Hong Kong | Workers have staged a mass exodus from Apple’s largest iPhone factory in China, seeking to escape from COVID-19 measures that have left many of the thousands of workers suffering with insufficient living conditions.
The huge shopping complex in Zhengzhou City’s central Henan province is the newest production hub hampered by President Xi Jinping’s strict zero-COVID policies.
In this video photo, other people with suitcases and bags are seen leaving a Foxconn compound in Zhengzhou.
Foxconn, Apple’s Taiwan-based supplier, recently has about 200,000 employees at its Zhengzhou complex and did not disclose the number of other people inflamed at the plant, but said Sunday that this would not stop staff from leaving.
Videos and images flooded Chinese social media platforms showing people, Foxconn workers, climbing fences and carrying their belongings on the road.
They also represented citizens providing food and shelter to some of those leaving. The exodus came after the situation at the factory began to deteriorate, with little food and reports of staff locked in their dormitories for quarantine.
Tensions at Zhengzhou factory underscore the economic and social prices of M’s 0 COVID policy. Xi, a rigorously controlled formula of mass lockdowns and quarantine that has provoked developing resentment. It also shows the potential threat to China’s global origin chains and products. approach, which calls for lockdowns, industrial restrictions and mass campaigns when a single case of COVID-19 appears.
Factory and service activity in China in October, according to information released on Monday, with signs that things may get worse in the coming months as the government sticks to COVID controls.
The official index of production purchasing managers and the non-production indicator, which measures structure and activity, fell on the month to 49. 2 and 48. 7, respectively, according to economists’ expectations. A reading below 50 indicates a contraction in activity, while any value above suggests an expansion.
Foxconn said on Sunday that the scenario was tightening and that it could simply coordinate backup production with other factories in China to lessen the potential impact. Its shares fell 2. 4% on Monday in Taipei.
COVID-19 issues may reduce iPhone production at the Zhengzhou factory by as much as 30 percent in November, a user with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday, declining to be identified.
The local government was rushing to organize buses to take workers who had left the factory to a centralized quarantine. Foxconn, in collaboration with the local government, has also organized buses for workers returning home.
Foxconn, however, has also issued notices to its employees, pledging to ensure the safety, valid rights and source of income of those who wish to stay, according to a WeChat published Sunday by the Zhengzhou city government.
Discontent is simmering at the plant, where the emergence of COVID-19 cases has seen a “closed-loop” system enter. . “
At one point, only production line staff received boxes of food, and other people inflamed or afraid to leave their dormitories received more basic dishes like bread and instant noodles, Bloomberg News reported.
Apple CEO Tim Cook visits the iPhone line at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory in 2012. Ap
It is known how many employees were allowed to leave Foxconn. The company hires many transient employees from neighboring regions to tie electronics together, adding Apple’s newest iPhone 14 devices.
Closed loops allow businesses to remain operationally closed, but they weigh heavily on workers, whose movements are severely restricted, and some are even forced to sleep in factories. Tesla used a closed loop to resume production during the turbulent Shanghai shutdown earlier this year.
In May, many employees clashed with the security forces of staff at Quanta Computer’s Shanghai factory after they were banned for months from having any contact with the outdoor world.
The discontent comes at a major time for Apple, which introduced the iPhone 14 in an unprecedented drop in global demand for electronics. Although it is doing better than other smartphone makers, it has given up on plans to ramp up production of its new iPhones this year after an expected surge in failed demand, Bloomberg reported. Apple on Thursday reported higher-than-expected results, but warned of a slowdown in the holidays.
Any disruption in Zhengzhou threatens to scold Apple’s finely orchestrated chain. Thousands of parts from Europe to Asia are shipped to Zhengzhou, manually assembled into devices, and then shipped to the rest of the world.
In recent days, images and videos flooded social media sites such as Douyin and Weibo, allegedly taken by Foxconn staff dissatisfied with situations at the plant. People competing for food at an apartment complex, where staff were reportedly sent into quarantine.
Others posted cries for help. Messages sent to users sharing those videos on Douyin went unanswered and Bloomberg was unable to determine the authenticity of those specific clips.
Bloomberg and Reuters
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