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Workers at the biggest factory for Apple’s iPhone in China were kicked and clubbed by cops as violent protests continued over a pay dispute, leading the company to issue a public apology.
Foxconn, the most prominent contract assembler of smartphones and other electronics, offered higher pay to attract more workers to the sprawling Zhengzhou factory to assemble the new iPhone 14 after thousands of employees fled the factory last month after complaining about unsafe working conditions.
The company has struggled to ramp up production hampered by COVID restrictions.
On Tuesday, chaos erupted after workers who had traveled long distances to take jobs at the Foxconn factory accused management of changing terms of their pay, according to an employee, Li Sanshan.
Li said he quit a catering job when he saw an advertisement promising the equivalent of $3,500 for two months of work. But Li said that once employees arrived, the company said they had to work two additional months at lower pay to receive the $3,500.
Videos online showed thousands of workers in surgical masks facing rows of police in white protective suits with plastic riot shields, in rare scenes of open dissent in China.
Police kicked and hit a protester with clubs after he grabbed a metal pole that had been used to strike him.
In one clip, several protesters surrounded a police car with officers inside and began rocking the vehicle back and forth while screaming.
The labor unrest in Zhengzhou comes as the ruling Communist Party faces rising frustration about restrictions in areas across China that have closed shops and offices and confined millions of people to their homes because of record infection numbers.
That has boiled over into protests in some cities.
