Foxconn Workers Riot in Taiyuan, Shanxi

• Date: Sep 23 2012 Time: 14:31
• Description:
  From ZGMLHGM: 2012年9月23号晚上，山西太原富士康园区，多位保安围殴两名河南籍员工，并叫嚣“打的就是你们河南人”。河南员工愤起反抗，点着被子从宿舍扔下，其他人也纷纷起哄。 随后骚乱升级，上万人打砸院区内的公共设施。汽车全部被推翻，超市被抢，银行、网吧、医院、警务室、车间被砸，苹果4S被抢，警车被砸十六辆，公交车被砸烧，所有警亭都被毁掉，路边垃圾桶都被毁坏，园区内一片狼藉。 警方出动上千防暴队、武警、特警镇压，有消息称员工被打死十几人，几十人被捕。 凌晨3时，山西省长王君到达现场。直到24日清晨，局面才得到控制。 From Reuters: Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, which assembles Apple's iPhones and makes components for top global electronics companies, closed a plant in China on Monday after about 2,000 workers were involved in a brawl at a company dormitory. It was not clear how long the shutdown would last at the plant, which employs about 79,000 people in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan, while police and company officials investigate the cause of the disturbance. Foxconn said the trouble started with a personal row that blew up into a brawl. But some people posting messages on a Twitter-like site said factory guards had beaten workers and that sparked the melee. "The plant is closed today for investigation," Foxconn spokesman Louis Woo told Reuters. An employee contacted by telephone said the closure could last two or three days. Pictures from just outside the plant and provided to Reuters showed broken windows at a building by an entrance gate and a line of olive-colored paramilitary police trucks parked inside the factory grounds. The unrest is the latest in a string of incidents at plants run by Foxconn, the trading name of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co and the world's largest contract maker of electronic goods. Hon Hai's Taipei-listed shares fell 1 percent on Monday in a broader market that rose 0.2 percent. Drawing attention as a supplier and assembler for Apple products, the company has faced accusations of poor conditions and mistreatment of workers at its operations in China, where it employs about 1 million workers. The company has been spending heavily in recent months to improve working conditions and to raise wages. Foxconn said in a statement the incident escalated from what it called a personal dispute between several employees at around 11 p.m. on Sunday in a privately managed dormitory, and was brought under control by police at around 3 a.m. "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," Foxconn said. Hon Hai said about 2,000 workers were involved. Comments posted online, however, suggested security guards may have been to blame. In a posting on the Chinese Twitter-like microblog site Sina Weibo, user "Jo-Liang" said that four or five security guards beat a worker almost to death. "FRUSTRATION" Another user, "Fan de Sa Hai", quoted a friend from Taiyuan as saying guards beat up two workers from Henan province and in response, other workers set bed quilts on fire and tossed them out of dormitory windows. The accounts could not be independently confirmed. The state-run Xinhua news agency quoted a senior official with the Taiyuan city government as saying investigators initially determined the fight broke out as workers from Shandong Province clashed with workers from Henan. The agency reported earlier that about 5,000 police were sent to end the violence, according to Taiyuan City's public security bureau. Foxconn cited police as saying 40 people were taken to hospital and a number were arrested, while Xinhua added that three people were in serious condition. Calls to the Taiyuan police were not immediately answered, while an official at the plant declined to comment when reached by telephone. "Clearly there is deep-seated frustration and anger among the employees and no outlet, apart from violence, for that frustration to be released," Geoff Crothall, communication director at China Labor Bulletin, a Labor rights group in Hong Kong, said in a statement. "There is no dialogue and no means of resolving disputes, no matter how minor. So it is not surprising when such disputes escalate into violence." Foxconn does not confirm which of its plants supply Apple, but an employee told Reuters that the Taiyuan plant is among those that assemble and make parts for Apple's iPhone 5. In June, about 100 workers went on a rampage at a Foxconn plant in Chengdu, in southwestern China. From finance.qq.com: 据太原市公安部门介绍，9月23日23时左右，富士康(太原)工业园区发生一起内部员工打架事件，造成40人受伤。事件发生后，公安人员迅速赶到现场，制止了事态进一步发展。截至目前，现场秩序已恢复正常，事件发生的原因正在调查中。 9月24日，刚刚发生千人群殴事件过后的富士康太原工业园区变得异常安静。富士康宣布，已于昨日早晨暂时关闭旗下位于太原的工厂，以让工人平静。 据了解，9月23日晚间11点左右，富士康山西太原工厂发生大规模工人群殴事件，有几千人参与其中。当地报道的媒体称，至少有10人死亡。 这一事件得到了富士康的官方证实。在昨日发布的英文新闻稿中，富士康称23日晚间11点左右，靠近山西太原厂区外的员工住宿区，几名员工之间发生个人争端，之后升级为约2000名员工参与的骚乱事件；到大约24日凌晨3点，这场争端已获当地警方控制。 不过在伤亡方面，富士康表示，根据当地警方的说法，大约有40人被送到医院进行治疗，部分人员已经遭到警方逮捕，没有人死亡。富士康称，造成此一骚乱的原因，相关部门仍在调查中，目前看来此次骚乱原因应与工作无关。 虽然富士康声称此次斗殴只是员工之间的个人恩怨，但从媒体披露的信息来看，似乎并没那么简单。 据悉，山西太原厂区共计约有7.9万名员工，主要制造车用电子零配件、消费电子零组件和精密模具。但为了苹果公司最新发布的iPhone5在内地上市，近期有大批山东、河北、河南、深圳等全国各地富士康的工人被调往太原赶工。 参与此次事件的富士康员工在接受媒体采访时称，此次群殴的起源是由于厂区安保人员与山东籍员工起冲突，将其拖至面包车内殴打，山东同乡为其讨还公道，河南籍员工也一起卷入，最后发展至大批员工追打安保人员的混乱场面。 据介绍，富士康公司一直实行军事化管理，保安在其日常工作中充当着重要作用，太原工厂的保安人数近1500人。但工人与安保人员的矛盾由来已久，安保被认为对工人过于苛刻，这也是发生此次事件的原因。 “连续的事件反映了富士康管理模式存在问题。”南京大学商学院教授宋颂兴在接受《国际金融报》记者采访时表示，富士康成立于1974年，也许在那个年代，军事化的管理很有效，但是时过境迁，如今高速发展的社会，需要公司转变内部管理的方式，才能跟上时代的发展。再加上员工越来越年轻，军事化的管理肯定不被年轻一代从思想上认同，这也成为冲突、矛盾的起源。 From Hexun Net: 今天凌晨有员工爆料称，23日22时，山西太原富士康工业园发生了大规模骚乱，据称有数千人打砸厂区，推倒了富士康大门，砸坏了班车，食堂等，大量工厂玻璃已经被砸碎。整个骚乱一直持续到凌晨3点多。骚乱人员还殴打了厂区警卫。据称现在的富士康山西太原厂区已经一片狼藉。 网上已有视频以及大量现场图片流出。从视频和图片中可看到，而当地武警以及特警等防爆部队已经出动到现场，并且向参与骚乱的人群进行喊话。 和讯正在连线相关员工，做进一步报道。 From News.ifeng.com: 中新社太原9月24日电(李鹏飞) 23日夜11点左右，位于山西太原城南的台湾企业富士康厂区内发生众多工人打架事件，40人在此次事件中受伤，目前，事件已经得到有效控制，太原警方已介入调查。 该起事件迅速通过互联网社交平台、即时通讯工具广泛传播。太原市公安部门称，40人在此次事件中受伤，均为男性，已在医院救治，有3名重伤患者目前生命体征平稳，其余伤势较轻，无人死亡。 记者24日中午在该厂区采访时，太原市公安局正在通过该厂区设立的内部广播系统寻找滋事者，希望参与打砸的员工主动投案争取宽大处理。同时表示，将依法处理策划、参与滋事扰乱秩序的人，鼓励知情民众配合公安机关提供线索。 据该厂区一位名为吴起(化名)的员工介绍，24日凌晨时分，他被舍友推醒，叫其同去外面看热闹，朦胧中的吴起敌不过睡意又沉沉睡去，直到两点十五分，吴起被此起彼伏的碎玻璃声吵醒，才看到夜色中激愤的人群。 吴起和刘刚(化名)是一个月前从山西晋城来到富士康太原科技园区的，为了苹果公司最新发布的IPhone5在大陆上市，大批山东、河北、河南、深圳等全国各地富士康的工人被调往太原赶工。该企业新闻发言人胡国辉称，事件原因正在调查。据刘刚说，“是由于厂区安保人员将与山东籍员工起冲突，将其拖至面包车内殴打，山东同乡为其讨还公道，河南籍员工也一起卷入，最后发展至大批员工追打安保人员的混乱场面。” 刘刚介绍说，大约夜里11点时分，所有安保人员已经四散逃尽，由于所过之处的安保亭均被砸翻，安保人员被打，听闻风声的其他安保纷纷脱去显示其身份的衣裤避难。胡国辉说，这座工厂有7.9万名员工负责制造消费电子产品、零件和移动电话等装置的精密模具，此次事件约2000名员工参与。但也有目击者认为，可能更多。一名富士康员工说，工人与安保人员的矛盾由来已久，安保被认为对工人过于苛刻，所以发生此次事件。 顶盔持盾的警察驻守在富士康唐槐北门。门口房间的窗玻璃被砸碎，两旁是被砸碎玻璃的商铺，门西的停车场内六辆汽车亦被掀得四轮朝天。 胡国辉表示，将会暂时关闭这家工厂，以让工人平静。直至记者离去时，富士康门前的坞城南路路边仍停满了凌晨接警后到此待命的警车