Featured in this episode of Chaos Lever
Luckily, things seem to have cooled off.. For now. Foxconn- the chinese-based manufacturing company that is Apple’s primary provider of iPhones worldwide, has a problem. That problem is a labor shortage, combined with a fresh Covid outbreak in the town where their largest factory is located. It seems that Foxconn had promised massive salaries and bonuses in order to lure people out to work. It also seems that once those workers were on the factory’s campus (workers live in a bubble of sorts there, with dormitory style apartments very near to the manufacturing buildings), those promises were broken.
It also ALSO seems that this predatory behavior is common to Foxconn. This time though, the workers had enough and were protesting. The Chinese gov’t is supporting Foxconn, and in this case sent in ‘hundreds of police officers’ to assault the protesting workers. Police ended up sending in backup units armed with riot gear to get the workers in their clean-room scrubs to leave. Foxconn ended up offering a further bribe, which the workers accepted, to leave the factories, and eventually the campus.
Like I said.. Things seem to be calmed down for now. For their part, Apple “has people on the ground” assessing the situation. What exactly they’re assessing FOR, in this situation, remains to be seen.