Beijing/Hong Kong
CNN Business
—
Workers at China’s largest iPhone assembly factory were seen confronting police on Wednesday, with some rioting, according to videos shared on social media.
Videos show hundreds of workers confronting law enforcement officers at a Foxconn complex in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou. In the now-blocked footage, some of the protesters could be heard complaining about their salaries and health conditions.
After a few days the footage comes Chinese state media reported More than 100,000 people have signed up to fill advertised positions as part of a major recruitment drive for Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant.
Apple
(AAPL) The assembly facility faces significant supply chain disruptions and expects iPhone 14 shipments to suffer as the key holiday shopping season begins. CNN has reached out to the company for comment on the situation at the plant.
A Covid outbreak last month forced the site to be locked down, causing some anxious factory workers to flee.
Videos of people walking from Zhengzhou It went viral on Chinese social media in November, forcing Foxconn to step up measures to repatriate its employees. The company said it quadrupled daily bonuses for workers at the plant this month to try to stem the fallout.
On Wednesday, Foxconn failed to deliver on promises of attractive bonuses and pay packages after the workers arrived to work at the plant, the video said. Several complaints have been lodged anonymously on social media sites – accusing Foxconn of changing previously advertised salary packages.
In a statement in English, Foxconn said Wednesday that “payments are always fulfilled based on contractual obligations” after some new employees hired at the Foxconn campus in Zhengzhou appealed to the company on Tuesday over the job payments.
Workers complained in videos about inadequate anti-Covid measures, saying workers who tested positive were not segregated from other workers.
Foxconn said in an English statement that there was speculation online about who the employees were Covid Positive living in the shelters of the Foxconn campus in Zhengzhou is “generally false.”
“Before new employees move in, the dormitory environment undergoes standard procedures for disinfection, and only after it passes government testing are new employees allowed to move in,” Foxconn said.
Searches for the word “Foxconn” on Chinese social media now yield few results, a sign of heavy censorship.
“Regarding violent behavior, the company will continue to communicate with employees and the government to prevent similar incidents from happening again,” Foxconn said in a statement in Chinese.
The Zhengzhou facility is the world’s largest iPhone assembly site. It typically accounts for roughly 50% to 60% of Foxconn’s global iPhone assembly capacity, according to Mirko Wojciech, global director of intelligence solutions at supply chain risk analytics provider Everstream.
Apple warned of disruption to its supply chain earlier this month, saying customers would feel the impact.
“We now expect lower iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments than we previously expected,” the tech giant said in a statement. “Customers will have to wait longer to receive their new products.”
Until last week, there was a waiting period for those models Reached 34 days According to a report by UBS, in the US.
Public frustration is growing under China’s relentless zero-covid policy, which has included strict lockdowns and travel restrictions for nearly three years before the pandemic.
Last week, that sentiment was on display as social media scenes showed Residents under lockdown in Guangzhou tore down barriers keeping them inside their homes and took to the streets in defiance of strictly enforced local orders.
— Michelle Toh, Simone McCarthy, Wayne Chang, Juliana Liu and Kathleen Magramo contributed to this report.
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