iPhone manufacturer Foxconn ordered to ‘resume livelihood’ after Covid-19 debacle
The local authorities have ordered that iPhone manufacturer Foxconn “resume production and livelihood” in an orderly manner after one of its facilities in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou was put under partial Covid-19 lockdown, resulting in scores of workers fleeing dormitories on foot.
Videos emerged over the weekend of hundreds of workers walking across crop fields and on the side of highways while dragging their personal belongings.
“A (joint working group) dispatched to Foxconn’s industrial park has requested that the firm bear the main responsibility,” said a Monday statement from the Hanghaigang district government, the area in Zhengzhou where Foxconn’s facilities are located.
The company was ordered to take actions including strictly enforcing measures for epidemic prevention and control, and increasing awareness of such measures, according to the statement.
It is unclear how much of production has resumed at the affected facility, but a social media post by the district government on Monday afternoon showed workers back to eating in the company’s cafeteria, albeit with plastic screens between diners.
The district authority said the city has dispatched support, including additional Covid-19 testers and workers to disinfect the facilities, while providing a list of counselors to offer mental health support.
In a statement, Foxconn said it was providing transportation for workers wanting to leave.
Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan province, where Taiwan-headquartered Foxconn runs three facilities hiring about 300,000 people, has been partially put under lockdown since early October after dozens of Covid-19 cases surfaced.
On Oct 19, the company banned all dining-in at canteens and required workers to have meals in their dormitories, assuring employees that production was going on as per normal.
In the week that ended on Oct 29, Zhengzhou reported close to 167 locally transmitted cases, up from 97 infections in the week before.
Rumors started circulating that there were up to 20,000 infections among Foxconn staff, which the company had refuted as being false.
The city government has said the outbreak in the plant is controllable, but gave no details on how many infections stemmed from the facility.
By the weekend, the opacity in information meant emotions ran high and a fear of infection led some workers to make a run for it.
Videos widely shared on social media showed people walking on the side of highways and across fields because of a lack of transportation, as well as to avoid Covid-19-related checkpoints.
Locals in Henan were seen putting out bottled water and food for these individuals, with signs that said “for the workers of Foxconn” and “safe travel home”.
At least seven villages and townships across Henan province have posted public notices telling the workers to notify the local authorities before returning to their homes, giving instructions on how to ensure minimal contact with the larger population.
There are also concerns that the latest incident at the iPhone assembly plant could bear on November’s output by as much as 30 per cent during a traditionally busy time ahead of the year-end holiday season.
Thousands of components are shipped from across the world to Zhengzhou, where they are assembled before getting sent off to the rest of the world.
The firm said on Monday that it plans to tap alternative sites within the city to maintain production levels. Foxconn operates two other plants in Zhengzhou.