More than three thousand Foxconn workers go on strike, affecting several iPhone 5 production lines (update: Foxconn denies strike)

Somewhere between three thousand and four thousand workers at the Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, China went on strike today, a move that halted production on several iPhone 5 production lines throughout the factory. According to China Labor Watch, the driving force behind this strike are demands for exacting quality despite a lack of training for workers to meet those quality demands. The report also cites a demand from the factory that employees work through a holiday and claims that most of the workers on strike were from the quality control portion of the assembly process. Apparently, the combination of exacting precision manufacturing and the lack of proper training led the workers to strike. Of course, this is just the latest in a long string of labor disputes at Foxconn that have taken place over the last year or two — the most recent of which were the riots that took place last month.

Update: Reuters is now reporting that Foxconn is flatly denying the report of a strike. In a statement, the company said, “Any reports that there has been an employee strike are inaccurate. There has been no workplace stoppage in that facility or any other Foxconn facility and production has continued on schedule.” The company did admit there were issues eariler in the week on October 1st and 2nd, but Foxconn said they were “immediately addressed... including providing additional staff for the [production] lines in question.”