Numerous sources
are reporting that "unrest" among workers at Foxconn's Taiyan plant has
resulted in its
temporary closure. About 2,000 workers took part in
what was either a brawl between factions from different provinces or an
uprising against plant security, depending on whether you believe the
official story or the one emerging from microbloggers on the scene.
Early Monday morning, Foxconn released a statement indicating that
the riot started as a personal disagreement between factory workers in a
dormitory and was eventually brought under control by police, but this
clashes with reports trickling in from users of China's version of
Twitter, Sina Weibo.
Much like with the situations in Egypt and other Arab Spring countries
earlier this year, microbloggers are painting a different picture than
the one presented by official sources; numerous Weibo posts indicate
that the riots were started not by a fight between workers in off-campus
housing, but instead by security guards beating one or more workers
nearly to death. Regardless of the cause, pictures leaking out from the
scene show some destruction, including broken windows and a toppled
guard post building.
The Taiyan plant makes components for the automobile industry as well
as other electronic parts; MSNBC and TUAW both note that the plant is
purported to also manufacture the iPhone 5's aluminum back plate. TUAW speculates that the riots were in no small part caused by the recent long iPhone 5 production ramp-up; Engadget links to a (non-English) report discussing "practically compulsory" overtime related to iPhone 5 production.
China's state-run Xinhua news agency confirms Foxconn's official
version of the events, and posts have begun to disappear from Sino
Weibo. According to one employee, the factory will likely be closed for
two to three days while the riot is "investigated" by Foxconn and local
officials.
Source : http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/09/foxconn-worker-riot-closes-factory/
