What Happened at Shanghai’s Riotous Quanta Plant
10MAY 2022 - Taking a look at recent unrest in Shanghai, China - 9 to 5 Mac ran a piece Monday listing three possible reasons Quanta workers revolted late last week. You remember the piece over the weekend - the one that had Quanta workers in a Shanghai facility running past crowd control after weeks of working in the contract manufacturer’s “closed loop.” The three factors listed by 9 to 5 Mac:
Not being able to go home-away-from-home
Over the weekend we heard that “tensions at the Quanta factory (…) boiled over after workers tried to return to dormitories after their shifts…” The closed loop thing should make going back to dorms lemon squeezy. And yet, 9 to 5 Mac says workers on break Thursday were “seemingly required” to take their break on the work floor, which is hardly conducive to relaxation. No word on why they couldn’t go to where their stuff was, but that seems to have been a bit of a breaking point.
Fear of Infection
According to the piece, workers who had been in COVID quarantine were set to come back to work. But, the piece says, people who’d not been in quarantine “were said to be mistrustful of the screening process for release…” Not wanting to be sick, they didn’t want to be trapped with people they thought would get them sick.
Fear of Infection: Part II
If COVID infection spread, workers were apparently worried that the plant would go into “total lockdown,” according to the report, “with nobody allowed to exit even if they were at the end of their scheduled time there.”
Not to be calloused, but this is an Apple show and one does have to wonder what this means for Apple. According to the piece from 9 to 5 Mac:
Business Insider says that Quanta’s Shanghai plant is responsible for around 20% of worldwide MacBook Pro production, and that this was initially operating with just 2,000 employees against the 40,000 usually employed there. While it was aiming for 50% within a few weeks, this incident – and growing levels of infection within the city – now make the target appear ambitious.
You know what’s gonna be fun? When Apple announces new Macs at June’s WWDC - encouraging people to order now in time for the holidays.
I’m probably kidding.
