WSJ: “A riot involving 2,000 workers at a factory in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan on Sunday night has once again shined a light on conditions at factories owned by Apple Inc. supplier Foxconn. The cause of the riot appears to have been a fight between workers that somehow escalated into larger-scale unrest. While the precise dynamics that led workers in the factory to run rampant remain unclear, it’s noteworthy that news of the incident comes with Apple recently announcing that advance sales of its iPhone5 have broken all previous records.
The success of the iPhone and similar products means competition among companies like Apple and Samsung, both of which rely heavily on Chinese factory supply chains, is likely to increase. This increase in competition, in turn, will crank up pressures in factories whose workers are already struggling under harsh conditions.
Associated Press
In this Monday Sept. 24, 2012 mobile phone photo, police in anti-riot suits cordon off a road near Foxconn’s plant in Taiyuan, capital of Northern China’s Shanxi province. The company that makes Apple’s iPhones suspended production at a factory in China on Monday after a brawl by as many as 2,000 employees at a nearby dormitory injured 40 people.
Recent reports have not only described the difficult conditions for full-time workers who are hired directly by these factories, but have also spotlighted the treatment of two other classes of employees– “dispatch labor” and “student interns”– in factories that manufacture components for both Apple and Samsung.”
via Working Conditions: The Persistence of Problems in China’s Factories – China Real Time Report – WSJ.
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