Last Friday saw 3,000 to 4,000 workers at a Foxconn iPhone 5 manufacturing plant in central China go on strike. Production of the phone has been halted, and the timing could not be worse for Apple Inc; the corporation is already facing supply constraints just weeks after the massive global launch of its latest smartphone.
The China Labor Watch has reported that workers are striking in response to “over-exacting quality controls as well as demands they work through the week-long National Day holidays.” Work-place tensions are apparently not new to factories operated by Taiwanese contract manufacturing giant Foxconn; riots in a northern China facility and conflicts between workers and quality control inspectors had previously been reported.
Across China, Apple and Foxconn have been accused of providing poor working conditions and low wages. These claims have led the companies to “organize an audit of factory conditions, raise wages, improve safety and reduce overtime,” but clearly more action needs to be taken to ensure that wokers are satisfied. Employee happiness may not be at the top of every corporation’s priorities, but this strike demonstrates that unfair treatment of employees can prove extremely detrimental to production and is therefore something that companies ought to take seriously.