Foxconn Worker Strike Sees iPhone 5 Production 'Paralyzed' as Fights Break out
A Foxconn worker strike has crippled a factory dealing with Apple's iPhone 5's. Thousands of workers went on strike on Friday to protest against poor work conditions, according to a report from an independent workers' rights organization.
The strike took place at a Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, China after workers complained of management implementing "overly strict demands" for production of Apple's new iPhone 5, according to China Labor Watch (CLW).
A CLW report has described a walk out "paralyzing the production lines" on Friday.
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The CLW has also said that most of the strikers were part of the quality control line for the new iPhone 5.
Such were the tensions surrounding the protest that various workers and inspectors were said to have clashed in violent confrontations, with some staff hospitalized as a result.
More than 100 quality inspectors refused to work during the strike on Friday after "one of the inspectors was allegedly assaulted by the workers, who have been dissatisfied with the new inspection standards," China's state-run news agency, Xinhua has said.
However, despite the reports, Foxconn has denied that any such employee strike has occurred at its factory. Foxconn said, "Any reports that there has been an employee strike are inaccurate. There has been no workplace stoppage in that facility or any other Foxconn facility and production has continued on schedule."
According to CNET, Foxconn's Zhenghou complex employs around 190,000 people.
CLW has maintained that workers were given new "impossibly strict standards" demanding precision as accurate as two-hundredths of a millimeter, according to CNN Money.
