富士康（Foxconn）郑州工厂正在以疯狂的速度组装苹果（Apple）iPhone 5。上周，在那里到底发生了什么事情？中国劳工权益组织与工厂母公司台湾鸿海集团（Hon Hai）各执一词。出于讨论的目的，我们假设真相介于两者之间。

    纽约中国劳工观察组织（China Labor Watch，CLW）称，上周五，约3,000至4,000名工人举行罢工，导致当天大部分时间，iPhone 5生产线“普遍处于瘫痪”状态。

    而鸿海集团则断然否认了这种说法，并对西方新闻媒体称，工厂只是在几天前发生了“两次持续时间很短、规模很小的纠纷”。该集团在新闻发布会上表示：“不论是郑州工厂还是其他富士康工厂，均未出现停工。生产仍在按计划顺利进行。”

    但很明显，那里确实发生了一些事情。据路透社（Reuters）报道，中国官方媒体新华社（Xinhua）援引郑州市政府发言人的话称，周五，据称一名质检员遭到工人殴打，起因是工人对质检要求强烈不满，结果大约100名富士康质检员拒绝工作，时间长达一个小时。

    郑州工业区发言人告诉路透社：“加强iPhone 5质检的指示来自苹果公司。之前，苹果公司收到消费者对于手机审美缺陷的投诉。”

    虽然我们第一次听说“消费者的众多投诉”，但中国官方媒体支持中国劳工观察组织关于周五停工的说法，也证明了这种说法的可信度。另外，中国劳工观察组织的版本也比鸿海集团的说法透露了更多细节。

    据中国劳工观察组织称：

    “据报道，工厂管理层和苹果公司并未考虑设计缺陷，而是对工人提出严格的质量要求，其中包括0.02mm的凹陷标准，以及对边框及后盖划痕的要求。在这样的要求下，工人根本无法生产出符合标准的iPhone手机。这给工人造成了巨大压力。此外，时值中国法定假期，工人们却得不到休假。这一系列因素导致了罢工。

    “质检员也参与罢工，这一点并不意外。据工人透露，在K厂区，工人和质检员发生了一起冲突，导致CA质检室遭到破坏，多人受伤，另有多人住院治疗。之后，K厂区又发生了一起类似冲突，多名质检员遭到殴打。昨天，L厂区的质检员受到人身威胁。但质检员向工厂管理层报告这些问题时，管理人员却无视矛盾的严重性。于是，所有日班和夜班的质检员在今天集体停工，造成生产线瘫痪。”

    Let's assume for the sake of argument that the truth of what happened last week at Foxconn's Zhengzhou factory complex -- where Apple's iPhone 5s are being assembled at a furious pace -- lies somewhere between a Chinese labor advocacy group's account and that of the factory's owner, Taiwan-based Hon Hai.

    The New York office of China Labor Watch claims that 3,000 to 4,000 workers went on strike last Friday, causing a "widespread work stoppage" on the iPhone 5 factory floor that lasted most of the day.

    Hon Hai categorically denied the report, telling western news organizations that the plant suffered only "two brief and small disputes" several days earlier. "There has been no workplace stoppage in that facility or any other Foxconn facility," it declared in a press release, "and production has continued on schedule."

    But something clearly happened. According to Reuters, China's official Xinhua news agency quoted a government spokesman in Zhengzhou as saying some 100 Foxconn quality inspectors refused to work for an hour on Friday after one was allegedly beaten by workers irate over the inspection demands.

    "The instruction to strengthen quality inspections for the iPhone 5 was given by Apple Inc.," a spokesman for the Zhengzhou industrial zone told Reuters, "following multiple complaints from customers regarding aesthetic flaws in the phone."

    The "multiple complaints from customers" is news to us, but the fact that the official Chinese news agency supports China Labor Watch's (CLW) account of a Friday labor stoppage lends a bit more credence to their side of the story. CLW's version also has the benefit of offering a lot more detail than Hon Hai's.

    According to CLW:

    "It was reported that factory management and Apple, despite design defects, raised strict quality demands on workers, including indentations standards of 0.02mm and demands related to scratches on frames and back covers. With such demands, employees could not even turn out iPhones that met the standard. This led to a tremendous amount of pressure on workers. On top of this, they were not permitted to have a vacation during the holiday. This combination of factors led to the strike.

    "That quality control inspectors would also strike is of no surprise. According to workers, there was a fight between workers and quality control inspectors in area K that led to the damage in inspection room CA, the injury of some people, and the hospitalization of others. After this, another similar incident occurred in area K, once again leading to quality control inspectors getting beat up. Yesterday, inspectors in area L received physical threats. When inspectors reported these issues to factory management, the management simply ignored and turned their back on the issue. For these reasons, all day and night shift inspectors carried out a work stoppage today that paralyzed the production lines."

    我们先前说过，事情的真相可能介于两者之间。听起来，似乎是苹果公司正在试图加快生产iPhone 5的进度，满足市场需求，同时又不愿降低严苛的质量标准，可这并不容易。

    但与此同时，富士康iPhone生产线爆发的有组织的劳工活动凸显出了其他更深层次的问题。对于工业化国家的电子产品制造商们来说，不仅仅是苹果，还包括微软（Microsoft）、惠普（Hewlett Packard）、戴尔（DELL）、亚马逊（Amazon）、索尼（Sony），甚至三星（Samsung）在内，亚洲国家为他们源源不断提供逆来顺受的廉价劳动力的好日子，或许就要到头了。

    套用温斯顿•丘吉尔的名言，或许现在还没到结束的时候，甚至连结束的序幕都算不上，相反，它可能只是序幕的一个尾声。

    译者：刘进龙/乔树静

    As we say, the truth of what happened probably lies somewhere between the two accounts. It sounds like Apple was trying to produce iPhone 5s fast enough to meet demand without compromising its exacting quality standards, which can't be easy.

    But the fact that there was any organized labor activity on Foxconn's iPhone assembly line suggests that deeper forces are at play. The days that electronics manufacturers from industrialized countries -- not just Apple (AAPL), but Microsoft (MSFT), Hewlett Packard (HPQ), DELL (DELL), Amazon (AMZN), Sony (SNE) and even Samsung -- can count on boundless supplies of cheap, compliant Asian factory workers may be numbered.

    To paraphrase Winston Churchill, this may not be the end, or even the beginning of the end, but it may, perhaps, be the end of the beginning.