2000 workers involved in Foxconn brawl, 40 hurt

A brawl at a plant operated by Foxconn, which assembles products for Apple and other tech firms, involved some 2,000 workers and left around 40 people injured, its parent company Hon Hai said on Monday. The incident happened at around 11:00 pm Sunday in a privately-managed dormitory for Foxconn workers at a factory in Taiyuan in northern China, Hon Hai said in a statement. It said the incident started "as a personal dispute between several employees" and that local police brought the situation under control at around 3:00 am Monday morning. "The cause of this dispute is under investigation by local authorities and we are working closely with them in this process, but it appears not to have been work-related," it said. Hon Hai spokesman Simon Hsing told AFP he could not confirm if the Taiyuan facility was shut in the wake of the brawl. The Taiyuan plant employs 79,000 workers and manufactures automobile electronic components, consumer electronic components and precision moldings. Foxconn is the world's largest maker of computer components and assembles products for Apple, Sony and Nokia. Foxconn employs about one million workers in China, roughly half of them based in its main facility in Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong. The company has come under the spotlight after suicides and labour unrest at its Chinese plants since 2010, which activists have blamed on tough working conditions.