Workers flee China’s Apple factory amid fears of quarantine

Employees at the Apple factory in Zhengzhou, China, are fleeing the workplace en masse because of a major corona outbreak. The workforce at the plant faces significant restrictions and wants to avoid quarantine at all costs. The dissatisfaction with the measures would be great among the employees.

Pictures on Chinese social media show workers climbing over the factory complex’s fences to escape. From there they continue on foot to their relatives, sometimes hundreds of kilometers.

What’s happening?

Tensions have been rising in the factory since mid-October. Owner Foxconn then announced that there had been an outbreak and that the factory with 200,000 employees had gone into a so-called closed loop according to Chinese protocol. Workers have been locked inside the factory to prevent the virus from spreading outside the gates. From that moment on, people worked, ate and slept in the factory.

An employee anonymously tells the Reuters news agency that no one is allowed to leave the complex. “We were tested daily and after ten days we received medical face masks and traditional Chinese medicines. If someone tested positive, it was announced and that person was taken away.” The Financial Times spoke to staffers who say the complex has been chaotic since then.

Sources tell Reuters around 20,000 workers at the plant have been quarantined, contradicting Foxconn. In Zhengzhou, a city of more than 10 million people, 264 infections have been counted since October 19. How many of these took place at the factory is unclear.

zero infections

The problems at the factory show that China’s corona policy is beeping and scratching. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the country has stuck to its “zero Covid strategy”. Governments have wide-ranging capabilities to combat outbreaks, such as: B. full lockdowns, mass testing and travel restrictions.

Corona infections are now increasing in the country, dozens of cities and millions of people are partially or completely in lockdown and the economy is weakening. But President Xi Jinping pointed out at the recent party congress that the country is sticking to this policy.

bypass controls

Factory workers often flee on foot. They avoid Chinese public transport, where the government strictly monitors corona apps. Employees caught risk long quarantines.

Watch Foxconn employees go home here:

After images of fleeing employees went viral, local authorities on Sunday ordered Foxconn to help employees heading home.

Authorities in other cities have sent buses and are urging employees who want to go home to report. So they can continue to be quarantined.

Designed in California, made in China

95% of all Apple products are made in China. Apple has been outsourcing production to mainly Chinese suppliers for years. Foxconn is by far the most important. About 60 percent of all iPhones worldwide are made in their factories. The factory in Zhengzhou is by far the largest.

Foxconn has a long history of poor working conditions. Around 2012, several studies showed that workers often had to work long hours in poor working conditions. In some cases, this led to suicide among employees. Apple promised to better monitor working conditions.

It is unclear to what extent the factory’s production is affected by the latest corona developments. It is clear that the setback is extremely inconvenient for Apple. The company has just launched its latest iPhone and demand is high. Sales peaks often occur in the last months of the year.

Looking for alternatives

Economic and political changes have recently prompted Apple to reduce its dependence on China. For example, the relationship between the United States and China is deteriorating by the day and wages in China have doubled over the past decade.

Apple is looking to other countries in the region, such as Vietnam and India, for manufacturing. Analysts expect about 25 percent of Apple products to be made outside of China by 2025, up from 5 percent now.

Source: NOS