China: Workers strike at world’s largest iPhone factory – ‘Defending our rights!’

“We defend our rights!”: Workers’ strikes broke out today at the world’s largest iPhone factorywhich is located in China and is owned by Taiwanese company Foxconn, according to images posted on social media sites Twitter and Weibo.

The factory is located in Zhejiang, the capital of Henan province. It is a huge industrial complex that employs about 200,000 people, most of whom live in dormitories at the facility.

THE China still implements a zero-tolerance policy against covid, which provides for strict lockdowns, quarantine for those diagnosed positive for the virus and almost daily tests, with the restrictive measures causing outrage among citizens.

Some categories of people, mainly students and workers, are often isolated for many weeks on university campuses and production sites, unable to move freely.

According to the images posted, which AFP has not independently confirmed, a crowd of workers marched in the street. Some are confronted by people wearing white, protective suits and the police.

Another video shows hundreds of people dressed in these uniforms standing on a street near a building that appears to be one of the factory’s dormitories. The man taking the video from a nearby building can be heard saying: “It’s restarting. This has been happening since last night and until this morning.”

“They charge!”

In another video clip, members of the order forces are seen kicking a man who looks like a worker lying in the street, as reported by AFP and relayed by the Athens News Agency.

Video, broadcast live overnight, shows dozens of workers chanting “we stand up for our rights!” in front of a line of policemen and a police vehicle with its headlights on. Then the person taking the video shouts: “they’re charging!” and “tear gas!”

Another clip from the same night’s demonstration, taken from a different angle, shows workers throwing fire extinguishers at police.

The Foxconn riots hashtag appeared to have been banned this afternoon (local time) on Chinese social media, including Weibo. However, some posts referring to the protests were not taken down.

Employee flight

Foxconn is a large company that assembles electronic products for many international companies. The Taiwanese company, a key subcontractor of Apple, has been faced in recent months with a rise in covid-19 cases at its huge industrial complex in Jeju and has decided to ban workers from leaving it.

Hundreds of panicked workers fled the factory on foot, with some complaining of chaos and lack of organization. In order to keep the plant operating, the company offered large bonuses to workers who would stay and tried to hire new people.

Apple admitted earlier this month that the Foxconn factory lockdown had “temporarily affected” phone production iPhonedealing a heavy blow ahead of the Christmas holiday season.

Foxconn is the largest private employer in China, with more than one million workers across the country at its approximately 30 factories and research centers.