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Work resumes as iPhone 5 pressure blamed for brawl
Source: Agencies |
September 26, 2012, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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A FACTORY in north China owned by the company making Apple's new iPhone 5 resumed production yesterday after a brawl by workers highlighted tensions that labor groups say were worsened by the pressure of the new iPhone launch.
Foxconn Technology Group and police said the cause of the unrest on Sunday night was under investigation, but labor activists said the rollout of the iPhone 5 had led to longer working hours and more pressure on workers.
Foxconn and police said as many as 2,000 employees were involved in the brawl and 40 people were injured.
The new phone debuted last week in the United States and eight other markets and Apple has a three to four-week backlog of online orders.
Foxconn declined to say whether its one-day suspension of production in Taiyuan City on Monday might affect supplies. It did not respond to a request for comment on the labor groups' claims.
News reports and witnesses said the violence in Taiyuan stemmed from a confrontation between a factory worker and a guard that escalated.
One employee said the violence was fueled by workers' anger at mistreatment by Foxconn security guards and managers.
"Foxconn, some supervisors, and security guards never respect us," said the employee, who asked not to be identified. "We all have this anger toward them and they (the workers) wanted to destroy things to release this anger."
Foxconn did not respond to a request for information on the status of its investigation or whether policies at the factory might change.
The company, owned by Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, is the world's biggest assembler of consumer electronics, with about 1.2 million workers in factories in Taiyuan, the southern city of Shenzhen, Chengdu in the southwest and Zhengzhou in central China.
It makes iPhones and iPads for Apple and also assembles products for Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard.
Labor activists say the need to ramp up iPhone 5 production had increased pressure on Foxconn employees.
"Because of the launch of the iPhone 5, the workload of workers suddenly surges," said a Hong Kong group, Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior, in a report this month.
It said some employees interviewed at the Zhengzhou factory had not had a day off in the previous 30 days.
Foxconn has declined to say which products are made in each factory but another group, China Labor Watch, said the Taiyuan facility, which employs 79,000 people, is assembling the new iPhone 5.
The group, based in New York City, complained that employees suffer "verbal and physical abuse" by guards.
"These workers must be treated with respect," it said in a statement. "And both Apple and Foxconn, with billions of dollars in profits every year, have both a legal and ethical obligation to uphold the rights of these workers."
Foxconn raised minimum pay and promised in March to limit hours after an auditor hired by Apple found Foxconn employees were regularly required to work more than 60 hours a week.
That review followed a number of suicides at Foxconn facilities - about a dozen since 2010 - and an explosion at an iPad-making plant in Chengdu in May 2011 that killed four employees.
Foxconn's facilities are exceptionally large by the standards of a Chinese electronics industry in which most manufacturers employ hundreds or thousands of workers. Its flagship mainland factory in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, has 250,000 workers. The Chengdu site has 100,000 and the company has said the Zhengzhou factory might eventually employ 300,000.
Foxconn has also faced criticism in the past over the conduct of its security guards.
In 2010, Foxconn's parent company pledged that its guards would obey the law and refrain from using threats or harassment after a videotape showing several of them beating workers was circulated on the Internet.
"Workers are expected to obey their manager at all times, not to question but simply do what they are told," said Geoffrey Crothall, communications director for China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong organization that promotes employee rights in China. "That atmosphere is not conducive to a happy or contented workforce. It's a very dehumanizing way of treating workers."
Foxconn Technology Group and police said the cause of the unrest on Sunday night was under investigation, but labor activists said the rollout of the iPhone 5 had led to longer working hours and more pressure on workers.
Foxconn and police said as many as 2,000 employees were involved in the brawl and 40 people were injured.
The new phone debuted last week in the United States and eight other markets and Apple has a three to four-week backlog of online orders.
Foxconn declined to say whether its one-day suspension of production in Taiyuan City on Monday might affect supplies. It did not respond to a request for comment on the labor groups' claims.
News reports and witnesses said the violence in Taiyuan stemmed from a confrontation between a factory worker and a guard that escalated.
One employee said the violence was fueled by workers' anger at mistreatment by Foxconn security guards and managers.
"Foxconn, some supervisors, and security guards never respect us," said the employee, who asked not to be identified. "We all have this anger toward them and they (the workers) wanted to destroy things to release this anger."
Foxconn did not respond to a request for information on the status of its investigation or whether policies at the factory might change.
The company, owned by Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, is the world's biggest assembler of consumer electronics, with about 1.2 million workers in factories in Taiyuan, the southern city of Shenzhen, Chengdu in the southwest and Zhengzhou in central China.
It makes iPhones and iPads for Apple and also assembles products for Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard.
Labor activists say the need to ramp up iPhone 5 production had increased pressure on Foxconn employees.
"Because of the launch of the iPhone 5, the workload of workers suddenly surges," said a Hong Kong group, Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior, in a report this month.
It said some employees interviewed at the Zhengzhou factory had not had a day off in the previous 30 days.
Foxconn has declined to say which products are made in each factory but another group, China Labor Watch, said the Taiyuan facility, which employs 79,000 people, is assembling the new iPhone 5.
The group, based in New York City, complained that employees suffer "verbal and physical abuse" by guards.
"These workers must be treated with respect," it said in a statement. "And both Apple and Foxconn, with billions of dollars in profits every year, have both a legal and ethical obligation to uphold the rights of these workers."
Foxconn raised minimum pay and promised in March to limit hours after an auditor hired by Apple found Foxconn employees were regularly required to work more than 60 hours a week.
That review followed a number of suicides at Foxconn facilities - about a dozen since 2010 - and an explosion at an iPad-making plant in Chengdu in May 2011 that killed four employees.
Foxconn's facilities are exceptionally large by the standards of a Chinese electronics industry in which most manufacturers employ hundreds or thousands of workers. Its flagship mainland factory in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, has 250,000 workers. The Chengdu site has 100,000 and the company has said the Zhengzhou factory might eventually employ 300,000.
Foxconn has also faced criticism in the past over the conduct of its security guards.
In 2010, Foxconn's parent company pledged that its guards would obey the law and refrain from using threats or harassment after a videotape showing several of them beating workers was circulated on the Internet.
"Workers are expected to obey their manager at all times, not to question but simply do what they are told," said Geoffrey Crothall, communications director for China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong organization that promotes employee rights in China. "That atmosphere is not conducive to a happy or contented workforce. It's a very dehumanizing way of treating workers."
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