Apple iPhone factory workers clash with police in China

Violent worker protests have erupted at the world’s largest iPhone factory in central China as authorities at the Foxconn plant struggle to contain a COVID-19 outbreak while maintaining production ahead of the peak holiday season.

Workers at the factory in Zhengzhou shared more than a dozen videos that show staff in a standoff with lines of police armed with batons and clad in white protective gear. The videos show police beating workers, with some bleeding from their heads and others limping away from chaotic clashes.

Beijing’s strict zero-COVID regime has posed big challenges for the running of Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant, which typically staffs more than 200,000 workers on a large campus in the city’s suburbs.

Wednesday’s unrest will heighten investor concerns about supply chain risk at Apple, with more than 95 percent of iPhones produced in China.

Problems at the plant earlier this month led Apple to cut estimates for high-end iPhone 14 shipments and to issue a rare warning to investors over the delays.

Two workers at the Foxconn factory said the protests broke out on Wednesday morning after Apple’s manufacturing partner attempted to deny bonuses promised to new workers put into quarantine before being sent to assembly lines.

“Initially they just went into the plant seeking an explanation from executives, but they [the executives] didn’t show their faces and instead called the police,” said one of the workers.

Another worker said there was growing discontent over the factory’s continued inability to curb a COVID outbreak, tough living conditions, and fear among staff that they would test positive.

Foxconn said the company would work with employees and the government to prevent further violent acts.

The company said it had always fulfilled its contracts and would continue to “communicate and explain” that to new staff. It said reports that the company had mixed COVID positive workers with those not yet infected were untrue.

Videos show workers flipping over carts on the Foxconn campus, charging into the factory’s offices and bashing a COVID testing booth. Live streams from the scene on Wednesday afternoon showed groups of workers milling about in a courtyard between buildings. Some workers were livestreaming the protests on social media until censors stepped in to cut off the broadcasts.

“The Foxconn situation raises concern for China’s leaders because it challenges the narrative of being a reliable supplier,” said Shan Guo at Plenum China Research. “It’s clear workers are not happy being locked down,” she said.

Foxconn has been working with the local government in Henan province, where the plant is located, to repopulate its assembly lines with new workers after a mass staff exodus late last month spurred by conditions at the plant.

Local officials have been tasked with helping send workers to the plant, which is a big taxpayer and was responsible for 60 percent of the province’s exports in 2019.

Ivan Lam, an analyst at Counterpoint Research, said Foxconn had already been shifting iPhone 14 production away from the Zhengzhou factory amid the COVID problems. He estimated the Zhengzhou plant’s share of total iPhone 14 production was down to about 60 percent today from about 80 percent before the outbreak began.

Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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