Escape from Foxconn: Workers recount Covid chaos at iPhone factory
Zhang Yao recalls the moment he realised something had gone deeply wrong at the Chinese mega-factory where he and hundreds of thousands of other workers assembled iPhones and other high-end electronics.
In early October, supervisors suddenly warned him that 3,000 colleagues had been taken into quarantine after someone tested positive for Covid-19 at the factory.
"They told us not to take our masks off," Zhang, speaking under a pseudonym for fear of retaliation, told AFP by telephone.
What followed was a weeks-long ordeal including food shortages and the ever-present fear of infection, before he finally escaped on Tuesday.
Zhang's employer, Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn, has said it faces a "protracted battle" against infections and imposed a "closed loop" bubble around its sprawling campus in central China's Zhengzhou city.
Local authorities locked down the area surrounding the major Apple supplier's factory on Wednesday, but not before reports emerged of employees fleeing on foot and a lack of adequate medical care at the plant.
China is the last major economy committed to a zero-Covid strategy, persisting with snap lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines in a bid to stamp out emerging outbreaks.
But new variants have tested officials' ability to snuff out flare-ups and dragged down economic activity with the threat of sudden disruptions.
- Desperation -
Multiple workers have recounted scenes of chaos and increasing disorganisation at Foxconn's complex of workshops and dormitories, which form a city-within-a-city near Zhengzhou's airport.
Zhang told AFP that "positive tests and double lines (on antigen tests) had become a common sight" in his workshop before he left.
"Of course we were scared, it was so close to us."
"People with fevers are not guaranteed to receive medicine," another Foxconn worker, a 30-year-old man who also asked to remain anonymous, told AFP.
"We are drowning," he said.
Those who decided to stop working were not offered meals at their dormitories, Zhang said, adding that some were able to survive on personal stockpiles of instant noodles.
Kai, a worker at in the complex who gave an interview to state-owned Sanlian Lifeweek, told the magazine Foxconn's "closed loop" involved cordoning off paths between dormitory compounds and the factory, and complained he was left to his own devices after being thrown in quarantine.
TikTok videos geolocated by AFP showed mounds of uncollected rubbish outside buildings in late October, while employees in N95 masks squeezed onto packed shuttle buses taking them from dormitories to their work stations.
A 27-year-old woman working at Foxconn, who asked not to be named, told AFP a roommate who tested positive for Covid was sent back to her dormitory on Thursday morning, crying, after she decided to hand in her notice while in quarantine.
"Now the three of us are living in the same room: one a confirmed case and two of us testing positive on the rapid test, still waiting for our nucleic acid test results," the worker told AFP.
Many became so desperate by the end of last month that they attempted to walk back to their hometowns to get around Covid transport curbs.
As videos of people dragging their suitcases down motorways and struggling up hills spread on Chinese social media, the authorities rushed in to do damage control.
The Zhengzhou city government on Sunday said it had arranged for special buses to take employees back to their hometowns.
Surrounding Henan province has officially reported a spike of more than 600 Covid cases since the start of this week.
- Distrust -
When Zhang finally attempted to leave the Foxconn campus on Tuesday, he found the company had set up obstacle after obstacle.
"There were people with loudspeakers advertising the latest Foxconn policy, saying that each day there would be a 400 yuan ($55) bonus," Zhang told AFP.
A crowd of employees gathered at a pick-up point in front of empty buses but were not let on.
People in hazmat suits, known colloquially as "big whites" in China, claimed they had been sent by the city government.
"They tried to persuade people to stay in Zhengzhou... and avoid going home," Zhang said.
"But when we asked to see their work ID, they had nothing to show us, so we suspected they were actually from Foxconn."
Foxconn pointed to the local government's lockdown orders from Wednesday when asked by AFP if it attempted to stop employees from leaving, without giving any further response.
The company had on Sunday said it was "providing employees with complimentary three meals a day" and cooperating with the government to provide transport home.
Eventually, the crowd of unhappy workers who had gathered decided to take matters into their own hands and walked over seven kilometres on foot to the nearest highway entry ramp.
There, more people claiming to be government officials pleaded with the employees to wait for the bus.
The crowd had no choice as the road was blocked.
Buses eventually arrived at five in the afternoon -- nearly nine hours after Zhang had begun his attempt to secure transport.
"They were trying to grind us down," he said.
Back in his hometown, Zhang is now waiting out the home quarantine period required by the local government.
"All I feel is, I've finally left Zhengzhou," he told AFP.
iPhone factory lockdown shows risks
of China dependence, analysts say
Sébastien RICCI
Thu, November 3, 2022
The lockdown of Foxconn's Zhengzhou factory, the world's biggest producer of iPhones, has highlighted some of the risks of relying on zero-Covid China's manufacturing sector, analysts told AFP.
Foxconn, Apple's principal subcontractor, has seen a surge in Covid-19 cases at its Zhengzhou site, leading the company to lock down the vast complex in a bid to keep the virus in check.
Images then emerged of panicking workers fleeing the site on foot in the wake of allegations of poor conditions at the facility, which employs hundreds of thousands of workers.
Foxconn is China's biggest private sector employer, with over a million people working across the country in its around thirty factories and research institutes.
But Zhengzhou is the Taiwanese giant's crown jewel, churning out iPhones in quantities not seen anywhere else.
"In a normal situation, almost all the iPhone production is happening in Zhengzhou," said Ivan Lam, an analyst with specialist firm Counterpoint.
- Risk of 'strong dependence' -
Apple manufactures more than 90 percent of its products in China, which is also one of its most important markets.
"For Apple, it is once again a bad example in terms of the stability of production chains," Alicia Garcia Herrero, Asia-Pacific manager for Natixis bank, told AFP.
Experts say the company’s heavy dependence on China "brings potential risks, especially when the US-China trade war shows no signs of de-escalating," according to Dezan Shira & Associates, a consulting firm.
Opened in 2010, the Zhengzhou factory employs up to 300,000 people who live on-site all year round -- creating a sprawling tech hub known as "iPhone city".
It is made up of three factories, one of which produces the iPhone 14 -- Apple's newest handset model.
Apple did not respond to AFP's request for comment on how exactly the lockdown will affect its production.
Analyst Lam estimates the partial stopping of work at the site resulted in a loss of "10 to 30 percent" of output, but said part of the production has also been temporarily moved to other Foxconn sites in China.
According to Foxconn, the site is currently operating a "closed loop" with the workers avoiding all contact with the outside world, while their daily bonuses have been quadrupled.
"This incident may have a limited impact," on worldwide iPhone production, estimated analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who specialises in Apple products.
"But suppliers in China must learn to improve closed-loop production efficiency in response to the zero-Covid policy," he added.
- Looking elsewhere -
China is the last major economy committed to a zero-Covid strategy, persisting with snap lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines in a bid to stamp out emerging outbreaks.
But new variants have tested local officials' ability to snuff out flare-ups faster than they can spread, causing much of the country to live under an ever-changing mosaic of Covid curbs.
Apple has already begun outsourcing part of its production to India and is eyeing Vietnam in a bid to wean itself off Chinese manufacturing -- a trend accelerated by Covid.
But that's not so simple -- last year, nearly 7.5 million iPhones were made in India, just three percent of Apple's total production.
"Increasing the capacity of factories (in India) is difficult," Lam said.
The biggest iPhone factory in the world just got locked down, but some workers managed to escape days ago
VCG/VCG via Getty
China’s “COVID-zero” policy has led to numerous lockdowns, supply-chain nightmares, and the slowing of its economy.
But the country is sticking with it. And after several COVID cases were reported by Bloomberg, China is locking down the largest iPhone manufacturing plant in the world for seven days to try to curb the spread of the disease, Bloomberg reported Wednesday after the local government announced it over WeChat.
The lockdown announcement comes days after reports that several workers have fled for fear of getting trapped. One worker identified by Zhuo by the Washington Post said that he and 200 other people made a break for it while the company was still operating as a “closed loop,” or contained bubbles to minimize virus exposure, but not fully locked down. He climbed a seven-foot wall and walked several miles before someone gave him a ride home.
Foxconn quadrupled daily bonuses for those deployed at the factory to 400 yuan ($55) a day from 100 yuan in an effort to get them to stay, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing Foxconn’s official WeChat account.
The factory employs 200,000 people, earning it the nickname “iPhone city,” and workers who test positive for COVID will be forced into mandatory isolation, Bloomberg reported.
The area near Foxconn Technology’s plant in Zhengzhou has been cleared of vehicles and people who were not medical or other essential workers. The city reported 359 cases on Tuesday—a threefold jump from a day earlier.
A lockdown means that Foxconn employees will not be allowed to go in and out of the factory for work until at least Nov. 9. The plant will continue to operate in a bubble, according to Bloomberg. However, it is unclear how Foxconn will facilitate production with fewer workers than usual.
Foxconn did not immediately return Fortune’s request for comment.
The Taiwanese company Hon Hai Precision Industry owns the Zhengzhou plant, which alone produces four out of five of Apple’s most recent iPhone models.
The lockdown will likely hurt the production and shipment of iPhones in the lead-up to the holiday season. In September, Apple also launched its new line of handsets, the iPhone 14. During its fourth-quarter earnings call last Thursday, the company said the supply for its new model was constrained. The upcoming holidays will be critical for Apple as more consumers seek to buy gadgets at this time of year.
To address the gap in supply, Foxconn is reportedly increasing production at another factory in Shenzhen, according to Reuters. It has implemented closed loops to minimize virus exposure in March and July this year at another factory location in China.
Workers have been frustrated with the strict measures; many have taken to social media to talk about it. Foxconn denied rumors about the death of its employees in its dormitory, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Yet another lockdown in China will test the world’s biggest iPhone factory’s “closed loop” management system
Wed, November 2, 2022
The industrial park that houses Foxconn’s main iPhone plant in China’s Zhengzhou is going into a strict lockdown for a week.
As covid-19 cases rise in and around the iPhone maker’s factory, the government is barring citizens from leaving their homes from Nov. 2-9. No vehicles, except those ferrying essentials, will be allowed on the road.
Read more
Technically, the iPhone factory can’t let workers or parts for assembly in and out.
The measure isn’t entirely surprising: Curbs to contain covid-19 have been closing in on the industrial area for weeks now. Any signs of restrictions lifting in the capital of the Henan province have been dismissed as performative by locals who have been grappling with violent enforcement, inadequate health care, and mental stress.
But Foxconn has tried to maintain the illusion that it’s been business as usual. Workers, equipped with masks and sanitizers, continue their work under a “closed-loop” management system—they live and work in the factory complex. But is it really working?
Foxconn’s workers are in distress
The larger sacrifice of residing and working on site wasn’t the end of workers’ woes:
🍲For a couple weeks, Foxconn banned all dine-in at canteens, requiring workers to take their meals in their dormitories. It provided three meals free of charge daily, but it wasn’t always in prime condition
🚪Workers could only take a few routes across the complex since many entrances were shut
🤒Foxconn apparently didn’t pay much heed to those affected by the virus. There was no food or medicine provided, and employees who tested positive were isolated in nearby unfinished apartment buildings, according to China Labor Watch
🏃While the factory claims it has been arranging transport for workers who want to go home, videos on social media show employees lugging suitcases and jumping fences. The fear of lockdown and unsafe working conditions has been compelling thousands to flee.
Foxconn’s Zhengzhou iPhone factory, by the digits
200,000: Workers in the Zhengzhou plant; the largest iPhone production site in the world, of which around have have reportedly left
45%: Share of Foxconn’s revenues that come from Apple
80%: Foxconn’s Zhengzhou facility is responsible for the bulk of the iPhone 14 series production, according to Counterpoint senior analyst Ivan Lam.
10%: Share of global iPhone production hit when the Zhengzhou factory abruptly adopted its “closed-loop” strategy, according to TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo
30%: Apple’s iPhone production to slump in November due to lockdown restrictions
400 yuan ($55): Daily bonuses for Foxconn employees have quadrupled from 100 yuan, according to the official WeChat account of Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant
25 miles: How far one worker walked to flee the lockdown
Unknown: How many employees have been infected, how many new cases are occuring in the factory, and how many—if any—have received treatment
China’s zero-covid strategy is hurting business
To contain the resurgence of Covid, the Chinese government has given cities the power to adopt snap lockdowns, mass testing, and lengthy quarantines. To reduce the impact of the sudden and drastic measures, several businesses from battery factories to ports have adopted closed loop systems. Drone maker DJI and automaker BYD also jumped on the bandwagon. Ahead of the holiday season, Foxconn has adopted the strategy to keep production running, too.
Besides siloing off workers in covid-hit areas, Foxconn is also trying to make up for the loss in production in Zhengzhou with its factories elsewhere, like Shenzhen. Foxconn’s India plant could’ve been another option, but it’s a much smaller-scale operation.
Regardless, Apple, a trillion dollar behemoth, can likely stomach the production slowdown. But not all businesses can.
Several companies are bogged down by productivity losses. The world’s factory keeps shutting and reopening parts, hurting economic activity across industries and across the world. Players in retail, food and beverage, tourism, and more, are suffering because of the constant uncertainty, too.
The mounting protests, anti-lockdown graffiti, and altercations with the police are proof the public is irate about not being able to resume normal life, like much of the rest of the world.
Related stories
📱Apple’s manufacturing moves away from China are a drop in the ocean
🦠 Why China won’t give up on zero-covid in 2022
🇮🇳 Will Apple ever make new iPhone models in India before it does in China?
No comments:
Post a Comment