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Kin Cheung/AP
A file photo of workers on an assembly line at a Foxconn plant in Shenzhen, China.
Foxconn
Apple supplier Foxconn shuts plant after 2,000-worker brawl
40 people were injured after a “personal dispute” among workers escalated into a larger dispute.
A MAJOR BRAWL at a Chinese manufacturing plant operated by Foxconn, which assembles products for Apple and other tech firms, involved some 2,000 workers and left around 40 people injured, its parent company Hon Hai said today.
The incident happened at around 11pm local time yesterday (4pm Irish time) in a privately-managed dormitory for Foxconn workers at a factory in Taiyuan in northern China, Hon Hai said in a statement.
It said the incident started “as a personal dispute between several employees” and that local police brought the situation under control at around 3:00 am Monday morning.
“The cause of this dispute is under investigation by local authorities and we are working closely with them in this process, but it appears not to have been work-related,” it said.
Hon Hai spokesman Simon Hsing told AFP he could not confirm if the Taiyuan facility was shut in the wake of the brawl, though it has been widely reported that production was halted for some time.
The Taiyuan plant employs 79,000 workers and manufactures automobile electronic components, consumer electronic components and precision moldings.
Foxconn is the world’s largest maker of computer components and assembles products for Apple, Sony and Nokia. It employs about one million workers in China, roughly half of them based in its main facility in Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong.
The company has come under the spotlight after suicides and labour unrest at its Chinese plants since 2010, which activists have blamed on tough working conditions.
