Beijing: Foxconn The technology conglomerate has started offering 10,000 yuan ($1,400) incentives to workers in China, an unusual decision announced after violent protests at the world’s biggest iPhone factory.
Apple Inc’s main global production partner said in an online notice that the amount, to be paid in two tranches, would help ease travel home for employees. Of the more than 200,000 workers at Foxconn’s main plant in Zhengzhou, many come from the province or elsewhere in the country. A company representative confirmed the initiative but did not provide further details.
The stimulus, which is normally more than a month’s salary for Foxconn’s blue-collar workers, is likely to appease workers who staged a rare violent protest on Wednesday that criticized Xi Jinping’s Covid zero strategy for economic and trained a spotlight on the social toll. Hundreds of workers clashed with security personnel in the early hours as tensions escalated after nearly a month under tight restrictions intended to stem the Covid outbreak.
Bloomberg News reported that workers walked out of the dormitories in the early hours, pushing and shoving with white-clad guards. In another clip, several men in white suits beat a man lying on the ground with sticks. The audience shouted “Fight, fight!” Crowds of people forced their way past the barricades. At one point, several people surrounded an occupied police car and began shaking the vehicle while shouting incoherently.
Protests started overnight over non-payment of salary and fear of spreading the infection. Bloomberg News reported that several activists were injured and that anti-riot police arrived at the scene to restore order.
The plant had resumed normal operations as of Wednesday evening, Foxconn said in a statement. But the protests underscored how Xi’s policy, which relies on rapid lockdowns to pop up anywhere, is increasingly straining the economy and disorganizing swaths of global supply chains .
Beijing recently issued new directives ordering officials to reduce disruption and use more targeted Covid controls, but rising outbreaks in major cities have again forced local officials to impose tighter restrictions. Hours after the Zhengzhou violence, the local government announced “mobility controls” in some parts of the city until 29 November.
Apple Inc’s main global production partner said in an online notice that the amount, to be paid in two tranches, would help ease travel home for employees. Of the more than 200,000 workers at Foxconn’s main plant in Zhengzhou, many come from the province or elsewhere in the country. A company representative confirmed the initiative but did not provide further details.
The stimulus, which is normally more than a month’s salary for Foxconn’s blue-collar workers, is likely to appease workers who staged a rare violent protest on Wednesday that criticized Xi Jinping’s Covid zero strategy for economic and trained a spotlight on the social toll. Hundreds of workers clashed with security personnel in the early hours as tensions escalated after nearly a month under tight restrictions intended to stem the Covid outbreak.
Bloomberg News reported that workers walked out of the dormitories in the early hours, pushing and shoving with white-clad guards. In another clip, several men in white suits beat a man lying on the ground with sticks. The audience shouted “Fight, fight!” Crowds of people forced their way past the barricades. At one point, several people surrounded an occupied police car and began shaking the vehicle while shouting incoherently.
Protests started overnight over non-payment of salary and fear of spreading the infection. Bloomberg News reported that several activists were injured and that anti-riot police arrived at the scene to restore order.
The plant had resumed normal operations as of Wednesday evening, Foxconn said in a statement. But the protests underscored how Xi’s policy, which relies on rapid lockdowns to pop up anywhere, is increasingly straining the economy and disorganizing swaths of global supply chains .
Beijing recently issued new directives ordering officials to reduce disruption and use more targeted Covid controls, but rising outbreaks in major cities have again forced local officials to impose tighter restrictions. Hours after the Zhengzhou violence, the local government announced “mobility controls” in some parts of the city until 29 November.