A riot at Foxconn’s Chengdu plant in Sichuan, China earlier this week led to dozens of arrests, according to Chinese news sources. The exact cause of the riot is unknown, but there appear to have been several hundred workers involved.
According to Taiwan’s Want China Times, security guards attempted to stop a suspected thief in one of the men’s dormitories on the plant’s campus. Some workers who had grievances against the plant’s security staff stepped in to hinder the guards. The scuffle quickly turned into a full-blown riot. As many as a thousand workers got in on the action, causing significant amounts of damage to the facilities. Foxconn officials quickly called police, though it took about two hours to settle things back down. Dozens of workers were arrested.
Foxconn is a major electronics manufacturer, and is best known for contracting with Apple to assemble a variety of their most popular products, including the iPhone and iPad. The company has been in the news several times this year over allegations of low wages and poor working conditions, though Apple and Foxconn appear to be taking steps to improve the situation.