Foxconn apologizes to rioters, Apple is on the scene

Following riots at its iPhone plant in Zhengzhou, Foxconn has apologized and said pay problems were a "technical error."

Hundreds of workers from the Zhengzhou rioted on Wednesday, protesting about food and conditions in the COVID lockdown measures, and also pay. Despite Foxconn having previously promised bonuses, rioters claimed that the company had revised contracts to prevent workers being eligible.

According to BBC News, the company has now issued a statement saying that a "technical error occurred during the onboarding process." Foxconn said that the pay its new recruits would get is now "the same as agreed [in the] official recruitment posters."

Foxconn also said that it was in communication with the affected employees, and was doing what it could "to actively solve the concerns and reasonable demands of employees."

Separately, one worker told BBC News that since the company's apology statement, he had received $1,120, and was to get a further $280. The worker also said that the protests had now ended.

However, at the same time, Chinese authorities again ordered the city of Zhengzhou to go into lockdown. People will require a negative COVID test before they can leave the area.

And, Apple has a response team on site. It's not clear exactly when they arrived, but Apple confirmed that they were there to help deal with the problem.

"We are reviewing the situation and working closely with Foxconn to ensure their employees' concerns are addressed," Apple reportedly has said.

It was following a previous lockdown that Foxconn issued a warning about its revenue growth, and Apple made a rare statement about delays in iPhone 14 Pro production.

12 Comments

lkrupp 19 Years · 10521 comments

About 2 years ago

Gotta put down that slave rebellion. /s

Problem is Apple is stuck there along with dozens of other manufacturers who followed the availability of large numbers of low wage laborers. And at the core of all of it are the consumers of the developed world who demand low prices while also demanding high wages for their domestic workforce. So now Apple is moving to India, Vietnam, possibly Brazil and some day they will run out of those low wage workers. Then what?

Madbum 2 Years · 536 comments

Chinese communist CCP is behind all this

Foxconn is owned by Democratic country Taiwan that a China wants forever to attack

Apple is owned by USA

CCP is using its famed “Weibo” army to do its dirty work . Weibo is the Chinese super app literally every person in China use 24/7

CCP is doing this because it doesn’t want to directly be seen as going after Foxconn and Apple because they are “partners”

lastly, why with strict “lockdowns”, nobody is wondering why these protestors are able to roam free, cameras everywhere?this is CCP coordinated

lkrupp said:

Gotta put down that slave rebellion. /s

Problem is Apple is stuck there along with dozens of other manufacturers who followed the availability of large numbers of low wage laborers. And at the core of all of it are the consumers of the developed world who demand low prices while also demanding high wages for their domestic workforce. So now Apple is moving to India, Vietnam, possibly Brazil and some day they will run out of those low wage workers. Then what?

Robots , 80 percent of iPhone assembly can already be done by robots.of course the cost of precision robots on a mass scale still more expensive than humans now

waveparticle 3 Years · 1497 comments

Madbum said:

Chinese communist CCP is behind all this

Foxconn is owned by Democratic country Taiwan that a China wants forever to attack

Apple is owned by USA

CCP is using its famed “Weibo” army to do its dirty work . Weibo is the Chinese super app literally every person in China use 24/7

CCP is doing this because it doesn’t want to directly be seen as going after Foxconn and Apple because they are “partners”

lastly, why with strict “lockdowns”, nobody is wondering why these protestors are able to roam free, cameras everywhere?this is CCP coordinated

Unlikely! This factory is in a special zone. It does not have to follow rules imposed by CCP on other Chinese companies. FoxConn management should be blamed for this Covid spread inside the factory.

FileMakerFeller 6 Years · 1561 comments

lkrupp said:

Gotta put down that slave rebellion. /s

Problem is Apple is stuck there along with dozens of other manufacturers who followed the availability of large numbers of low wage laborers. And at the core of all of it are the consumers of the developed world who demand low prices while also demanding high wages for their domestic workforce. So now Apple is moving to India, Vietnam, possibly Brazil and some day they will run out of those low wage workers. Then what?

Tim Cook has been pretty clear that the reason Apple is staying in China is the high number of skilled workers and not the presence of low wage workers (although in the past the latter was certainly a key reason for relocating production).

I'm not arguing that Apple isn't seeking out the lowest possible price for workers, just that the company seems more willing than most to prioritise quality of output over the cost of production - best value, rather than lowest cost.