Workers flee Foxconn's COVID-hit iPhone factory over poor conditions

AppleInsider

Workers at Foxconn's major iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, China are choosing to leave the facility currently operating as a closed-loop during a COVID outbreak, with social media showing employees traveling home instead of staying.

Foxconn workers leaving the factory [via Twitter/@alexludoboyd]

Following an outbreak of COVID at the Zhengzhou facility in late October, Foxconn has implemented a "closed loop" that keeps employees in the campus. While the policy and other initiatives are intended to curtail the spread of the virus, some workers at the factory don't want to have their freedom curtailed.

Posts to local social media claim to show workers walking home and riding on the back of trucks to get away from the locked-down factory. The Washington Post reports some videos show workers climbing over fences to exit the factory.

Not all videos were able to be verified as genuine. Also, it was unknown if the workers were departing after being allowed to leave or if they were actively escaping.

Some incredible images circulating on Weibo right now. Young Foxconn workers WALKING home from the factory in Zhengzhou, where an outbreak is causing lockdowns. Some picked up by truck drivers, riding in the back of the bed. Looks like a different era pic.twitter.com/BvnxcBn6JW

-- Alexander Boyd (@alexludoboyd)

October 30, 2022

In one video, volunteers from a nearby village put out food and drink for the workers. The villagers reckoned the walkers came from the factory, as the road in use was one leading to the facility.

The Financial Times quotes one worker as claiming "it was total chaos in the dormitories. We jumped a plastic fence and a metal fence to get out of the campus."

Workers told the publication the factory's conditions had deteriorated since closed-loop production began. Food and medical supplies were apparently running low, and workers were locked in dormitories as a quarantine measure.

Following the scenes, city authorities worked to organize buses to help workers travel, and to take them to a central quarantine location. Officials said on Sunday they would start "the point-to-point return of employees to their hometowns."

The city also published a notice from Foxconn, promising to "improve the living and work conditions" for those working in the facility. This includes higher quality meals with the canteen reopening from November 1, medical care, transport for infected workers, and bonuses to stay.

As the largest iPhone factory, the workforce can swell up to 350,000, though it is unclear how many workers were in attendance, nor how many decided to leave.

It is thought that the outbreak at the facility could impact production of iPhones by up to 30%. Foxconn has also apparently delayed a planned seasonal reduction in output to a later time.

Read on AppleInsider

blastdoor

I'll say it again -- Apple needs to diversify away from China ASAP. That country is circling the drain. 

DAalseth

blastdoor said:

I'll say it again -- Apple needs to diversify away from China ASAP. That country is circling the drain. 

I wouldn’t say circling the drain, but Xi’s management isn’t working in the face of hard times. There were protests by the Han Chinese in Tebet last week. For that to happen, things must have gotten pretty messed up. The country is facing some troubled, and lean, times and I doubt if their leader for life has an answer. So yeah for that and many pother reasons, Apple needs to be working to move out of the PRC. Not just Apple, most western companies need to find somewhere more stable.

danox

Apple is doomed took only one day…..

pwrmac

This is probably orchestrated by the Chinese government to complicate this for Apple. But it is Apple's own fault, they rely to long and too much on China.

Madbum

Fake story, staged, this is plant of 399k people , those post show what? 50 people?

I have friends in China , this is work of a anti America and anti Taiwan group 

Madbum

pwrmac said:

This is probably orchestrated by the Chinese government to complicate this for Apple. But it is Apple's own fault, they rely to long and too much on China.

Well possibly. also Taiwan but the issue here is Foxconn and Apple is the largest employer in China  other than the government . So they will hurt themselves even more going after Apple

waveparticle

350,000 people in a closed loop?  That is very stupid method to fight Covid-19. This story shows that China has never understood the scientific method. First of all, this is a method identical to the one implemented two and half years ago. But Covid-19 is not the same now. Second, out of 350,000, maybe only less than one hundred is infected. Forcing them to live together with less than 100 confirmed people is waiting them to be infected sometime later. This is ultra stupid! Third, they implement some practices so people will not get sick soon. This only slows down the rate. It does not reactivate the virus completely. So the end result of this stupid method is 350,000 will remain locked down in a closed loop for a long long time. This is stupid method. China needs to refine the method. Unfortunately, with the sole power centered around Xi, people will not think to find new ideas. 

waveparticle

pwrmac said:

This is probably orchestrated by the Chinese government to complicate this for Apple. But it is Apple's own fault, they rely too long and too much on China.

Conspiracy theory! This is not true. Read my post 7. 

13485

Madbum said:

Fake story, staged, this is plant of 399k people , those post show what? 50 people?

I have friends in China , this is work of a anti America and anti Taiwan group 

Foxconn's Zhengzhou facility currently has 200,000 employees. It could theoretically employ 350,000, but does not currently do so. (Reuters). It only takes a minute to get the correct numbers.

Second, "fake" and "staged" by whom--Foxconn? The PRC? Who exactly is benefitting from the fakery?

Third, suppose I post a picture of seven people at a bus top. Does that mean that the big city in which the bus runs only has seven people?

Fourth, I have friends all over the world. It doesn't mean they know anything.

DAalseth

waveparticle said:

pwrmac said:

This is probably orchestrated by the Chinese government to complicate this for Apple. But it is Apple's own fault, they rely too long and too much on China.

Conspiracy theory! This is not true. Read my post 7. 

Never attribute to malevolence what is merely due to incompetence
― Arthur C. Clarke, 

Madbum

13485 said:

Madbum said:

Fake story, staged, this is plant of 399k people , those post show what? 50 people?

I have friends in China , this is work of a anti America and anti Taiwan group 

Foxconn's Zhengzhou facility currently has 200,000 employees. It could theoretically employ 350,000, but does not currently do so. (Reuters). It only takes a minute to get the correct numbers.

Second, "fake" and "staged" by whom--Foxconn? The PRC? Who exactly is benefitting from the fakery?

Third, suppose I post a picture of seven people at a bus top. Does that mean that the big city in which the bus runs only has seven people?

Fourth, I have friends all over the world. It doesn't mean they know anything.

I meant to write 300k.

You don’t know China. Cancel culture is 10x there. They use a platform called Weibo. Very easy for groups to organize against a company or individual .

There is a big anti Taiwan and anti USA sentiment , so that is possible. And after seeing what Xi did to his mentor, would you be surprised at anything? Punish Apple indirectly with plausible deniability since Zhengzhou cannot survive without Apple and Foxconn. 

if I had to bet, the walkouts are likely people who are paid and dorm pictures staged . Because I been in those dorms in Shengzhen, they have 24 /7 maintenance crews. And Foxconn is the Apple in those cities, if Foxconn dorms are like that, I hate to imagine other look like . So it’s unlikely.  This is probably one of the hit jobs in Weibo that happens quite often in China. It’s happened to Tesla several times 

I have many fiends I. China because I lived in China … got it?

waveparticle

Madbum said:

13485 said:

Madbum said:

Fake story, staged, this is plant of 399k people , those post show what? 50 people?

I have friends in China , this is work of a anti America and anti Taiwan group 

Foxconn's Zhengzhou facility currently has 200,000 employees. It could theoretically employ 350,000, but does not currently do so. (Reuters). It only takes a minute to get the correct numbers.

Second, "fake" and "staged" by whom--Foxconn? The PRC? Who exactly is benefitting from the fakery?

Third, suppose I post a picture of seven people at a bus top. Does that mean that the big city in which the bus runs only has seven people?

Fourth, I have friends all over the world. It doesn't mean they know anything.

I meant to write 300k.

You don’t know China. Cancel culture is 10x there. They use a platform called Weibo. Very easy for groups to organize against a company or individual .

There is a big anti Taiwan and anti USA sentiment , so that is possible. And after seeing what Xi did to his mentor, would you be surprised at anything? Punish Apple indirectly with plausible deniability since Zhengzhou cannot survive without Apple and Foxconn. 

if I had to bet, the walkouts are likely people who are paid and dorm pictures staged . Because I been in those dorms in Shengzhen, they have 24 /7 maintenance crews. And Foxconn is the Apple in those cities, if Foxconn dorms are like that, I hate to imagine other look like . So it’s unlikely.  This is probably one of the hit jobs in Weibo that happens quite often in China. It’s happened to Tesla several times 

I have many fiends I. China because I lived in China … got it?

Fragmented writings that shows your thoughts are fragmented. 

Madbum

waveparticle said:

Madbum said:

13485 said:

Madbum said:

Fake story, staged, this is plant of 399k people , those post show what? 50 people?

I have friends in China , this is work of a anti America and anti Taiwan group 

Foxconn's Zhengzhou facility currently has 200,000 employees. It could theoretically employ 350,000, but does not currently do so. (Reuters). It only takes a minute to get the correct numbers.

Second, "fake" and "staged" by whom--Foxconn? The PRC? Who exactly is benefitting from the fakery?

Third, suppose I post a picture of seven people at a bus top. Does that mean that the big city in which the bus runs only has seven people?

Fourth, I have friends all over the world. It doesn't mean they know anything.

I meant to write 300k.

You don’t know China. Cancel culture is 10x there. They use a platform called Weibo. Very easy for groups to organize against a company or individual .

There is a big anti Taiwan and anti USA sentiment , so that is possible. And after seeing what Xi did to his mentor, would you be surprised at anything? Punish Apple indirectly with plausible deniability since Zhengzhou cannot survive without Apple and Foxconn. 

if I had to bet, the walkouts are likely people who are paid and dorm pictures staged . Because I been in those dorms in Shengzhen, they have 24 /7 maintenance crews. And Foxconn is the Apple in those cities, if Foxconn dorms are like that, I hate to imagine other look like . So it’s unlikely.  This is probably one of the hit jobs in Weibo that happens quite often in China. It’s happened to Tesla several times 

I have many fiends I. China because I lived in China … got it?

Fragmented writings that shows your thoughts are fragmented. 

I never claimed I was Tolkien. And if you cannot understand my simple points from my “fragmented” writing, you are pretty hopeless I am sorry. I made my point clearly. And who comments on writing style when talking about China, Apple and Foxconn?

But, were my pronouns ok though?