Foxconn deals in assembling electronics for some of the top electronics companies including Apple. Following the fight, around 40 people were admitted to the hospital. As reported in Xinhua News Agency, the fight broke out due to the personal dispute between workers from the Shandong province and those from the Henan province. The authorities at the Taiyuan sent around 5,000 police personnel to restore the order. The fight started at 11 p.m. and was brought under control by 3 a.m by the police officials. The plant stayed closed for investigation on Monday. Some reports also indicate that the workers were fighting with factory guards, who had beaten one or more workers; however, that is not confirmed as yet. On being asked to comment, Foxconn remained unavailable. Information regarding the manufacturing of which product at the site is undisclosed. Foxconn Electronics makes Apple iPad and iPhones, along with products for Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. Earlier also, Foxconn plant in China was under trouble, following the reports of various worker suicides in Shenzhen in 2010, which made the firm install anti-suicide nets around its building. In May 2011, there was an explosion at the company’s plant in Chengdu, which left three people dead and 16 injured. Apple had asked the firm to release its own suicide prevention review. In January 2012, the Cupertino Calif.-based firm took out its own audit of worker conditions across its entire supply chain, including Foxconn plants, finding labor and environmental violations. Apple also united with the Fair Labor Association, which ran its own independent audits of three Foxconn facilities. This association discovered that over one-half of the employees at Foxconn’s assembly plants went beyond the firm’s 60 hour-per-week work limit. Foxconn Electronics also got criticism with reports that indicated that the firm was forcing vocational workers to make iPhones to meet demands for Apple’s latest iPhone 5. These claims were however, denied by Foxconn, who said that workers at the plant going through school programs were permitted to leave at any time.
