Reports: Foxconn Workers Strike Over iPhone Standards

More Foxconn drama: The electronic manufacturer denied today that production was affected at a Chinese factory that makes Apple's iPhones, although both state media and an overseas labor watch group said workers halted production lines yesterday. New York-based China Labor Watch reported that 3,000 to 4,000 workers at the Foxconn plant in the central China's Zhengzhou city went on strike over increased quality-control demands and having to work during an extended national holiday.

The official Xinhua News Agency said workers were unhappy when Apple strengthened quality inspections of the iPhone 5 following consumer complaints about aesthetic flaws in the phone. In the Xinhua report, a Foxconn spokesman characterized the incident as a minor worker-management dispute instead of a strike and was unable to provide a specific number of workers involved. China Labor Watch said several iPhone 5 production lines at the factory were paralyzed after the workers found the new quality-control demands difficult to meet and went on strike. The group said the workers also were angry about being forced to work through China's National Day Golden Week holiday, which ends tomorrow. (More Foxconn stories.)