Demonstrations broke out at Foxconn’s Gigafactory in Zhengzhou

Video footage has gone viral showing a worker demonstration at a Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, China, which is the world’s largest manufacturing base for Apple phones. Zhengzhou yesterday announced “liquidity management” in its main urban area from 25 to 29, a move widely interpreted as a lockdown.

Video footage showed hundreds of workers demonstrating, some clashing with workers in quarantine suits and riot police.
Some protesters said some of them had been beaten. Video footage showed scenes of clashes.

Hon Hai, Foxconn’s parent company, said in a statement that some new employees at the Zhengzhou campus had raised concerns about their perception of job allowances, and the company stressed that the allowances had always been fulfilled according to the contract.
The statement also said that the Internet recently reported that the Zhengzhou campus dormitory arranged new employees to live with colleagues who had been diagnosed, and that there was no such thing. “These dormitories have gone through special environmental protection and government inspection and approval before new employees can move in.”

The complex was closed last month after the number of COVID-19 cases rose, and some workers fled through a gate and walked home. Foxconn has since hired new workers with promises of high salaries.
The video shows workers chanting for our rights. Others smashed security cameras and Windows.

“They changed the contract so that we couldn’t get the promised subsidies. They quarantined us but didn’t provide us with food,” a Foxconn worker said in the video.
“If they don’t give us what we need, we will keep fighting.”
He also said he witnessed a man being beaten by police and seriously injured.
A recent employee who joined Foxconn said in an interview that the workers were protesting because Foxconn had changed its contractual commitments.

He says new employees are worried about getting infected from previous outbreaks. “The workers are protesting to get their subsidies and go home.”
He also revealed that police had redeployed at the factory on Wednesday morning. Crowds of police could be seen on the video footage.
Another new Foxconn employee told the BBC that on the same day he saw “a man lying on the ground bleeding from the head” at the protest site.
“I don’t know exactly why people are protesting, but they [the company] put our new employees together with old employees who have been diagnosed,” he said.
Taiwan-based Foxconn is Apple’s main contractor, and the Zhengzhou Gigafacitor assembles most of the world’s iphones.
In late October, workers fled the factory. At the time of the COVID-19 outbreak, workers complained that they were being treated poorly.