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Apple subcontractor Foxconn factories are looking for workers in central China. Following the closure of its factories and the exodus of its workers last month, a massive recruitment drive is underway in the central province of Henan, with the help of local authorities.
By Stéphane Lagarde, RFI correspondent in Beijing
To get the iPhone 14 ready for Christmas, Foxconn’s factories in Zhengzhou need 100,000 workers, Chinese media say. As a result, a quasi-military mobilization has started in the cities and towns of Henan, an interior worker who was called by the municipal authorities to him tells RFI.
“There is a huge labor shortage at Foxconn. Every town has to send at least one person to the factory. They called me to ask if I wanted to keep working until I got my bonus. It’s the government people who are directly involved in recruitment. The day before yesterday, they gave us military quilts,” he explains.
Salary and bonus increase
At the beginning of the week, new employees arrived at the industrial park of Hon Hai Precision industry, the former name of Foxconn, always according to local media. As many as 72,000 people responded to the call on Wednesday, according to the South China Morning Post. They still have to be trained. Workers confined in place and in local government quarantine centers have also been added, but in separate locations.
“They released more than 8,800 people from quarantine,” our witness said. “They gathered us together and, in addition, they opened an assembly workshop so that production could start again. We are all “positive-negative” [antiguos pacientes de Covid que en su mayoría son asintomáticos, ahora son negativos y están listos para ser contratados de nuevo]. Until now they have not examined us again, they should do so in a few days. In fact, it is believed that there were up to 20,000 contaminated employees at Foxconn Zhengzhou, but management has strongly denied this rumor. Then they joked that 20,000 was really too few.”
To attract new employees and keep old ones, wages were increased to just over 4 euros per hour. [30 yuanes]and a bonus of 3,000 yuan was promised [405 euros] for 30 working days. Faced with the defection of its assembly lines, the company had decided first, last month, to pay 50 yuan a day in attendance premium, then 100 yuan on October 19, 200 yuan on October 30, and even 400 yuan a day. [algo menos de 55 euros].
government support
An effort that those who stayed have taken into account, but are still waiting to see. “It is true that it is a lot of money, but for now we are waiting. I did 20 days of quarantine and I did not receive a penny. Now they are talking about 30 yuan an hour, which is interesting if you can work overtime. Meanwhile, the problem “It’s that there are eight of us per bedroom. Sometimes there is no electricity in the sockets and there is no hot water on each floor,” he points out.
Due to the economic weight of the Taiwanese group in the region, the site has received inter-provincial support. Apple’s subcontractor factories in Zhengzhou account for 60% of Henan province’s exports. The industrial park is one of the largest employers in the city and the region, notes Huanqiu Shibao.
According to the Cailianshe financial agency, party core cadres and veterans of the People’s Liberation Army have also been invited to join the ranks, on contracts of one to six months. According to the 21st Century Business Herald, which contacted another employee at the site, production has never fully stopped at Foxconn Zhengzhou, but many production lines are suspended due to a lack of workers.
Therefore, it is urgent to resume production, according to the authorities: Apple warned last week about the risk of a delay in deliveries of the latest iPhone models. The Apple brand has also raised the idea of moving part of its production to the United States.
