Violent protests recently broke out at Apple’s main iPhone factory in China.
Key Details
- After nearly a month of COVID restrictions, hundreds of workers at an Apple factory in China began to protest and fight with security.
- The protests started due to unpaid wages and the fear of spreading COVID, according to a worker.
- Several workers were injured and anti-riot police were sent to the factory in an attempt to calm the situation down.
- Many think that issues such as these will continue to arise if Apple continues to rely on China for vast productions of iPhones.
Why it’s news
Hundreds of workers recently fled out of Apple’s biggest iPhone factory in China and fought with guards in the process.
The ordeal began as a protest to bring light onto the company’s unpaid wages and COVID restrictions, but then the protest turned into a brawl with security and many people were injured in the process.
The factory was hit with a COVID outbreak and was under strict regulations in an effort to eradicate the infection, but many workers did not like the restrictions and thought they were more susceptible to getting sick.
China is operating under a Zero-COVID policy, where if the infection pops up anyone who could have been exposed is isolated for a good amount of time to ensure that the infection can’t be spread.
“I’m really scared about this place, we all could be COVID positive now,” a male worker in the factory said.
Apple’s factory isn’t the only place in China that has had disruptions over COVID outbreaks.
In May, hundreds of workers clashed with security personnel at Quanta Computer Inc.’s factory in Shanghai after they were barred for months from contact with the outside world, while protests emerged in locked-down areas of Guangdong, the southern manufacturing hub, according to Bloomberg News.
Many are saying that protests and other situations like this will continue to happen until Apple quits relying on China to vastly produce iPhones.