation is failing to adequately distinguish diseased and uninfected personnel, that promised incentives have not been paid, and that there is not enough food or medical supplies for the workers confined inside the facility.
Conflicts between Foxconn employees and others wearing white suits are shown in the video footage. The bulk of stories identify the men in white suits as police officers, however, others claim the men are Foxconn security. It is well known that riot police as well as armed police were sent to the area.
These individuals may be seen kicking and stomping on someone who is lying on the ground in one video footage. In another, protesters are gathered around a police vehicle. In one film, wounded individuals are seen in an ambulance. In other videos, employees and cops can be seen shoving and shoving one other while also using batons.
Background Narrative:
In Zhengzhou, commonly known locally as iPhone City, Foxconn’s largest iPhone manufacturing factory had a COVID-19 epidemic. Although this resulted in even stricter closed-loop manufacturing requirements, the corporation at the time declared that the problem was under control. Closed canteens and extremely strict restrictions on where employees may walk within the building were part of this. Workers soon began to complain that there wasn’t enough food and medicine and that diseases were spreading throughout the facility. Many of them decided to leave the facility and go back to their hometowns.
When bonuses failed to convince employees to remain, Foxconn boosted them up to 10 times their original value. The factory was put under an even stricter lockdown as infections kept spreading.
In one video, irate workers surrounded a silent, downcast manager in a conference room to voice grievances and question their Covid test results. It wasn’t clear when the meeting took place.
“I’m really scared about this place, we all could be Covid positive now”.
Foxconn refuted accusations of unpaid incentives and said that it will meet all of its financial responsibilities to employees. The company also stated that it was working with personnel and local government authorities to stop additional acts of violence. Additionally, it refuted assertions made by fresh recruits that they were living in dorms alongside employees who had previously tested positive for COVID-19.
The population’s tolerance levels have reached a dead end, and the Chinese government will eventually need to reconsider its COVID-19 approach in light of similar violent incidents occurring at other plants and in other towns.
