What just happened? Workers at an iPhone production facility in India are said to have engaged in a mass riot on Saturday, damaging furniture, assembly units, and vehicles. According to early reports, employees at the plant – which is operated by Apple’s assembly partner Wistron – claim that they are not being paid the wages which they were originally promised.
The plant in question is based in Narasapura and is operated by Wistron, a Taiwan-based company which manufactures iPhones at the facility. A significant majority of the plant’s 2,000 workers are said to have engaged in the mass riot, which involved destroying assembly units and setting fire to vehicles.
The cause of the dispute, according to The Times of India, is pay – the bottom line being that employees aren’t being paid what they were told they’d receive.
— TOI Bengaluru (@TOIBengaluru) December 12, 2020
An unnamed employee explained: “While an engineering graduate was promised Rs 21,000 per month, his/her salary had reduced to Rs 16,000 and, subsequently, to Rs 12,000 in the recent months. Non-engineering graduates’ monthly salary had reduced to Rs 8,000. The salary amount being credited to our accounts have been reducing and it was frustrating to see this.”
Videos depicting rioting workers destroying Wistron property have been surfacing online. Although it’s not known if anyone has been injured or attacked during the riot, employees are said to have attacked the offices of senior executives. As of writing, neither Wistron nor Apple have commented on the situation.