Apple temporarily halts iPhone production at Wistron after workers riot, pending probe

AppleInsider

Apple is investigating whether the riot was caused by its Taiwanese iPhone assembler Wistron breaking guidelines over staff pay and working conditions.

Following the riot at Wistron's plant near Narasapura, India, Apple has announced that it is probing whether the supplier broke its guidelines for the iPhone assembler. According to Reuters, Apple has said that it is cooperating with local police.

"We have teams on the ground," said Apple in an email to Reuters. "[We] have immediately launched a detailed investigation at Wistron's Narasapura facility."

Apple reportedly also said that its teams included auditors, and that it is dedicated to ensuring all workers are treated with dignity and respect.

The protest by some thousands of contract workers concerned both unpaid wages and better working conditions. The rioting caused an estimated $60 million in damages to equipment.

Wistron, has filed a police report accusing more than 5,000 workers and 2,000 further unknown people, of the damage. The company has not commented on Apple's investigation, but said in the filing that it is "deeply shocked" by the violence.

The Narasapura plant is where Wistron has reportedly been recruiting heavily for staff in recent months. The plans were to generate a total of 10,000 jobs at the facility.

eriamjh

If you don’t pay your workers, they might get mad.  Angry, even.  

Apple is probably pretty mad at Wistron.  

edited December 2020

marktime

That’s a lot of damage and a lot of rioters at a pretty new plant. Would so many newly-hired workers really trash their workplace rather than just go on strike. I’m thinking that Wistron, as a recent entrant in India, forgot to pay off someone who then arranged for the traditional “nice plant you got there, would be a shame if something happened to it” demonstration.

georgebmac

marktime said:

That’s a lot of damage and a lot of rioters at a pretty new plant. Would so many newly-hired workers really trash their workplace rather than just go on strike. I’m thinking that Wistron, as a recent entrant in India, forgot to pay off someone who then arranged for the traditional “nice plant you got there, would be a shame if something happened to it” demonstration.

Strike?   Here is what strikes used to look like in the U.S.

India and others have not yet had a Roosevelt stand up for workers yet.   As in other strikes of this era, this one was settled by government troops forcing workers back to work.  In this case, the governor sent his state militia to occupy the entire town.   They bivouac'd on the hillside overlooking the town with Carnegie's Steel mill down at the bottom on the banks of the Monongahela River

As a side note for environmentalists:   Notice in the photo you cannot see the hillside on the other side of the river.   That's what Pittsburgh was like back then.  Charles Dickens described it as "Hell with the lid off".

edited December 2020

marktime

So the relevance of something that happened over a hundred years ago in the US to present days conditions in India is what?

You might want to read up on the nationwide strike in India on November 26, 2020 that involved over 250 million people. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Indian_general_strike). Doesn't seem to me that Indians don't know how to express their unhappiness by withholding labor. 

flydog

marktime said:

So the relevance of something that happened over a hundred years ago in the US to present days conditions in India is what?

You might want to read up on the nationwide strike in India on November 26, 2020 that involved over 250 million people. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Indian_general_strike). Doesn't seem to me that Indians don't know how to express their unhappiness by withholding labor. 

The relevance is pretty clear if you read the entire post.  Whether it happened 100 or 1,000 years ago makes no difference. 

georgebmac

marktime said:

So the relevance of something that happened over a hundred years ago in the US to present days conditions in India is what?

You might want to read up on the nationwide strike in India on November 26, 2020 that involved over 250 million people. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Indian_general_strike). Doesn't seem to me that Indians don't know how to express their unhappiness by withholding labor. 

Relevance of those drawings, photos?

India, like many developing countries is similar to the U.S. of a 100-140 years ago filled with corruption, class struggles and worker abuse and oppression -- which results in sporadic outbursts of violent responses when it reaches the boiling point.

People in the U.S. don't like to remember where we came from or how we got here.   Instead we like to condemn those going through the same process.

edited December 2020

tzeshan

Thousands of iPhones were taken in the riot according Taiwan news.

canukstorm

eriamjh said:

If you don’t pay your workers, they might get mad.  Angry, even.  

Apple is probably pretty mad at Wistron.  

According to this publication's source, this is what's going on;

"Sources said that the incident was triggered by weeks of smouldering unrest over lack of payments. “The issue has been festering for about 8 to 10 weeks, during which employees were subject to arbitrary changes to their work contracts. About 90 per cent of the 8,000-strong workforce are contractual workers with a promised salary of Rs 16,000 per month for an 8-hour work shift. But over the last few months many were being paid only Rs 12,000 and were also told to work for up to 12 hours a day,” the source said."

"People who complained to the management were arbitrarily fired,” the source added. What precisely catalyzed the spontaneous morning violence is still unclear. A source said that most of the workforce dispersed after police allegedly lathi-charged tthe protesters. “Some 60 to 70 employees have been caught by police and have been badly beaten. There is a climate of fear at the Narasapura Industrial Area,” a source said."

Violence erupts at Wistron's iPhone manufacturing plant near Bengaluru | Deccan Herald

sflocal

I don't think Wistron itself is the "evil" employee-abusing shop.  My opinion (valued at 2-cents) is that there were certain key people in management that were taking advantage of the employees without the knowledge of those above them.  I don't think any company would want that kind of bad PR in today's world of instant-information.

No country is a saint, and here in the U.S. we had our share of labor abuses in the past, but India is on a whole different level when it comes to workplace abuses, as are many other "developing" countries.

That "caste" system really has me at a loss.  It's really a form of culturally-accepted racism in a way.  One's place in their economic society is determined essentially at birth.  It's disgusting really.

asdasd

My guess is that management was skimming some of the money.  Hopefully gets sorted out. 

beats

eriamjh said:

If you don’t pay your workers, they might get mad.  Angry, even.  

Apple is probably pretty mad at Wistron.  

THIS. This is all that matters. These are not Apple employees. Wistron has a contract to fill and if they can't do it because they treat their employees like sh** Apple should sue the company for loss of production which in turn hurt Apple's sales and marketshare.

Of course the media will find a way to blame Apple for this and twist headlines into something like "Employees contracted by Apple are not being paid".

maximara

sflocal said:

I don't think Wistron itself is the "evil" employee-abusing shop.  My opinion (valued at 2-cents) is that there were certain key people in management that were taking advantage of the employees without the knowledge of those above them.  I don't think any company would want that kind of bad PR in today's world of instant-information

No country is a saint, and here in the U.S. we had our share of labor abuses in the past, but India is on a whole different level when it comes to workplace abuses, as are many other "developing" countries.

That "caste" system really has me at a loss.  It's really a form of culturally-accepted racism in a way.  One's place in their economic society is determined essentially at birth.  It's disgusting really.

If it was that simple.  It is proved false by the fact that unnecessary crunch happens and many programmers work in conditions that are effectively Sweashop 2.0.  And don't pull that "no one is forcing them to do this" BS.  There is either a cult mentality or an implied 'don't put in the extra time and well...you won't have to worry about working here'

tzeshan

Beats said:

eriamjh said:

If you don’t pay your workers, they might get mad.  Angry, even.  

Apple is probably pretty mad at Wistron.  

THIS. This is all that matters. These are not Apple employees. Wistron has a contract to fill and if they can't do it because they treat their employees like sh** Apple should sue the company for loss of production which in turn hurt Apple's sales and marketshare.

Of course the media will find a way to blame Apple for this and twist headlines into something like "Employees contracted by Apple are not being paid".

And many people would like to pull China in but could not this time.

georgebmac

maximara said:

sflocal said:

I don't think Wistron itself is the "evil" employee-abusing shop.  My opinion (valued at 2-cents) is that there were certain key people in management that were taking advantage of the employees without the knowledge of those above them.  I don't think any company would want that kind of bad PR in today's world of instant-information

No country is a saint, and here in the U.S. we had our share of labor abuses in the past, but India is on a whole different level when it comes to workplace abuses, as are many other "developing" countries.

That "caste" system really has me at a loss.  It's really a form of culturally-accepted racism in a way.  One's place in their economic society is determined essentially at birth.  It's disgusting really.

If it was that simple.  It is proved false by the fact that unnecessary crunch happens and many programmers work in conditions that are effectively Sweashop 2.0.  And don't pull that "no one is forcing them to do this" BS.  There is either a cult mentality or an implied 'don't put in the extra time and well...you won't have to worry about working here'

Not to dispute your point -- because it is legitimate.   
But, there is a fine line between sweatshop and a high performance shop for the "A" players.   As Steve Jobs said:  "A" players don't like to play with "B" players.   And he tended to demand the "A" players.   Bill Gates was known for checking the parking lot to see who was there.   Or, although fictional, this kind of illustrates what Jobs sought:

For myself, I know the difference between when I see it.   But still, it is a fine line.

I already fired you! (Jobs) - YouTube

georgebmac

canukstorm said:

eriamjh said:

If you don’t pay your workers, they might get mad.  Angry, even.  

Apple is probably pretty mad at Wistron.  

According to this publication's source, this is what's going on;

"Sources said that the incident was triggered by weeks of smouldering unrest over lack of payments. “The issue has been festering for about 8 to 10 weeks, during which employees were subject to arbitrary changes to their work contracts. About 90 per cent of the 8,000-strong workforce are contractual workers with a promised salary of Rs 16,000 per month for an 8-hour work shift. But over the last few months many were being paid only Rs 12,000 and were also told to work for up to 12 hours a day,” the source said."

"People who complained to the management were arbitrarily fired,” the source added. What precisely catalyzed the spontaneous morning violence is still unclear. A source said that most of the workforce dispersed after police allegedly lathi-charged tthe protesters. “Some 60 to 70 employees have been caught by police and have been badly beaten. There is a climate of fear at the Narasapura Industrial Area,” a source said."

Violence erupts at Wistron's iPhone manufacturing plant near Bengaluru | Deccan Herald

"Hiring" contract workers has often been a path to enable worker abuse.
The U.S. has laws limiting it and so does China.

The process is straight forward:  A company pays a contactor mill to supply workers.   That company then works them as hard as possible while the contractor mill pays them as little as possible.   The contract worker gets squeezed from both ends -- and nobody is responsible as each points to the other. 

maestro64

GeorgeBMac said:

marktime said:

That’s a lot of damage and a lot of rioters at a pretty new plant. Would so many newly-hired workers really trash their workplace rather than just go on strike. I’m thinking that Wistron, as a recent entrant in India, forgot to pay off someone who then arranged for the traditional “nice plant you got there, would be a shame if something happened to it” demonstration.

Strike?   Here is what strikes used to look like in the U.S.

India and others have not yet had a Roosevelt stand up for workers yet.   As in other strikes of this era, this one was settled by government troops forcing workers back to work.  In this case, the governor sent his state militia to occupy the entire town.   They bivouac'd on the hillside overlooking the town with Carnegie's Steel mill down at the bottom on the banks of the Monongahela River

As a side note for environmentalists:   Notice in the photo you cannot see the hillside on the other side of the river.   That's what Pittsburgh was like back then.  Charles Dickens described it as "Hell with the lid off".

I will put this in perspective for people, I grew up in Pittsburgh and our home was between two steel mills and the railroad yard for the mills. We were surrounded on 3 sides by industry. Our home was less than 1/2 mile from the Allegheny river and it was brown mess and one year we had water in our basement from the river flooding. The night skies were not black they were red from the light of the blast furnaces, there was no need for street lights. I do not remember ever seeing the blue ski during the day. It was never quite, all you heard roar of furnaces and the trains in the rail road yard going back and forth with rail cars banging into one another. If you look around the area you never saw trees or anything really green, except the yard next to our house which was a horse and buggy barn from the 1800's to the early 1920's, there was 100 yrs of horse shit in the ground, if you dug down 2 feet the soil was solid black and everything grew in that yard in spite how bad everything else was. Part of the reason there were no tree is due to the fact people cut them down to heat their homes or burned coal.

Today Pittsburgh recovered, it actually recovered over a period of about 20+ years from the 1970 to through the 1990's, grant it most of the mills were dead or dying during this time, prior to this mills cleaned up their operations through the 1950's and 1960's, but eventual everything started to clean up on its own, nature has a way to taking care of itself. Today the Monongahela River is considered some of the best Bass fishing in the state. All the environmentalist said the river would be dead for 100 yrs after the last mill closed, as usual they were wrong. One of the mills next to our home is now the home of the CMU Robotic center. As side affect of living next to steel mills as child I learned to can sleep through anything, do not need to be in dark room to fall asleep and can fall asleep at a rock concert. In spite of living next to dirty mills most of my dad's life he lived to 89 and my mom is still alive at 85. My grandfather worked in one of those mills shoving coal into a coke oven, did that and other jobs in the mill for 30 yrs. One of the things that help clean up the city was the fact Pittsburgh was the site of one of very first Nuclear power plants which allowed the mills to use Nuclear Electricity to melt steel verse burning more coal to generate power. 

People forget Pittsburgh helped build the US, and most people live very comfortably today because of all the people who worked very hard in those mills and lived in Pittsburgh. There were always labor disputes even though the 1970's and I do not remember any one in the US coming to the defense of the workers in Pittsburgh. I find it very hypocritical of people who to come to the defense of workers in other countries when they were not willing to stand up for their own neighbors. You only have time to worry about what is happening in another country because your life is easy today due to all the people who came before you to build what you are currently benefitting from. Just look what happened in Calif and the Independent Contractor law, they voted to allow Uber and similar companies continue hiring independent contractors. Why did Californians vote down the law, otherwise it meant they would have to pay more for their Uber ride and Door Dash delivery, or those services would go away. These are the same people who claim to be worry about these worker in Asian and India in reality they do not care about how other people are treated especial when it will cost them more to really care. 

BTW, all the money Carnegie made still operates the free libraries in Pittsburgh (which I use to love going to), provide Scholarships to CMU for students who can not afford it (which I attempted to attend and get), pays for the performing arts in NYC (and I seen a fair share of) and the list goes on. Do not forget if it was not for the steel, oil and gas industries in the US the US would be a completely different place it may look like India today. Be thank for the people that came before you that lead to the life you have.

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching | Home
Home | Carnegie Corporation of New York
About - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

edited December 2020

georgebmac

maestro64 said:

GeorgeBMac said:

marktime said:

That’s a lot of damage and a lot of rioters at a pretty new plant. Would so many newly-hired workers really trash their workplace rather than just go on strike. I’m thinking that Wistron, as a recent entrant in India, forgot to pay off someone who then arranged for the traditional “nice plant you got there, would be a shame if something happened to it” demonstration.

Strike?   Here is what strikes used to look like in the U.S.

India and others have not yet had a Roosevelt stand up for workers yet.   As in other strikes of this era, this one was settled by government troops forcing workers back to work.  In this case, the governor sent his state militia to occupy the entire town.   They bivouac'd on the hillside overlooking the town with Carnegie's Steel mill down at the bottom on the banks of the Monongahela River

As a side note for environmentalists:   Notice in the photo you cannot see the hillside on the other side of the river.   That's what Pittsburgh was like back then.  Charles Dickens described it as "Hell with the lid off".

I will put this in perspective for people, I grew up in Pittsburgh and our home was between two steel mills and the railroad yard for the mills. We were surrounded on 3 sides by industry. Our home was less than 1/2 mile from the Allegheny river and it was brown mess and one year we had water in our basement from the river flooding. The night skies were not black they were red from the light of the blast furnaces, there was no need for street lights. I do not remember ever seeing the blue ski during the day. It was never quite, all you heard roar of furnaces and the trains in the rail road yard going back and forth with rail cars banging into one another. If you look around the area you never saw trees or anything really green, except the yard next to our house which was a horse and buggy barn from the 1800's to the early 1920's, there was 100 yrs of horse shit in the ground, if you dug down 2 feet the soil was solid black and everything grew in that yard in spite how bad everything else was. Part of the reason there were no tree is due to the fact people cut them down to heat their homes or burned coal.

Today Pittsburgh recovered, it actually recovered over a period of about 20+ years from the 1970 to through the 1990's, grant it most of the mills were dead or dying during this time, prior to this mills cleaned up their operations through the 1950's and 1960's, but eventual everything started to clean up on its own, nature has a way to taking care of itself. Today the Monongahela River is considered some of the best Bass fishing in the state. All the environmentalist said the river would be dead for 100 yrs after the last mill closed, as usual they were wrong. One of the mills next to our home is now the home of the CMU Robotic center. As side affect of living next to steel mills as child I learned to can sleep through anything, do not need to be in dark room to fall asleep and can fall asleep at a rock concert. In spite of living next to dirty mills most of my dad's life he lived to 89 and my mom is still alive at 85. My grandfather worked in one of those mills shoving coal into a coke oven, did that and other jobs in the mill for 30 yrs. One of the things that help clean up the city was the fact Pittsburgh was the site of one of very first Nuclear power plants which allowed the mills to use Nuclear Electricity to melt steel verse burning more coal to generate power. 

People forget Pittsburgh helped build the US, and most people live very comfortably today because of all the people who worked very hard in those mills and lived in Pittsburgh. There were always labor disputes even though the 1970's and I do not remember any one in the US coming to the defense of the workers in Pittsburgh. I find it very hypocritical of people who to come to the defense of workers in other countries when they were not willing to stand up for their own neighbors. You only have time to worry about what is happening in another country because your life is easy today due to all the people who came before you to build what you are currently benefitting from. Just look what happened in Calif and the Independent Contractor law, they voted to allow Uber and similar companies continue hiring independent contractors. Why did Californians vote down the law, otherwise it meant they would have to pay more for their Uber ride and Door Dash delivery, or those services would go away. These are the same people who claim to be worry about these worker in Asian and India in reality they do not care about how other people are treated especial when it will cost them more to really care. 

BTW, all the money Carnegie made still operates the free libraries in Pittsburgh (which I use to love going to), provide Scholarships to CMU for students who can not afford it (which I attempted to attend and get), pays for the performing arts in NYC (and I seen a fair share of) and the list goes on. Do not forget if it was not for the steel, oil and gas industries in the US the US would be a completely different place it may look like India today. Be thank for the people that came before you that lead to the life you have.

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching | Home
Home | Carnegie Corporation of New York
About - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Thank you!

That is not only 100% true, but VERY well said.  

We need to remember where we came from and what got us here.  Today we are living (mostly) very blessed lives.  But those blessing came from the very real blood, sweat and tears of our forbears.