Behind the Foxconn unrest: lockdowns and mistrust

STORY: Tech giant Foxconn has been racked by days of protests at its vast plant in Zhengzhou, China.

Workers demonstrated over pay, poor conditions, and strict lockdowns.

The crisis could threaten output at a plant which makes 70% of all iPhones.

Reuters tracked down one former worker to find out what lay behind the unrest.

Mr Hou - who didn’t want to give a first name - said he and many others were attracted by promises of high pay.

Foxconn was offering attractive terms as it grappled with strong year-end demand and China’s health crisis curbs.

But Hou says trouble began when new hires were required to do ten days in quarantine, and pay terms were abruptly changed:

"At first, we thought to address the issue because we didn't voluntarily go to quarantine, and then we wanted to ask whether quarantine could be counted as working days, and then for the first gathering, we just wanted to discuss these issues, and then we didn't know there might be some people trying to make trouble, so as the situation developed, we assembled, and then went down from the dormitory to the gathering, and after it became what it was.”

The Zhengzhou plant is essentially a city of 200,000 workers.

Since October, Foxconn has enforced a closed-loop system due to renewed health-crisis concerns.

That essentially cuts the facility off from the outside world.

But Hou says workers also lost all faith in what the company was saying:

"I left because management was still fairly chaotic, and nothing they said ever counted for anything, so things could change suddenly. We spoke out at night to fight for our rights, but the response could alter by the next morning. Some of us went to fight for our rights, while others just asked questions. After managers answered our questions we returned to our dormitories only to find that the announcement that appeared on apps was different from what they had told us.”

Other workers that Reuters spoke to aired similar grievances.

Foxconn declined to comment, referring only to past statements.

The company has apologized for what it says was a pay-related “technical error”.

If the problems persist through December, analysts say it could cost output of around 10 million iPhones.