Report: Quanta Workers Bridle at Shanghai “Closed Loop”

09 MAY 2022 - Apple’s only supplier for MacBook Pro has seen a bit of social unrest. Bloomberg says workers at a Quanta facility in Shanghai, China kind of got tired of the factory’s “closed loop” thing and busted out late last week.

China has been super quick and super strict with COVID related lockdowns over the past few months. That’s caused still more kinks in an already kinked up supply chain for all kinds of companies, including Apple. The manufacturers that have fared best are the ones that have employed a “closed loop” approach. That’s described by Bloomberg as a system “in which workers live and sleep on-site or in nearby accommodation that they’re shuttled to.”

To keep the gears turning for the likes of HP, Dell, Microsoft, and Apple, Quanta’s been running a closed loop in Shanghai since the start of April. Last week, five weeks proved a bit too much, it seems. According to the report, hundreds of employees at the facility “clashed with authorities and flooded past isolation barriers after weeks under lockdown…” The piece goes on to say:

Tensions at the Quanta factory (…) boiled over after workers tried to return to dormitories after their shifts, according to Taiwanese media outlet UDN. More than 100 jumped over a gate and ran past the staff without regard for their guidance, it said. 

Good news for manufacturing: “Operations at the facility returned to normal by Friday morning,” according to one worker. At the same time, Bloomberg says, “it’s unclear how long the closed loops can be sustained, given the resources required to feed and house thousands of workers at a time.”

Plus, it seems like it might be getting to them. 

Yet another variable.