The much-anticipated launch of Apple’s iPhone 5 has been tainted by industrial disputes with workers on opposite sides of the world and different ends of the production process.
As French workers and distributors took to the streets to protest the global giants’ retail policies, details have emerged of a riot involving more than 2,000 workers at Foxconn’s Taiyuan factory which manufactures iPhones in China.
In Paris, Apple store workers walked off the job complaining about the company’s employment practices, including daily security checks and over-zealous monitoring by CCTV of toilet breaks.
They were joined by disgruntled on-sellers of Apple products, whose company was placed in receivership in July under the weight of Apple’s direct retail strategy. The re-sellers argue that after promoting the company’s products for 30 years they are now being punished for their success in building the brand.
While the protests generated colour and noise and detracted from the glitzy Paris launch of iPhone 5, they were mild compared to the unrest brewing in Foxconn, a Taiwanese technology company that manufactures millions of iphones for Apple.
According to China Labour Watch (CLW), the riot on the night of 23 September 2012 left 40 people injured.
“The initial trigger of the incident involves a conflict between some guards and a worker. The guards reportedly dragged the worker into a van and began beating him. This led to the involvement of other workers, quickly devolving into a large-scale group fight between workers and guards. By the end of the night, the guards had ran away.” CLW reports.
The factory has now reopened but the fracas has placed renewed focus on the gap between the image of high-tech products and the reality of their production.
A report by the Hong Kong-based Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) on employment within Foxconn’s Chinese factories released just two days before the most recent riot provides some context.
Workers at Foxcomm’s Zhengzhou factory interviewed by SACOM talk about how they are recruited by the government to meet demand for Apple product and described harsh working conditions including being required to work to quota leading to large amounts of unpaid overtime.
They also complain of ‘militaristic management practices’ including arbitrary relocation of workers to meet demand for the iPhone 5 and inhumane management practises, such as requiring written permission to take toilet breaks and workers being forced to write confessions when pulled up for trivial issues like incorrect seating.
CLW is calling for consumers to put greater pressure on Apple to take responsibility for the actions of its contractors.
“When Apple puts in orders with Foxconn for the new iPhone, it never considers the human rights of the workers nor the production capacity of its factories. Rather, it is only concerned with sales revenues, PR, customers - its own interests,” CLW says.
