The 2,000-person fight was allegedly in response to security's beating a worker
Call it another black eye for Foxconn, the embattled Chinese manufacturing company responsible for assembling hot Apple products like the new iPhone 5. Foxconn's 79,000-employee Taiyuan plant was shuttered earlier today after a fight escalated to the point that it involved 2,000 company workers.
It's believed the riot began as a result of a small handful of Foxconn security workers violently beating one of the estimated 1 million workers employed by the company. Word of the abuse spread through a Chinese Twitter-like site and quickly spiraled into angry protest. Posts on the social media site suggest that as many as 2,000 workers were involved in the riot. According to a statement by Foxconn, "The cause of this dispute is under investigation by local authorities and we are working closely with them in this process, but it appears not to have been work-related."
The Chinese iPhone factories run by Foxconn have suffered a series of black eyes over the last year, standing accused of offering conditions likened to slave labor. Last year, an explosion at a Foxconn factory claimed the lives of two workers. But despite the rough conditions, Chinese youths remain eager to work at the company.
[Image credit: Complete national flag of China w/clenched fist via Shutterstock]
This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca
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