Apple Supplier Faces Worker Revolt in Locked Down China Factory

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Violent clashes, mounting infections and vacant factory floors: the turmoil that’s engulfed tens of thousands of workers at an Apple Inc. supplier in Shanghai is a troubling symptom of China’s extreme efforts to keep factories humming during its worst Covid outbreak since 2020.

Trapped in a bubble for almost two months, locked down by government decree and walled off from the outside world, Quanta Computer Inc.’s mostly low-wage workers are demanding more freedom and beginning to revolt against their overseers, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified for fear of reprisals.

Hundreds of workers have clashed with guards. A large contingent, worried that their supplies would run out should the lockdown persist, flooded past guarded isolation barriers earlier this month in search of daily necessities, according to several employees. Over the past weekend, media reports went viral of a large group storming a dormitory housing Quanta’s Taiwanese managers after a dispute over the prolonged lockdown and pay -- triggering an hours-long standoff confirmed by several workers within the compound.

The incidents underscore how sentiment is souring on a lockdown that’s up-ended the lives of 25 million Shanghainese since March.

“People are getting frustrated and tired of these controls,” one of the workers said. “That’s inevitable, especially when there is no timeline on when all this will end.”

Quanta and Apple representatives declined to comment for this story. In April, Quanta said in a filing to the Taiwan exchange that it was halting production at its Shanghai site and adopting measures in compliance with the local government’s regulations to protect its staff.

The upheaval at one of the most prominent