Foxconn worker riot closes factory

Numerous sources are reporting that "unrest" among workers at Foxconn's Taiyan plant has resulted in its temporary closure. About 2,000 workers took part in what was either a brawl between factions from different provinces or an uprising against plant security, depending on whether you believe the official story or the one emerging from microbloggers on the scene.

Early Monday morning, Foxconn released a statement indicating that the riot started as a personal disagreement between factory workers in a dormitory and was eventually brought under control by police, but this clashes with reports trickling in from users of China's version of Twitter, Sina Weibo. Much like with the situations in Egypt and other Arab Spring countries earlier this year, microbloggers are painting a different picture than the one presented by official sources; numerous Weibo posts indicate that the riots were started not by a fight between workers in off-campus housing, but instead by security guards beating one or more workers nearly to death. Regardless of the cause, pictures leaking out from the scene show some destruction, including broken windows and a toppled guard post building.

The Taiyan plant makes components for the automobile industry as well as other electronic parts; MSNBC and TUAW both note that the plant is purported to also manufacture the iPhone 5's aluminum back plate. TUAW speculates that the riots were in no small part caused by the recent long iPhone 5 production ramp-up; Engadget links to a (non-English) report discussing "practically compulsory" overtime related to iPhone 5 production.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency confirms Foxconn's official version of the events, and posts have begun to disappear from Sino Weibo. According to one employee, the factory will likely be closed for two to three days while the riot is "investigated" by Foxconn and local officials


http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/09/foxconn-worker-riot-closes-factory/