Workers walk out of iPhone factory, highlighting virus woes

By JOE McDONALD
AP Business Writer

BEIJING (AP) — Workers who assemble Apple Inc.’s newest iPhone walked away from a factory in central China following virus outbreaks and complaints of unsafe working conditions, highlighting the clash between the disease’s enduring risks and efforts to restore the global flow of goods. An employee said workers started to leave the Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou after some fell ill in mid-October and received no treatment. Foxconn said it has instituted “closed-loop management” in Zhengzhou, or having employees live in their workplace. Exporters in China are trying to fill orders while coping with a “Zero COVID” strategy that shuts down cities for a week or more. President Xi Jinping’s government faces mounting public frustration over the controls.