Why are Chinese workers fleeing Foxconn-run iPhone factory?

Workers are fleeing a Foxconn-run iPhone factory in China’s Zhengzhou.

Videos and photos shared online purportedly show around 10 people jumping a fence outside the Foxconn plant.

Workers have broken out of #Apple’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 kilometres 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

_Firstpost h_as not independently verified their authenticity.

The development comes in the backdrop of a lockdown being ordered in Zhengzhou after a spike in COVID cases as China continues to grapple with President Xi Jinping’s ‘zero COVID’ strategy.

Meanwhile, the November iPhone shipments from the factory known as ‘iPhone city’ could be reduced by up to 30 per cent, Reuters reported.

Let’s take a closer look at all the happenings:

Chinese workers flee deteriorating conditions

As per Bloomberg, Chinese social media platforms are rife with purported photos and clips of Foxconn workers jumping over fences with their belongings and fleeing from Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant in central China, which employs about 200,000 people.

Clips and pictures also show the residents giving those leaving food.

In a show of support, residents in the vicinity left bottled water and provisions next to roads with signs such as: “For Foxconn workers returning home”, according to social media posts.

“Some people were walking amid wheat fields with their luggage, blankets and quilts,” wrote a user of WeChat in a post about the social media images.

“I couldn’t help but feel sad.”

The trouble began after the company in Zhengzhou, the capital of China’s Henan province, shuttered cafeterias for fear its workers contracting COVID-19.

While Foxconn has not disclosed how many workers at the Zhengzhou site had been diagnosed with COVID-19, the company told the South China Morning Post  earlier this week that “a small number” of workers on the Zhengzhou campus were affected and that production remained “relatively stable”.

The company further denied that nearly 20,000 workers had tested positive.

Meanwhile, authorities in Zhengzhou have reported 264 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases since 19 October.

As per Reuters, factories in affected areas are often allowed to stay open on condition they operate under a “closed loop” system where staff live and work on-site. Businesses have said such arrangements pose numerous difficulties.

Foxconn on 19 October banned dining at canteens at the Zhengzhou plant and required workers to eat meals in dormitories.

It said production was normal.

The exodus began after a lockdown led to deteriorating living conditions with food supplies running low and reports of workers being confined to their dormitories.

The measures led to people who said they worked at the site venting frustration about their treatment and provisions via social media.

As per Bloomberg, a clip showed rubbish piled up outside dorm rooms, while another showed people jostling for food in an apartment complex, where workers were alleged to have been sent for quarantine.

Workers on production lines were handed meal boxes and those infected or confined to their rooms given items such as bread and instant noodles, Bloomberg reported.

A Foxconn worker speaking to the South China Morning Post anonymously said the number of positive cases on campus ‘have soared’ and that the manager did not act quickly enough to separate those who tested positive from the rest.

One worker told the outlet the on-site living conditions were “terrible”.

Xia, 22, told Financial Times it was “total chaos in the dormitories” he and colleagues were being kept in. “We jumped a plastic fence and a metal fence to get out of the campus,” he added.

BBC reported that the Taiwan-based company claimed on Sunday that it would not stop workers from leaving.

“The government agreed to resume dine-in meals to improve the convenience and satisfaction of employees’ lives,” Foxconn said in a statement on Sunday.

It added that for those wanting to return home, “the [plant> is co-operating with the government to organise personnel and vehicles to provide a point-to-point orderly return service for employees from today”.

Cities in central China hastily drew up plans to isolate migrant workers fleeing to their hometowns from a vast assembly facility of iPhone maker Foxconn (2317.TW) in COVID-hit Zhengzhou, fearing they could trigger coronavirus outbreaks.

Late on Saturday, cities near Zhengzhou, including Yuzhou, Changge and Qinyang, urged Foxconn workers to report to local authorities in advance before heading home.

Returning workers are to travel “point-to-point” in pre-arranged vehicles and are to be quarantined on arrival, they said in separate letters on their respective social media accounts addressed to Zhengzhou Foxconn workers.

‘iPhone production could slump 30%’

Production of Apple iPhones could slump by as much as 30 per cent at one of the world’s biggest factories next month due to tightening COVID-19 curbs in China, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday.

Foxconn is working to boost production at another factory in Shenzhen city to make up for the shortfall, said the person, declining to be identified as the information was private.

The possible impact on production comes amid a traditionally busy time for electronics makers ahead of the year-end holiday season, which is also a prime time for vendors such as Apple.

Foxconn on Sunday said it was bringing the situation under control and would coordinate back-up production with other plants to reduce any potential impact. Its share price closed down 1.4 per cent on Monday versus a 1.3 per cent rise in the broader market (.TWII). read more

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

Foxconn is Apple’s biggest iPhone maker, producing 70 per cent of iPhone shipments globally, which in turn makes up 45 per cent of the Taiwanese firm’s revenue, analysts at Taipei-based Fubon Research said this month.

It also builds the device in India, but its Zhengzhou factory assembles the majority of its global output.

A second person familiar with the situation said many workers remained at the Zhengzhou plant and that production was continuing.

Disruptions from China’s COVID policies to commerce and industry have intensified in recent weeks as cases multiplied. Shanghai Disneyland said on Saturday it would operate at reduced capacity. On Wednesday, Universal Beijing Resort was suspended after the visit of one infected individual.

“We are very aware that under the current situation, it is a protracted battle,” Foxconn said.

But the situation was gradually coming under control, it said, and Foxconn would coordinate back-up production capacity with its other plants to reduce any potential impact.

Foxconn implemented closed loop measures in March and July at its smaller Shenzhen factory as cases in the southern city rose.

In May, the Shanghai plant of another Apple supplier, MacBook assembler Quanta Computer Inc, was also hit by worker chaos after the discovery of COVID-19 cases despite a closed-loop system being put in place.

With inputs from agencies

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