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Foxconn Workers On Strike Over iPhone 5 Production

itwbennett writes "That army of robotic assembly line workers we mentioned yesterday apparently can't get started soon enough. As many as 3,000-4,000 workers are on strike at Foxconn's Zhengzhou factory, upset at stricter quality control requirements with the iPhone 5 and having to work through a national holiday this week. 'According to workers, multiple iPhone 5 production lines from various factory buildings were in a state of paralysis for the entire day,' China Labor Watch said. Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo are both blocking searches in Chinese for 'Foxconn strikes.'"

7 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Won't someone... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Won't someone think of the hipsters?

  2. Re:Good for them. by tuppe666 · · Score: 1, Funny

    But to be honest, I hope that both they get what they want AND the iPhone 5's quality goes up. The build quality seems to be pretty hit and miss at the moment. I'm actually thinking of buying a Samsung Galaxy 3, fragile behemoth that it is, just so I don't have to worry about getting a lemon iPhone 5.

    I thought everyone was choosing the Galaxy III over the iPhone because of NFC, storage and screen size ;) No wonder Samsung is expecting to earn $7.3bn while Apple are reducing orders on chips and screens.

    I hope I have satisfied your off-topic troll comment trying to spin worker abuse as a good thing, with a lie.

  3. Re:Why strike now? by tqk · · Score: 5, Funny

    Couldnt they go on strike the day(s) of the holiday, just return the next day and start working?

    Nah. That'd mean double time and a half strike pay. It'd brick the union.

    --
    "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
  4. Re:big surprise by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Funny

    But in the US they have a high tax rate, and aren't allowed to just dump their waste in the local river... so that wont happen anyway.

  5. Re:Why strike now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's not the holiday. It's the company's insistence that the products pass quality control. That's unheard of in Chinese manufacturing.

  6. Re:big surprise by Tough+Love · · Score: 4, Funny

    They'll be even more unhappy once they realize that robots can do their jobs even cheaper than they can.

    Don't be silly, they'll be building the robots.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  7. Re:Good for them! by clarkkent09 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Chinese worker: $350/month.
    Chinese robot (if the article is correct): $175/month.
    Unionized US worker including benefits and taxes: $4000/month for doing a worse job slower.

    20,000,000 iPhone users in the US paying 4x price for their phone so that 2000 can get jobs: priceless

    --
    Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.