As many as 4,000 workers have gone on strike over working conditions in the factory that produces the iPhone 5, The Guardian reports.
The workers walked out of Foxconn's Zhengzhou factory on Friday, according to China Labor Watch, a labour rights group. The reason? They claim Foxconn and Apple had made increasing demands on product quality, without giving the workers the necessary training, as well as forcing them to work through a public holiday.
It's the latest of many factory-line disputes at Foxconn. A few weeks ago, the company had to close a plant in Taiyuan after a mass brawl broke out, involving around 2,000 workers. Foxconn has previously been investigated over working conditions.
"Foxconn raised overtly strict demands on product quality without providing worker training for the corresponding skills," China Labor Watch said in a statement. "This led to workers turning out products that did not meet standards, and ultimately put a tremendous amount of pressure on workers."
This increased pressure led to more scuffles on the factory floor, which Foxconn ignored, according to China Labor Watch.
"Additionally, quality control inspectors fell into to [sic] conflicts with workers and were beaten up multiple times by workers. Factory management turned a deaf ear to complaints about these conflicts and took no corrective measures."
Most involved in the strike were from the quality control line, according to the report, and their absence left iPhone 5 production lines paralysed for the entire day.
The iPhone 5 is far from perfect. Customers have complained about design flaws, such as scuffs appearing on the black model and a purple fringing effect on the camera. Apple's marketing supremo Phil Schiller replied to one customer saying the scuffing was perfectly normal.
Shipping times currently stand at three to four weeks for an iPhone 5, and these could be longer unless the strike is resolved soon.
Should companies like Apple pay more attention to what's going on in the factories where their products are made? Let me know what you reckon in the comments below or on our Facebook page.
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anonymous 6 October, 2012 13:42
Well everyone has a right to health and safety. If it's not retained at a certain level, then it needs to be, by law, sorted out. Otherwise there could be all sorts of diseases and illnesses spreading around.
Ruffus Stone 6 October, 2012 17:22
It's not just a simple health and safety issue.
Foxconn have imposed stricter quality control standards whilst still demanding the high rates of production to meet the huge demand for these new phones.
With Apple now placing assembly work with other contractors, Foxconn will be desperate to meet their quality and production targets, in order to retain as much future work from Apple as they can.
China Labor Watch are campaigning very hard to highlight the conditions in Chinese factories, highlighting those companies who have major western clients.
Their most recent and ongoing campaign concerns the alleged use of child labour in some of Samsung's Chinese plants.
anonymous 7 October, 2012 03:15
The organization said Apple pressed ahead with production demands despite design problems. The new quality demands included "indentation standards of 0.02 mm and demands related to scratches on frames and back covers", China Labor Watch said. This is from one of the major Chinese newspapers. Those restrictions of 0.02mm seem crazy without technology to do so. I'm sure apple will source out their work to wherever labour is cheapest but right now I believe Chna is the only country with the know how on making these products on such a large scale at an affordable rate.
Health and safety doesn't exist really in China btw. It's not like they like to tell u in the west that's it's poor human rights etc. it's actually part of their culture here. The Chinese don't care about it in daily life. Constantly walking out in front of cars, down the middle of the road, cycling bikes the wrong way on the road, or across traffic, pushing each other in and out of subways, etc...