Sharp’s parent has massive riot at plant
Sharp is owned by Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision of Taiwan
- Reuters News Service reported that hundreds if not thousands of workers took part in protests/riots outside Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou, China this past week
- The plant is used to assemble Apple iPhones, employs up to 200,000 people
- Workers were reportedly smashing surveillance cameras, and windows
- Caused by unrest over ultra-harsh COVID rules issued by Chinese government, as well as “inept handling of the situation” by Foxconn
- Trigger for start of protests on Wednesday supposedly caused by Foxconn plan to delay bonus payments to employees
- Video footage showed protesters being sprayed with tear gas, and physically beaten by police officers
- Foxconn said in statement that it had fulfilled its payment contracts and that reports of COVID-19 infected staff living on campus with new recruits were untrue
- Foxconn had recently implemented closed-loop operations, where staff live and work onsite, isolated
from rest of world, as part of COVID policy- This policy caused discontent, COVID outbreaks still occurred, and employees complained about poor conditions, including shortages of food, causing some employees to fleet the company
- Some have estimated that thousands of workers fled the factory campus
- Apple Insider magazine is reporting that Foxconn has offered $1400 to protesters, conditional on their resignation, and that over 20,000 accepted the payment