Iphone employees fight oppression
Glass is seen broken after a mass brawl broke out at a Foxconn plant in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province on Sunday. Photo: CFP
Editor's note: At Beijing Shots, we've mentioned the advantages, and disadvantages of Apple corporation's presence in China. Here we have now, another negative example of Apple corporation. You would think that Foxconn, and Apple has learned their lesson from the suicides that happened in previous years, but no, this has only led Foxconn, and Apple to become more fascist in their dealings. Perhaps fascism is all they know. Foxconn/Apple's factories are described as prison like, with guards, oppressing, and bullying workers. It seems that Foxconn and Apple's response to the suicides have not been to improve working conditions, but to hire guards to "keep the employees in line". The repression may have worked for a few years, but now the tension has erupted, and the anger, and despair cannot be contained any longer. Foxconn/Apple must have been doing terrible things to their employees, otherwise a riot of such magnitude would not have broken out. As many have mentioned, although the Taiwanese like Guo Tai Ming, and foreign corporations bring investments, and jobs to mainland China, they also bring with them, all sorts of nasty things, such as fascism, greed, repression, and exploitation. Maybe what needs to happen is, before "investors" are allowed to operate their sweat shop in mainland China, they need to go through some training on workers rights. Corporations like Foxconn, and Apple ought to be punished for abusing their workers. Furthermore, we must get guarantees that something like this will never happen again. Apple, and Foxconn need to straighten out their act, not hire armed guards to repress employees. Maybe Taiwanese workers accept being pushed around, but mainlanders have their pride. This riot should send a very loud message to all the exploitative "investors" out there. The employees will not tolerate fascism. Foxconn announced several months ago, it will be opening factories in Brazil. Let this riot be a warning to Brazilians. Brace yourself, for Brazilians will! soon be exploited, the same way Chinese are. As responsible citizens, we must put an end to the oppression and exploitation executed by corporations like Apple, and Foxconn, not simply allow them to relocate to another country, and continue their reign of terror. The people of Brazil ought to raise concerns to their politicians for allowing such an exploitative corporation to enter their country. Consumers ought to also think twice before buying an iphone, anything made by Apple, Foxconn, or other exploitative corporations such as Samsung.
Foxconn was forced to shut down its plant in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province Monday after a fight broke out among 2,000 of its workers late Sunday, leaving some 40 people injured, the Taiwan electronics giant said.
The brawl occurred at about 11 pm Sunday in a worker dormitory. Around 5,000 policemen were sent to the scene, and no one died, according to the Taiyuan police, Xinhua reported.
The fight was brought under control at around 3 am Monday morning, and local authorities are investigating the cause of the incident.
"Roads leading to the plant have been blocked and police cars are all over the nearby parking lots. Armed police and riot police have been sent to the scene to keep order," an employee with a human resources company for Foxconn at Taiyuan told the Global Times Monday.
The incident started with a dispute between two workers, and escalated into a riot when the plant's security guards approached and started beating workers, said the employee surnamed Fang.
Online pictures and videos taken at the scene showed that plant facilities were damaged, the windows of a police booth and a supermarket had been smashed and a police car had been overturned.
The cause of the dispute is under investigation, but it "appears not to have been work-related," said the Foxconn Technology Group in a statement.
"Workers told me it was a worker from Central China's Henan Province who stabbed a man from East China's Shandong Province and fled. Some Shandong workers who were watching were beaten by security guards and it finally turned into a fight between workers and security guards," Fang said, adding that security guards sometimes beat workers.
There are about 1,000 security guards in the plant, he said.
The 40 people injured, all male including three with serious injuries, received medical treatment at hospitals, said Taiyuan police, according to the Xinhua report.
The Taiyuan facility employs 79,000 people and manufactures automobile electronic components, consumer electronic components and precision moldings.
A previous riot among Foxconn workers was reported in June, when seven employees with Foxconn's Chengdu facility had a conflict with a restaurant owner after drinking, leading to a brawl that involved more than 100 people.
source: global times
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