, Columnist
Apple's Globalization Plans Meet a Baton Charge in India
The risks of a more volatile workforce confronts leaders seeking to move away from China.
Tim Cook’s Apple wields the power to force change on its suppliers.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
For more than a decade, companies like Apple Inc. have entertained the idea of evolving away from China-based supply chains to have their devices made in lower-cost locales like India, Vietnam and Mexico.
The challenge of such decentralization became brutally evident last weekend with an uprising at a factory operated by Taiwan’s Wistron Corp. that makes iPhones in India. Workers at the plant in Narasapura, 40 miles from the tech hub of Bengaluru, were reported to be fed up with delayed and underpaid wages and ransacked the factory, destroying equipment and burning vehicles.