Chaos in the largest iPhone factory in the world: it is closed due to an outbreak of COVID-19 and workers escape by jumping the fences

The largest factory iPhone of the world, in central China, announced Tuesday to its employees that it would quadruple their bonuses if they remain at the plant, after many workers fled the confinement applied at the facility due to an outbreak of COVID-19.

Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn’s factory in Zhengzhou, which employs more than 200,000 people, and is known as iPhone City, has been under lockdown since mid-October, following an outbreak of coronavirus. The company ensures that it carries out daily tests on its employees and keeps them in a closed circle.

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But workers denounced poor working conditions and inadequate sanitary measures for uncontaminated workers on Chinese social media. Employees began leaving the Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou after some fell ill in mid-October and did not receive any treatment, according to an employee who asked not to be identified by name. They stated that Foxconn has begun to require masks and disinfects the workplace daily, but work continues as normal.

Videos released over the weekend on the internet show Foxconn employees fleeing the company, even suitcase in hand, to return home on foot, and avoid confinement by COVID-19. A Reuters estimate suggests productivity at the plant, the world’s largest, could drop by 30% due to problems with operators.

Workers have broken out of #Manzana‘s largest assembly site, escaping the Zero #Covid lockdown at Foxconn in #Zhengzhou. After sneaking out, they’re walking to home towns more than 100 kilometers away to beat the Covid app measures designed to control people and stop this. #China pic.twitter.com/NHjOjclAyU

— Stephen McDonell (@StephenMcDonell) October 30, 2022

Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant said on its official WeChat profile that as of Monday, employees will receive a daily bonus of 400 yuan ($55) for reporting to work, four times more than the previous subsidy of 100 yuan a day. Staff will also receive additional bonuses if they attend work 15 days or more in November, up to 15,000 yuan if they register full attendance this month.

Foxconn, which supplies iPhones to US-based Apple, has promised to do more to help its employees and organize buses to take employees home if they want to leave.. And he had to go out to deny alleged deaths from starvation in bedroom 726 of one of the housing complexes. In a statement, Foxconn said it is using “closed-loop management” in Zhengzhou, an official term for making employees live at their workplace with no outside contact. The company detailed that it provides three meals a day. It did not disclose when those measures began.

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Local governments in the area around the city have asked fleeing workers to register with authorities if they return home to complete a multi-day quarantine upon arrival.

The activist group China Labor Watch said that Foxconn is under pressure from Apple to keep its production of the iPhone 14 during its “peak production season”. He added that the factory in Zhengzhou, with 90 assembly lines, is the main iPhone assembly site.

China is the last major economy to maintain a zero COVID strategy, with lockdowns, mass testing and extensive quarantines to eradicate outbreaks. But new, fast-spreading variants have made it difficult to detect outbreaks early.

With information from AFP and AP

GDA / The Nation / Argentina

Source: Elcomercio

James

I have worked as a journalist for over 10 years and have written for various news outlets. I currently work as an author at 24 News Recorder, mostly covering entertainment news. I have a keen interest in the industry and enjoy writing about the latest news and gossip. I am also a member of the National Association of Journalists.