Days after Apple Inc placed the Sriperumbudur (Chennai) facility of their supplier Foxconn under probation, an internal intelligence note exclusively procured by The Week pointed out the reason for the labour unrest to be "Chinese aid to the left leaning workforce inside Foxconn."

Accessed by The Week, this note claimed “the knee-jerk reaction to the substandard canteen food causing ill health to a few staff members is an indicator of an international design to destabilise industrial establishments”. Moreover, the note claimed that “it is no secret that China was aggrieved over these factories, as, earlier, 48 per cent of the components for Apple iPhone were produced in China".

"Apple has increased its stable of contracts with manufacturers in India of late as the US-China feud threatened to impose tariffs on Apple devices,” the note further added, as quoted by The Week.

This exclusive report by The Week stated that according to the intelligence note, the issue was that "left-leaning forces" took advantage of the facility's working conditions. It went on to say that the agitation was led by the New Democratic Labour Front, Peoples Democratic Youth Association, Peoples Rights Protection Centre and Students Uprising Movement".

The involvement of these movements in the agitation, as well as their linkages to movements outside India, is being investigated, according to sources in the Tamil Nadu government, the report added.

The moment The Week reached out to Venkata Naga Narasimhan, a trade unionist who is said to have been one of the frontline organisers of the labour agitation at Foxconn, he denied his involvement in the agitation, saying that he "is a journalist and just reported as it happened".

Venkata Narasimhan said that he works for Thozhilalar Koodam, a left leaning newspaper, and has no direct involvement in the protest. But when asked about his knowledge on the employees returning to work, he said "the working conditions are wretched and some of the employees may not return unless it is resolved".

However, K Kangaraj, state secretary of the CPI(M), denounced the possibility of a Chinese influence in the agitation at the Foxconn facility, saying, "This is the reason given to hide the unfair labour practices followed inside the manufacturing facility.” He said, “The immediate provocation was that there were severe infections and a few employees died". 

Image courtesy: Verve Times