Foxconn’s iPhone plant in TN to resume operations

Taiwanese electronics major Foxconn will resume production at its massive manufacturing units, including the one where high-end Apple iPhones are assembled, from Wednesday, after being shut for 11 days following protests by women employees demanding quality food.

Sources in the know told DH that the three factories inside the Foxconn campus in Sriperumbudur, 50 km from here, will resume production and assembling work on December 29, for the first time after they downed their shutters on December 18. The development comes days after Foxconn assured senior officials from the Tamil Nadu government that it was taking steps to resume production at its facilities.

The state government gave a slew of suggestions to the Foxconn management to improve the quality of food being provided to employees at the canteen and to enhance the living conditions in hostels.

“The operations will resume on Wednesday. Employees have been informed about the reopening of the factories. We expect a smooth sailing from Wednesday,” a source in the know told DH.

Though Foxconn will resume operations, the Taiwanese firm has not yet made its stand clear on employees’ demand to launch a union to represent them.

The plants were shut on December 18 after hundreds of Foxconn employees blocked the Chennai- Bengaluru highway last week after 159 of their colleagues were admitted to various hospitals after they consumed food provided at a hostel managed by the firm.

The blockade on December 18 had brought traffic on one side of the NH to a complete halt for over six hours and came to an end only after intervention from the government.

Foxconn’s plants in Sriperumbudur manufacture mobiles phones and other electronic devices, including Amazon firestick, besides assembling high-end iPhones designed by Apple Inc.

The Taiwanese firm has expanded its facility more than once and had in 2020 pledged to invest over Rs 7,000 crore in enhancing capacity at its plants in the Sriperumbudur facility.

In a detailed press release issued on December 25, the Tamil Nadu government said Foxconn has been advised to improve the working and living conditions of employees who have been hired on a contract basis.

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