Employees began leaving Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant after some fell ill in mid-October and got no treatment, according to a worker who asked not to be known.
He said Foxconn had started requiring face masks and disinfecting the office every day, but that work was continuing as normal.
“There are still other people who are inflamed in the meeting lines and are still afraid to move to work,” the worker said by phone from Zhengzhou on Monday. He said he had left the factory and planned to return to his hometown. .
As other countries ease virus restrictions, Chinese exporters are looking to fulfill orders while facing a “Zero COVID” strategy that shuts down cities for a week or more to involve outbreaks.
In a statement, Foxconn said it uses “closed-loop management” in Zhengzhou, an official term for workers living in its contactless outdoor office. The company said it supplies 3 meals a day. He did not say when those measures began. .
Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Electronics Inc. , did not respond to questions about how many workers were infected, whether new cases occurred or court cases in which other people who had health problems in early October did not get any treatment.
China activist organization Labor Watch said Foxconn was under pressure from Apple to keep production of the iPhone 14 in its “peak production season. “
He said the Zhengzhou factory, with meeting lines, is the main iPhone gathering place.
Apple did not respond to questions about how production might be affected. Foxconn said the company will coordinate with other factories to “reduce any potential impact. “
It’s unclear how many staff left the plant, which Foxconn says employs about 200,000 people. Zhengzhou workers and social media posts said nearly a portion was gone.
President Xi Jinping’s government is facing growing public frustration over controls that have confined tens of millions of people to their homes. This turned into protests and fights with police in Shanghai and other cities.
Foxconn, based in Taipei, Taiwan, is the largest contract assembler of smartphones and other electronics for customers. Its factories, with thousands of employees, are among China’s largest employers.
Companies are required to pay for disease checks and monitoring workers for imaginable infections. This encourages them to take shortcuts. Those with giant numbers may overlook violations.
Foxconn reacted slowly, according to news reports, China Labor Watch and the worker contacted by phone in Zhengzhou.
“At the beginning of the outbreak, no one was taking care of staff who had been shown to have contracted the virus,” the worker said.
“No and there is no medicine. “
Later, when workers who tested positive were quarantined, Foxconn used sites to add unfinished apartment buildings nearby, according to China Labor Watch.
Employees complained that the quality of food provided through the factory was poor.
Employees in crowded factory dormitories worry about neighbors who test positive and are released after a week of quarantine, the worker told Zhengzhou.
“They still don’t have a selection to go out,” he said.
Videos on social media showed others believed to be Foxconn workers climbing fences and walking down a path with their belongings. It was to check if all the videos showed Foxconn workers.
Volunteers from nearby villages distributed food and drinks to staff. The governments of cities near Zhengzhou have asked Foxconn staff to report to the government in their home cities for quarantine.
Foxconn and the Zhengzhou city government announced Sunday that they would arrange transportation for workers who wish to leave.
“The well-being of our workforce is a priority,” Foxconn said. He called for “understanding and support. “
“Zero COVID” has helped keep China’s infection numbers low, but with an emerging charge that has prompted warnings that the ruling wants a less disruptive strategy. Restaurants and other small businesses have closed due to high prices and falling revenues.
The economic impact of antivirus controls is so severe that foreign companies are shifting planned investments to other countries, according to business groups.
Apple Inc. recently announced that it will manufacture its iPhone 14 at a Foxconn factory in India.
Fewer than one in five corporations surveyed through the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai rank China first in investment plans, up from 27% last year, according to the chamber. He said the restrictions and quarantines have “dampened the desire” of executives to visit.
“Unless China harmonizes its COVID policies with the rest of the world, this drop in favor may be repeated next year,” the chamber said in a report.
Shanghai’s car factories, security corporations and some other businesses continued to operate in “closed-loop” situations after the city closed in March following virus outbreaks.
They paid bonuses of up to one hundred percent of salary to employees, according to Bettina Schoen-Behanzin, vice president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.
“The prices are pretty high,” he said.
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