Foxconn iPhone plant at Zhenghzou reopens with 10% of workforce
Apple supplier Foxconn is said to have reopened Zhenghzou, its most critical iPhone production plant, but only a tenth of the workforce has returned.
Following conflicting accounts over Chinese authorities either blocking Foxconn's factories reopening, or not, a new report says the most important plant at Zhenghzou has restarted production.
According to Reuters, Foxconn received permission on Monday to reopen its Zhenghzou facility.
It's not known what time Foxconn received permission, or whether it was able to open for a full daytime shift. Reports say, though, that only 10% of the workforce have returned so far.
While some number of Foxconn employees may have been away from the facility during the Lunar New Year holiday, in general the staff live in barracks on site. It's possible, then, that the 10% figure is the proportion of all Foxconn staff at all facilities, rather than a per-shift total solely at Zhenghzou.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo did recently estimate that disruption caused by the coronavirus, and continued concern over safety, would mean fewer workers returned than needed. He estimated that Zhenghzou would initially see between 40% and 60% of workers as the plant restarted.
Similarly, Kuo believes that the Shenzhen plant will see only between 30% and 50% of its total required workforce returning.
Of these two Foxconn plants, Zhenghzou is believed to be the most critical at the moment because it is were the majority of iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models are assembled. However, Shenzhen is thought to be where the forthcoming "iPhone 12" is being worked on, so delays now will have repercussions later.
Following conflicting accounts over Chinese authorities either blocking Foxconn's factories reopening, or not, a new report says the most important plant at Zhenghzou has restarted production.
According to Reuters, Foxconn received permission on Monday to reopen its Zhenghzou facility.
It's not known what time Foxconn received permission, or whether it was able to open for a full daytime shift. Reports say, though, that only 10% of the workforce have returned so far.
While some number of Foxconn employees may have been away from the facility during the Lunar New Year holiday, in general the staff live in barracks on site. It's possible, then, that the 10% figure is the proportion of all Foxconn staff at all facilities, rather than a per-shift total solely at Zhenghzou.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo did recently estimate that disruption caused by the coronavirus, and continued concern over safety, would mean fewer workers returned than needed. He estimated that Zhenghzou would initially see between 40% and 60% of workers as the plant restarted.
Similarly, Kuo believes that the Shenzhen plant will see only between 30% and 50% of its total required workforce returning.
Of these two Foxconn plants, Zhenghzou is believed to be the most critical at the moment because it is were the majority of iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models are assembled. However, Shenzhen is thought to be where the forthcoming "iPhone 12" is being worked on, so delays now will have repercussions later.
Comments
/fakenews
so replacing people's jobs with robots is the great solution ?
Apple providing jobs is why you don't want to buy Apple products or invest in aapl ?
Workers travel across the country to work at Foxconn. The wages there are way higher than what they could get at other jobs. Some according to reports earn 10 times their parents incomes.
(I belief in diversifying manufacturing and supply. But too often people's criticism of Apple's China operations is xenophobic racism masquerading as 'concern'. )
what slave owners did when they manufactured tobacco, cotton, and other crops with slave labor.
not that I condone poor working conditions or government crackdowns, but let’s also try to see the decisions chinese workers make without our lenses of privilege we wear around all day.
I feel bad for the poor people in Africa, but I feel good that I’m not benefiting from exploiting their misery. I wish them the best. I can’t make their lives better, but I’m not benefiting from
their misery either.
other developed countries governments, in fact, concern themselves with improving lives of their citizens and creating systems like universal healthcare that benefit everyone.
was quite different, though. They invested in slave trade to make tremendous profits by exploiting poor Africans.
Beijing and Shanghai impose new controls on residents as China battles to contain coronavirus
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3049891/beijing-and-shanghai-impose-new-controls-residents-china-battles
It is neither racist for Apple to contract work to China and leave the working conditions up to the Chinese partner nor racist to care about how those workers are treated and wish to hold Apple to a higher standard than what those workers receive.
Realistically none of those issues would be different if Apple was off-shoring manufacturing to the Ukraine or Estonia, so the race of people concerned is pretty much entirely irrelevant.
It isn't racist to care about people and it isn't racist to trust that other people can handle their own business.
Gold-standards in ethical business does however mandate paying contractors sufficiently to enable them to remunerate their staff appropriately and provide safe and appropriate working conditions (and holding them to that commitment). Apple doesn't have to do that however (they don't need to be "gold standard" to still lead the pack), but I'd note they have gotten involved previously to lift working conditions and employee welfare at Foxconn previously. Notably when they were seeing worker suicides make international news.
Sticking with my original point, I don't think it should be the Chinese government's responsibility to find better jobs for individuals. This is the kind of thing that happened in Soviet-style communist countries and it didn't work out too well. The Chinese government, if they are not satisfied with the current job prospects of the Chinese industrial worker (not something I suspect they spend much time worrying about in their currently booming economy), should enact policies to protect their workers/environment. Then companies like Apple will have to decide if the higher cost of doing business in China is worth it. Maybe they will? At the same time, China should probably also work on encouraging other kinds of businesses to replace the type of industry that will likely exit the country since India, Thailand, Vietnam, etc would probably be overjoyed to take over the sweatshop device gadget assembly work if China was no longer interested/viable.
I'm not calling Apple or Tim Cook racists. They are unabashed capitalists who would exploit the weak and defenseless just to make a higher profit. I don't mind a corporation making a profit. I don't mind shareholders making money. However, don't pretend to run an ethical corporation when you know your suppliers exploit those who can't defend themselves. A lot of people who buy Apple products are under the impression that they pay a lot of money for something that not only works well but is also ethical. So, it does work well, it makes a lot of money for the shareholders (nothing wrong with that), but it's highly UNETHICAL (all the Apple's and Tim Cook's propaganda notwithstanding).
I like Apple products. With all the flaws that the software has and the bugs that Apple never seems to fix, there's still nothing out there that is better than what Apple makes. However, I would rather extend my iPhone replacement cycle by a year and buy a more expensive iPhone or Mac, knowing that those who make the products that I buy are paid well for their work. It doesn't make me want to buy another Apple product, knowing that these wonderful gadgets are built by people who are exploited like slaves, and the only difference between them and slaves is that they are free to leave (or not to return in this case).
The Chinese government has done well for the Chinese citizens. They will continue to improve the livelihoods of the Chinese citizens. It's not the responsibility of Apple or any other US corporation to create jobs for the Chinese citizens, thus justifying having ridiculously low manufacturing costs. However, it should be the responsibility of Apple to be an ethical corporation by not using slave labor, and Apple is failing badly at this responsibility, even though they promote themselves as an ethical corporation.