Apple Factory Brawl: Supplier Foxconn Riots Suspend iPhone Production
With supplies of Apple's iPhones already in question, recent developments haven't helped the situation.
About 2,000 Chinese employees of Foxconn, an iPhone assembly company, fought a pitched battle into the early hours Monday, forcing the huge electronics plant to shut down.
Authorities in the northern city of Taiyuan sent 5,000 police to restore order after what the plant's Taiwanese owners Foxconn Technology Group said was a personal dispute in a dormitory that erupted into a massive riot.
Foxconn assembles Apple's iPhones and iPads as well as other products for Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft.
The huge electronics plant, which employs around 80,000, is shut down after more than after the major altercation, Bloomberg reports.
The fight lasted for several hours causing damage to nearby buildings and leaving dozens injured requiring paramilitary to respond in order to control the scene.
The exact reasons for the fight are unclear as claims of personal disputes and rough treatment of workers by security personnel are among the top issues at the production facility.
The plant had seen trouble earlier this year when workers went on strike after management failed to deliver a pay increase. The company has also has come under criticism recently for living conditions in the dorm.
More than 5,000 police were brought in for the most recent trouble.
"A personal dispute between several employees escalated into an incident involving some 2,000 workers at approximately 11pm last night in a privately-managed dormitory," Foxconn said in a statement.
"Clearly there is deep-seated frustration and anger among the employees and no outlet, apart from violence, for that frustration to be released," Geoff Crothall, communication director at China Labour Bulletin, a labor rights group in Hong Kong, said in a statement.
"There is no dialogue and no means of resolving disputes, no matter how minor. So it is not surprising when such disputes escalate into violence."
Foxconn has yet to confirm which of their plants supply Apple, but an employee told Reuters that the plant that rioted is among those that assemble and make parts for Apple's iPhone 5.
