As the companies are shifting their factories from China to other countries including India, it seems that the Chinese Communist Party has activated their stooges to disturb the manufacturing operations in other countries. In the last few months, many Taiwan-based iPhone parts manufacturers including Wistron set up their factory in India, hiring a large number of employees.
Wistron, which set up an iPhone manufacturing unit in Kolar district of Karnataka, increased the number of employees from 2,000 in June to 12,000 in October and operations were going in full swing in the last few months. But, the company’s plant was attacked on Saturday morning by a large number of unidentified people.
The company used to pay 22,000 rupees per worker for an eight-hour shift, which is well above India’s wage for unskilled manufacturers. Moreover, the company also provided a more feasible working environment when compared to others, so a worker’s revolt in such a situation seems very unlikely.
The Communist party-linked trade unions like All India Central Council of Trade Unions, which is trade union arm of Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) (Liberation) (CPI(ML)L), has already started batting for workers’ rights and is trying to prove the whole incident as worker’s revolt with claims like the company didn’t pay the workers.
The company had recently announced an investment of ₹1,200 crores in Karnataka and had plans to hire up to 25,000 employees by the end of next year, but all these plans have been halted for now after the incident. “We are deeply shocked by the events at our Narasapura facility. We follow the law and are supporting the authorities with their investigation. The safety and well being of our team members are always our top priority,” said the firm.
The news spread like a wildfire in the global media and many financial newspapers like Bloomberg, Nikkei Asian Review, and The Wall Street Journal picked it up instantly. Apple too announced a probe in the matter and dispatched a team to investigate the incident. “We have teams on the ground and immediately launched an investigation at Wistron’s Narasapura facility in India. Our teams are in touch with local authorities and we’re offering our full support to their probe,” said Apple.
The global companies are shifting their manufacturing base to India given the various incentives offered by the government and the global effort to rejig the supply chain and end dependency on China. But, such an incident does immense damage to India’s global image as a potential “factory of the world”.
The attackers looted many laptops and iPhones, as well as broke the security cameras, vehicles, window-panes, and ATMs. The company has claimed total damage of more than 400 crore rupees.
The attack clearly seems very well planned because many employees were heard making weird allegations. One of them while citing the reason for the same said, “The rasam was too spicy and that the air-conditioning was too cold”. In light of the recent event, Wistron claimed that it is a conspiracy to halt the company’s operations and that it may roll back its expansion plans.