By Chris Chang, posted Nov 24, 2011 at 3:59 PM, 1,078 views,

Thousands of Workers Strike at Apple Keyboard Supplier in Shenzhen

We just love to see Chinese workers taking a stand against long hours of working and poor working conditions. Recently, workers at a factory in southern China that supplies parts to Apple and IBM, including keyboards, went on strike with complaints of grueling overtime requirements. We have lots of photos after the break.

It’s indeed a mess. About 1,000 of 3,000 workers at Jingmo Electronics Corporation factory in Shenzhen are striking over unreasonable overtime demands made on them by management. Just in case this is the first you heard about Jingmo, the factory is owned by one of the world’s largest keyboard manufacturers from Taiwan, Jingyuan Computer Group, and happens to be an OEM for Apple, among others including LG and IBM. The factory in Shenzhen employs 3,000 people, and there are more than 300 workers working on the Apple keyboard assembly line.

The workers are pissed of the management’s decision to enforce nightly overtime, adding a 6 p.m.- 12 p.m nightly shift to their regular hours of 7-11:30 a.m. and 1-5 p.m. That accounts for approximately 120 hours of overtime per month!!! They were also refused the right to work this overtime on the weekends, which would have required the company to pay workers double time under Chinese Labor Law.

The workers’ grievances include not only complaints of nightly overtime demands, but also include common workplace injuries, layoffs of older workers, lack of benefits and verbal abuse by managers, according to U.S.-based China Labor Watch. So, one by one, the workers walked off the job and staged a strike at the factory.

The workers even blocked a highway to protest long working hours.

Hundreds of police officers, some in riot gear, deployed after the workers at the factory walked out to protest.

Riot police are ready to clear the mess.

Some workers were staying inside the factory to avoid troubles.

Fortunately, the strike ended after the company officials promised to reduce the amount of overtime at the plant. Let’s hope things get better between management and workers from now on. Because if not, Apple will definitely struggle to get their keyboards to the market.

Source: China Labor Watch via AppleInsider