Foxconn Denies Reports of Worker Strike

Foxconn this past weekend denied reports that workers at one of its Chinese factories have gone on strike. China Labor Watch, a U.S.-based non-profit reported this on Friday that a strike occurred at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory that, according to workers, involved three to four thousand production employees. 

On Saturday, China Labor Watch reported that the strike was due to the fact that October 1 to October 8 is a national holiday in China. The non-profit says that the majority of staff taking part in the strike were from the onsite quality control (OQC) line. The story goes that Foxconn required workers in the Zhengzhou factory to work during this holiday period in order to meet production demands for the the iPhone 5. Additionally, CLW says Foxconn raised "overly strict demands" on product quality without providing worker training for the corresponding skills. These events led to workers from the OQC line left the factory on October 5.

China Labor Watch claims that Foxconn denied these workers were on strike but the non-profit cites staff that say the employees went on strike instead of volunteering to work overtime. Foxconn said yesterday in a statement sent to CNet that reports of a strike are inaccurate.

"Any reports that there has been an employee strike are inaccurate, there has been no workplace stoppage in that facility or any other Foxconn facility and production has continued on schedule," the company said in a statement.

Foxconn's statement did confirm two disputes between 'a small group' of production line workers and Quality Assurance personnel at the Zhengzhou plant but says these were isolated incidents that took place on October 1 and 2. The company said it immediately addressed the issues raised by the staff involved. That aside, the company said anyone working over the holiday did so voluntarily and was paid three times their hourly rate, as per Chinese labor laws.

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