Not a pretty picture in Karnataka iphone plant
$250 million is not a figure to be scoffed at. India, after all, seeks to get investors to sow their good money in this soil. And what could be more symbolic of a consumer product of the Information Age than the iPhone! Now, $250 million is what Taiwanese company Wistron has benchmarked as its India plan. But those plans are not quite going the way it would have liked.
When the first headlines broke about violent labour unrest at its iPhone plant at Narasapura, in Karnataka’s Kolar district, those prone to easy outrage would have cavilled against all that militant unionism. Glass panes, cars, assembly units, furniture: the anarchic anger from thousands of workers spared nothing. Not a pretty picture. But then, the stories started leaking out about the appalling contract conditions, salary cuts and long-pending wages.
As word got around, and attracted notice around the world, Apple Inc itself had to sit up and take notice. Now it has put Wistron on probation. The reasons may not be philanthropic. Something very core to Apple is injured if that intangible thing called ‘brand value’ is hit.
Whatever may be the logic of late-capitalist labour outsourcing, a sleek iPhone SE will not exude that same vibe if the odour of a Kolar sweat shop is attached to it. As of now, rival Taiwanese contract manufacturers like Foxconn and Pegatron—who too have a significant India footprint—may benefit from Wistron’s discomfiture, and Tamil Nadu may step in to wean away some manufacturing from Karnataka.
No wonder B S Yediyurappa is working overtime. Some 167 workers at Kolar have been arrested, mediation is afoot to bring equanimity to another trouble spot—the two Toyota Kirloskar plants at Bidadi—and BSY has now reaffirmed his plans for a Global Investors Summit. But even as the toys of tomorrow roll off the belt, the ancient questions still linger in the air like ghosts at the factory gates.