[VIDEOS] Arrests as Indian workers ransack iPhone plant over wages

[Lonewarrior]

Indian police have arrested more than 100 workers who went on a rampage over claims of unpaid wages at a Taiwanese-run iPhone factory near Bangalore.

Footage on social media showed smashed CCTV cameras and glass panels, broken lights and a car set on fire at Wistron Infocomm's manufacturing facility.

The workers claim that they have not been fully paid for four months and are being forced to do extra shifts.

Wistron said that it "pledged to follow local labour (laws)".

In a statement to the AFP news agency, the company did not refer directly to the workers' complaints but said that "the incident was caused by people of unknown identities from outside who intruded into and damaged its facility with unclear intentions".

It said it would resume operations as soon as possible.

Bangalore, the capital of southern Karnataka state, is India's technology hub.

The violence broke out as about 2,000 workers from the night shift were leaving the building at Narsapura on Saturday, the Times of India reported.

Hundreds went on a rampage, ransacking the offices of senior executives, destroying furniture, assembly units and smashing glass panels and doors with rods.

Karnataka state's deputy chief minister, CN Ashwathnarayan, condemned the "wanton" violence and said his government would ensure the situation was "resolved expeditiously".

"We will ensure that all workers' rights are duly protected and all their dues are cleared," he tweeted.

One trade union leader told The Hindu newspaper that there was "brutal exploitation" at the plant.

"The state government has allowed the company to flout basic rights," said Satyanand, who uses only one name.

The factory employs about 15,000 workers, according to local media, with most contracted via recruitment firms.

Apple did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment, but it has said in the past that it takes working conditions at supplier sites very seriously.

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-asia-india-55296433?__twitter_impression=true

 

[Technics 1210]

Doubt you will see this in China.

Talk about promoting manufacturing in India - made in India indeed.

 

[tahir_dj]

These things can ve expected from endia

 

[finalfantasy7]

Doubt you will see this in China.

Talk about promoting manufacturing in India - made in India indeed.

not true, do this in china and spend many yrs in prison, being watched and your family watched by the state.

Whats more interesting is the taiwanese company wistron - tawainese always talk how liberal they are as a country and how forward thinking they are, just shows you thr companies are as bad as chinese companies.

Not being paid for 2-3 months - must be really hard, apple will just shrug its shoulders and just most likely leave this plant and go over to vietnam-as its already done this with china on the new $550 headphones thr making

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

The inherent flaws at the heart of Capitalism are evident time and time again. Yet the West continues to tell us that in it, lies our absolution.

 

[watson367]

Looks like China it is.

 

[MenInG]

Seems workers wont stand for slavery any more!

 

[Romali_rotti]

My god, 4 months without Pay ? Apple are you fricken serious ??????

 

[Bewal Express]

The inherent flaws at the heart of Capitalism are evident time and time again. Yet the West continues to tell us that in it, lies our absolution.

But without capitalism there wouldnt be these products

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

But without capitalism there wouldnt be these products

Exactly. We wouldn't have consumerism driven by ridiculously over-priced smartphones; the price of one unit of which could feed entire neighborhoods in the poorest parts of South Asia...for a month. The very idea of buying such an expensive phone is abhorrent on so many levels when a phone, whose basic function is to communicate and at most, take pictures can be bought for much, much less.

We've gotten so attached to these shiny, meaningless, materialistic objects that we can't even imagine a world without them. That's how much Capitalism has brainwashed us and permeated into every facet of our life.

 

[RedwoodOriginal]

Doubt you will see this in China.

Talk about promoting manufacturing in India - made in India indeed.

Exactly. The Chinese state would never let it reach the news, while the workers (if they are lucky) will be sent to the gulag.

Not sure how that's better.

 

[JaDed]

Guess we can never be the manufacturing hub because the truth about manufacturing seems to be coming out slowly whether India or BD.

We should concentrate on service sector and programming. Chinese and Vietnamese will take over manufacturing.

Hope they get their wages.

 

[WhenSultansBowled]

My god, 4 months without Pay ? Apple are you fricken serious ??????

The future is all about neo-slavery. The ultimate global capitalism without anyone to regulate.

All these big companies Apple, Uber, Amazon Samsung, Alibaba etc. don't hire workers, they hire slaves.

 

[globalcitizen]

Its been told that the salary cuts were happening regularly , in fact there was 50% pay cut twice. it all boiled down to this violence when last week some got only 500 rs credit f after months . These are junior techies with salaries of 12 to 15k rs
ofcourse this reaction was not warranted but labourers are not slaves to do ur work without pay

 

[RajBan]

Guess we can never be the manufacturing hub because the truth about manufacturing seems to be coming out slowly whether India or BD.

We should concentrate on service sector and programming. Chinese and Vietnamese will take over manufacturing.

Hope they get their wages.

Apple can forget Indian market if they don't cut down prices and the only way to do this is by having significant manufacturing base in India. That's what Samsung, Sony, Intel are doing. Let's hope for a resolution.

 

[MenInG]

Protests by workers at an Apple supplier’s plant in India that turned violent this month are a reminder that companies need to treat their workers correctly, analysts said on Tuesday, but added that the incident is unlikely to deter foreign firms from investing in the country.

In early December, thousands of contract workers, allegedly enraged over unpaid salaries and overtime payments of several weeks, ransacked Taiwanese manufacturing firm Wistron’s factory in the southern Indian state of Karnataka where it assembles iPhones for Apple, causing damage estimated at up to $7m.

Wistron, which did not respond to an email from Al Jazeera seeking comment, said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on December 13 that it was “deeply shocked” by the events. It added that it “follow the law and [is] supporting the authorities with their investigation” and will “collaborate with related parties to provide any help needed for the employees”.

The incident comes as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to encourage global companies to shift some of their supply chains to India, partly in response to the heightened risks to their operations from continuing trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.

His government has offered subsidies, or so-called production-linked incentives (PLI), tied to manufacturing and investment targets, across 10 sectors. Wistron, as well as other Taiwanese iPhone manufacturers Foxconn and Pegatron, has applied to assemble the products in India under this programme.

Short-term dent
Analysts and industry representatives say the incident, rather than turning potential long-term investors away, is likely to focus their attention on improving systems and processes that involve blue-collar workers, something that is likely to be crucial to the government’s plans to create jobs for the millions joining the workforce every year.

“[The incident was] good in a sense because the PLI scheme has just started, a lot of investors are looking at India … and workers getting paid, and paid on time, are crucial issues to make sure that the business is built on a solid foundation,” said Tarun Pathak, associate director at Counterpoint Research, a technology market research firm. “These are big investments and this is only a short-term dent to their image.”

Sougata Roy Choudhury, executive director at industry body the Confederation of Indian Industry, said that while the employees “had no right” to damage the factory, Wistron was “very much in the wrong” for not paying or underpaying the workers. He said he was not concerned that this would deter foreign investors.

In a statement on December 14, the All India Central Council of Trade Unions said that the real question was how “such brutal exploitation of workers in sweatshop-like conditions was allowed by the manufacturers of the world’s most expensive mobile phones”.

It also questioned how government officials could “claim ignorance of this exploitation”. The union urged the state government to investigate the “unfair labour practices” Wistron had engaged in and to take action against the company.

Growing pains?
The world’s two largest developing economies, India and China, are no strangers to labour problems.

In India, one of the biggest bust-ups between workers and management in recent years took place at carmaker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd’s plant at Manesar in Haryana state in the summer of 2012. It started with a fight on the shop floor between a supervisor and an employee which ultimately led to the death of a manager. In China, several workers at Foxconn facilities committed suicide in 2010 over low pay and stressful work conditions.


“This is part of the process of growing big, and maybe growing too fast, and then companies course-correct,” says Rahul Bajoria, chief India economist at Barclays India. “Unless it leads to any major policy changes, this won’t have a long-lasting impact.”

For now, Apple has said it has put Wistron on probation and will hold off on giving it new orders while the Taiwanese company has removed its employee overseeing operations in the country.

With the government betting on increasing investments under its PLI scheme, “there will be a lot of work done to ensure this doesn’t derail the investment agreements they’ve inked,” added Bajoria.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2...ian-iphone-plant-offer-a-lesson-for-investors