More Than 20,000 iPhones Were Stolen Following Indian Plant Riot

On the evening of December 11 local time, a riot broke out at Wistron’s iPhone factory in Karnataka, India. Wistron is a Taiwanese technology company and is one of Apple’s main iPhone manufacturers. The cause is believed to be related to workers’ salaries.

After the incident, police urgently arrived at the scene to maintain order. A total of 132 people were arrested. According to statistics, Wistron lost Rs 437 crore and over 20,000 iPhones were stolen. There are currently no reports of casualties.

Wistron is mainly responsible for the production of the iPhone SE, IoT products, and some medical devices.

According to reports, Wistron’s iPhone production line in India also took part in assembling the iPhone 12 mini in the second half of this year.

Wistron Taiwan said that only a few offices were destroyed while the main production line and warehouse weren’t damaged. Moreover, other factories in India and Kunshan, China can still meet iPhone production capacity. As a result, the riot had a small impact on Wistron’s mobile phone assembling business.

However, some other sources stated that the plant had been affected by the riot and the production line had yet resumed operation. Besides the Nalsapure factory, Wistron has two other plants in India for mobile phone manufacturing.

As for employee salaries, there has been some discrepancy between the Indian media reports and the company. The Indian press citing sources stated that the cause of the riot was because of wage deduction and delayed payment.

Meanwhile, Wistron emphasized that the company was committed to complying with and implementing all local labor laws and regulations and would fully support and cooperate with authorities for investigations.

Currently, the company has 1,200 official employees working in the plant. The company has also signed contracts with six labor service companies and hired about 8,900 people for iPhone production. The labor dispute has lasted for about three months.

>>> Furious Over Brutal Exploitation, Thousands Of Wistron Workers Robbed And Ransacked iPhone Factory