China: Foxconn staff take huge dangers to flee COVID lockdown

Over the weekend, hundreds of Foxconn manufacturing unit staff within the central Chinese metropolis of Zhengzhou have been filmed escaping the complicated, which has been locked down for weeks because of a COVID outbreak.

Footage posted on social media confirmed droves of staff climbing fences with their belongings, sitting at the back of vans, or strolling alongside a street into the countryside. Cities within the area are actually making ready for an inflow of individuals escaping from the manufacturing unit.

As one of many largest suppliers of Apple’s iPhone, Taiwan-based Foxconn employs round 200,000 staff in Zhengzhou.

The manufacturing unit manufactures near half of the world’s iPhones. The firm didn’t specify the precise variety of contaminated staff or the variety of staff which have fled for house.

However, since Zhengzhou went into lockdown in latest weeks, the corporate has remoted staff an increasing number of. Dining had been banned within the manufacturing unit cafeteria, with staff required to eat meals of their dormitories.

Despite lockdown, iPhone manufacturing should go on

With the stress of assembly the demand from Apple earlier than the vacation season, Foxconn continued to run its manufacturing line beneath a “closed-loop” system, with staff required to stay within the manufacturing unit complicated throughout an energetic coronavirus outbreak.

However, because the virus spreads throughout the manufacturing unit, staff have been topic to additional inside lockdowns.

“Those who are isolated or infected won’t be paid during the isolation, which has caused great financial losses to them,” mentioned Li Qiang, the manager director of China Labor Watch (CLW), a labor rights watchdog primarily based in New York.

“When a lot of people are showing symptoms, some workers may not want to work because if they come in contact with someone who has tested positive, they will be isolated and can’t keep doing the job,” he informed DW.

According to Li, staff have additionally complained about not having sufficient meals to eat and missing fundamental provides whereas in isolation.

“The way Foxconn tests workers is that they will test 20 workers together and those tested positive need to isolate at an unfinished building, with nothing other than a quilt inside,” he mentioned. “There’s not even something to eat.”

Workers who stay outdoors the manufacturing unit have been extra lucky. Liu, a Foxconn employee in her 30s, rents lodging close by and was in a position to drive house with out issues on Monday.

“I was only there for a short-term gig, but I won’t return to Foxconn even after the outbreak is contained,” she informed DW. “The thought of being trapped in a factory for an uncertain period of time freaks me out.”

After the incident attracted widespread worldwide consideration, Li from China Labor Watch mentioned that Foxconn relaxed a few of the strict measures and put extra assets into containing the outbreak.

In an interview with native media shops in China’s Henan province, a Foxconn govt mentioned the manufacturing unit resumed serving meals on the canteen on October 29. Additionally, staff who present up at work and meet the pandemic-prevention standards are given a each day bonus.

Foxconn has additionally mentioned it isn’t stopping staff from leaving the manufacturing unit.

“For some employees who want to return home, the [plant] is cooperating with the government to organize personnel and vehicles to provide a point-to-point orderly return service for employees from today,” Foxconn mentioned in a public assertion on October 30.

‘Red flag’ for labor rights in China

So far, Apple, whose launch of the brand new iPhone 14 depends closely on the Foxconn manufacturing unit in Zhengzhou, has not commented on the incident.

William Nee, the analysis and advocacy coordinator at China Human Rights Defender (CHRD), informed DW that worldwide companies should respect human rights of their operations, no matter China’s willingness to respect and defend these rights.

“This incident should be a red flag to Apple that they need to be conducting extra human rights due diligence to make sure that they are taking account of any human rights abuses that may be taking place,” he added

Nee stays pessimistic concerning the prospects for staff in China as President Xi Jinping begins his third time period in energy.

The incident “shows that Xi Jinping is enacting policies that he thinks will benefit China and its marginalized groups, but in fact, these policies are impacting those groups the most,” Nee mentioned.

“Migrant workers have had a very difficult time with the zero-Covid policies, and that’s why so many people are trying to return to their hometowns. They have no mechanism for expressing their collective grievances and there is no ability to protest safely. It can be very difficult for marginalized groups under Xi,” he added.

China’s authoritarian capitalism

Yaqiu Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), mentioned that the Chinese authorities’s management of data additionally contributed to the exodus of Foxconn staff from the manufacturing unit.

“Chinese authorities’ strict control of information creates the false impression among the workers that if they were infected with coronavirus, the consequences would be severe, and that thought plants a sense of fear in many of their minds,” Wang mentioned.

“Since the goal for the factory is to make money, the management doesn’t care about workers’ access to medical care or access to food. On the one hand, they want to make money and on the other, they must comply with the government’s pandemic control measures. That makes the workers the ultimate victim,” she informed DW.

Teng Biao, a Chinese authorized scholar primarily based within the US, mentioned the Chinese authorities’s ongoing imposition of the zero-Covid technique has affected nearly everybody within the nation, particularly these counting on gig work to earn a residing.

“Some people have lost their income and source of livelihood and have no money to buy enough food to sustain themselves, while many others have been put under mandatory isolation,” he informed DW.

“For a large enterprise like Foxconn, they have to choose between economic interests and the basic rights of its employees,” he added.

“In China’s political and business environment, they most likely will have to prioritize sacrificing the interests of their employees. When the interests and benefits of a company are in conflict with the authorities’ political demands, companies have very little freedom to choose,” he mentioned.