In the iPhone factory dormitory in India, bugs are crawling in the company cafeteria. 250 people got food poisoning

Ah, Nomugi Pass.

At Foxconn's iPhone manufacturing plant in southern India, 259 female workers suffered mass food poisoning and 159 were taken to the hospital. It is said that.

Food poisoning occurred in a factory dormitory in Sriperumbudur, a suburb of Chennai, where 17,000 people work, on December 15 last year. It just so happened that the production of the iPhone 13 was proceeding at a rapid pace after the announcement of Apple's new work in the fall.

Six to 30 people sleep in one room

According to a survey of six female factory workers by Reuters, the factory workers come from farming villages to live and work for poor families. It is said that girls aged 18 to 22 are the main ones (the reason why girls are preferred is that they don't form unions like boys do...). Local labor standards stipulate that a sleeping space of about 11 square meters per person should be secured, and that fire prevention and disaster prevention standards and sanitary standards should be observed. was. Also, the flushing water in the toilet was not flowing easily, and "someone was always complaining of chest pain, skin allergies, and food poisoning," which was the worst environment.

But this is the first time I've had food poisoning on such a large scale. No matter how much you can get three times the minimum wage, you can't last! As a result, on the 17th, about 2,000 people from the nearby Foxconn employee dormitory held a protest demonstration by closing the main roads around the factory. A total of 67 women workers and reporters were detained.

Mice and Insects

In view of the seriousness of the situation, an on-site inspection conducted by the state on the 16th found that none of the COVID-19 prevention measures set by the authorities were being followed. Furthermore, the kitchen, the source of food poisoning, was found to be infested with rats due to poor drainage, and the dormitory was immediately closed.

Even though the management of the dormitory is entrusted to an Indian temporary staffing company, the image of mass food poisoning at the iPhone factory is inevitable... Apple and Foxconn acknowledged the fact that some of their manufacturing bases had employee dormitories and cafeterias that did not meet sanitary standards, and announced that they had suspended operations at the factory in question. Our policy is to investigate and make improvements before resuming operations.

Two consecutive years of disaster

Apple wants to move its production base from China to India due to friction between the United States and China. The factory will be positioned at the center of this, and we are planning a large-scale investment of 1 billion dollars (approximately 115.5 billion yen) over three years. Where is all this money going?

Trouble at the iPhone factory in India is the second year in a row following the riot that caused an estimated 6.2 billion yen in damage.

U.S. Apple offers a holiday bonus of 5.78 million to 30 million yen per person

On the other hand, in the United States, in order to stop the outflow of human resources to Facebook's Meta, etc., at the end of the same year, 50,000 to 250,000 per engineer An exceptional bonus of US dollars (about 5.78 million to 28.9 million yen) was paid (Bloomberg). Female workers at the end of India earn less than $5 a day (about 578 yen) for a full day. It can't be helped to compare, but I can't help but compare...

Sources: Reuters