Foxconn’s full COVID-19 precautions are back in effect at the request of Shenzhen, China. The company has been asked to return to a closed-loop production where workers live in on-campus dormitories and are prohibited from physical contact with anyone outside the factory complex, including family members.
While Foxconn downplays the measure, it is concerned about a repeat of the Shanghai-style lockdown, which could create extremely hard conditions for workers and other residents, as well as significantly disrupt production…
Background
Earlier, we summarized the country’s goal of “COVID Zero” and its impact on both workers and production.
Unlike most countries in the world, China is trying to completely eradicate COVID-19 within its borders. Even a small number of infections leads to a strict quarantine, with most places of work and schools closed. Even the purchase of food is under control.
Many companies have introduced a “closed” mode of production. This approach was pioneered in Wuhan during the initial COVID-19 outbreak and has been used extensively in Shanghai, where there have been several lockdowns.
Closed production means:
Companies provide residence halls on campus. Workers stay on campus for an extended period of time, usually one month. No one enters or leaves the plant without a negative test in place. Anyone who tests positive on their entry attempt is sent to a quarantine center.
Obviously, this is hard on the workers, who can’t see their families and friends for weeks at a time, and has previously led to a workers’ uprising at the Quanta plant in Shanghai.
While almost every other country in the world acknowledges that we will have to learn to live with COVID-19 to a greater or lesser extent, China remains adamant that it can use lockdowns to completely eradicate the virus.
Full Foxconn COVID-19 Precautions Back in Action
Bloomberg reports that the initial lockdown lasts seven days and affects 100 companies.
China has forced some of its largest companies, including iPhone maker Foxconn and oil maker CNOOC Ltd., to operate under a limited ‘closed loop’ system for seven days as southern manufacturing hub Shenzhen battles the latest Covid outbreak.
The city has reached out to its top 100 companies, including automaker BYD Co., network giants Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp., as well as drone maker DJI, to limit operations to only employees living in a closed loop or bubble with little to no contact. with people outside their factories or offices. Authorities have also asked companies to reduce unnecessary interactions between non-manufacturing personnel and factory floors to reduce the spread of the infection, according to a Shenzhen government notice seen by Bloomberg News. […]
Foxconn’s COVID-19 statement downplays this position.
A spokesman for Foxconn said work at its Shenzhen facilities “remained normal.” Its factory in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou is a much larger center for iPhone production.
However, there are concerns that the time period could be extended significantly if the number of infections increases.
The Shenzhen measure revives the possibility of a Shanghai-style lockdown that forced tens of thousands of workers into lockdown. Supplier Apple Quanta Computer Inc., chip manufacturer Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. and Tesla Inc. were among the companies that ran their Shanghai factories in a closed loop for weeks or months as China’s financial center struggled with the worst outbreak since Wuhan.
Previous lockdowns have caused work on the iPhone 14 to fall behind schedule, with the iPhone 14 Max reportedly the hardest hit.
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