Foxconn must improve living conditions for workers at shuttered iPhone plant
A cluster of food poisoning incidents and a protest shut down an Apple iPhone factory in India, and the reopening has been postponed yet again because of poor worker living conditions.
A week-long closure of the plant impacted by the food poisoning of workers will extend to at least 10 days. And, that opening won't be at full-strength -- instead of the 17,000 workers, production is said to restart on Thursday with only 1,000 on the assembly lines.
The incident has induced the local government to inspect the hostels where the workers live in off-hours. In a report published on Monday morning, Reuters reports that the state government has instructed Foxconn to investigate the quality of the living conditions at the plant.
According to sources, specific concerns include power backups at the hostel, food and water sanitation, and the lack of options for recreation.
A separate source within the government said to Reuters that Foxconn had "ramped up production too quickly." The same source said that they would ensure that workers living conditions were upgraded before the plant was allowed to resume full production speed.
The incident of food poisoning led to protests blocking a key highway, with plant workers and relatives among those in attendance, preventing traffic from flowing on the road. Close to 70 women were detained from the protest on Saturday, with all released on Sunday.
An official added that some of the 22 men held by police were arrested. Beyond the closures, neither Foxconn nor Apple has commented on the matter.
The plant is known to be used for producing the iPhone 11 in the country since July 2020, and was previously used to assemble the iPhone XR and original iPhone SE.
Production of the iPhone 12 is also being carried out at the factory, though it did suffer from a loss of production in May due to coronavirus infections.
The protest is the second major incident of unrest to occur at Apple-related facilities in India in just over a year. In December 2020, most of the 2,000 employees rioted at a Wistron iPhone plant, smashing glass and setting fire to vehicles.
The unrest at the time was caused by workers not receiving the full pay they were told they would be receiving at the time of joining the company. In response to the riot, and the determination by state authorities that the factory broke labor laws, Apple put Wistron on probation until it addressed the issues.
Read on AppleInsider
A week-long closure of the plant impacted by the food poisoning of workers will extend to at least 10 days. And, that opening won't be at full-strength -- instead of the 17,000 workers, production is said to restart on Thursday with only 1,000 on the assembly lines.
The incident has induced the local government to inspect the hostels where the workers live in off-hours. In a report published on Monday morning, Reuters reports that the state government has instructed Foxconn to investigate the quality of the living conditions at the plant.
According to sources, specific concerns include power backups at the hostel, food and water sanitation, and the lack of options for recreation.
A separate source within the government said to Reuters that Foxconn had "ramped up production too quickly." The same source said that they would ensure that workers living conditions were upgraded before the plant was allowed to resume full production speed.
The incident of food poisoning led to protests blocking a key highway, with plant workers and relatives among those in attendance, preventing traffic from flowing on the road. Close to 70 women were detained from the protest on Saturday, with all released on Sunday.
An official added that some of the 22 men held by police were arrested. Beyond the closures, neither Foxconn nor Apple has commented on the matter.
The plant is known to be used for producing the iPhone 11 in the country since July 2020, and was previously used to assemble the iPhone XR and original iPhone SE.
Production of the iPhone 12 is also being carried out at the factory, though it did suffer from a loss of production in May due to coronavirus infections.
The protest is the second major incident of unrest to occur at Apple-related facilities in India in just over a year. In December 2020, most of the 2,000 employees rioted at a Wistron iPhone plant, smashing glass and setting fire to vehicles.
The unrest at the time was caused by workers not receiving the full pay they were told they would be receiving at the time of joining the company. In response to the riot, and the determination by state authorities that the factory broke labor laws, Apple put Wistron on probation until it addressed the issues.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Why would Apple or Foxconn have to deal with the living conditions of the workers in their factories? Are living arrangements part of the agreement for employment? I feel this article should have at least explained this, just so we have some more context.
Since this factory’s exclusive client is Apple that’s why Apple gets dragged into these controversies. With Apple’s name attached the media sharks smell more blood in the water. You don’t hear about the major clothing design companies and department store brands getting this kind of treatment over working conditions in their sweatshops in the East, do you?
And by the way, Foxconn workers are NOT Apple employees no matter what your convoluted thinking tells you.
I had 12 years of Catholic education, and we went from putting dimes in little envelopes every week to "save pagan babies" to making substantial contributions to Mother Teresa' organization. My brother-in-law is Indian, and his opinion is that the problems of India are too massive for any program whether private or governmental to have a measurable effect. He said that "compassion fatigue" is endemic there. This doesn't excuse Foxconn abuses, and while I do not ascribe the same level of complicity to Apple, Tim Cook should pick up the phone and threaten some folks at Foxconn-India. Do the right thing, Tim.
Inversely, bootlicking gets us nowhere as a society. Whether that's bootlicking the police, or the status quo.
Foxconn workers are not Apple employees, but as they run many dedicated facilities Apple is a stakeholder and even Apple knows that, which is why they govern their suppliers to ensure labor practices compliance. "How and who" is as important as the "what" -- Apple's own words:
https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/
The 2021 report:
https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/pdf/Apple_SR_2021_Progress_Report.pdf
...she doesn't look like an Apple employee, right? Right, because she isn't. But as a supplier contractor working for Apple, they still audit and ensure labor practices are followed, because they aren't as laissez faire as you are. Rightfully so.
Its disgusting.
India is a corrupt Quagmire like Brazil and will never work for Foxconn/Apple……
India forces Apple to manufacture there if they want to sell there. Apple may have asked Foxconn to manufacture there. But, the place has lots of under the table issues and it's tough place to do business.
Apple did not explain what probation meant.
When it placed the southern India plant of another supplier, Wistron Corp (3231.TW), on probation after unrest last year, it said it would not award that company new business until it addressed the way workers were treated.
...
An Apple spokesperson said on Wednesday it had dispatched independent auditors to assess conditions at the dormitories "following recent concerns about food safety and accommodation conditions at Foxconn Sriperumbudur."
Apple said it had found that some of the dormitory accommodations and dining rooms, which were not on the factory's premises, did not meet its requirements and that it was working with the supplier to ensure a comprehensive set of corrective actions, adding that it will ensure its strict standards are met before the facility reopens."
Methinks do the right thing is not an integral part of their credo ...