Following the unrest over wages, Apple's main iPhone maker Foxconn has now offered protesters $1,400 on the condition that they quit.
There were many reasons why hundreds of workers at the Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou rioted, including complaints about lack of food during the COVID lockdown. One topic, however, was how Foxconn allegedly changed employment contracts so that new workers did not receive the promised wages. After the uproar - and the arrival of an Apple team on the scene - Foxconn managers apologized to the workers for a "technical error". After Declarations According to Reuters, Foxconn has now offered protesting workers 10,000 yuan ($1,400) if they agree to quit. An unnamed source told Reuters that more than 20,000 workers have accepted the payment and left the company. It is not clear whether all 20,000 were involved in the unrest.
30% of iPhone production could be lost
However, it seems that most of them were newly hired, so it is likely that they were affected by the alleged "technical glitch." Reuters reports that these new employees were not working on Foxconn's production lines, at least not yet. Chinese authorities recently announced that Foxconn needs 100,000 more workers and have also asked retired military personnel to take on tasks. There are conflicting reports about the impact of the exodus on iPhone 14 production. One employee claimed:
The incident has a major impact on our public image but little on our (current) capacity.
The reason given was that none of the new hires had yet reached the production line. However, this seems to be a formality - the current capacity may not be affected, but it must have a major impact on the originally planned capacity. The figure is around 30%. Of course, it cannot be verified whether this is true. (Photo by Images_By_Kenny / Bigstockphoto)
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