On a typical morning, thousands of workers in a Communist country idle outside the gates of Apple's production lines, waiting to enter. They grouse about the delay as mopeds and buses clog the entryways and kick dust up into the polluted air. Some post dance videos on TikTok. Others wonder aloud when they're going to meet a husband. Still others snitch on their coworkers flouting COVID-19 rules. This is life at a Chinese factory, only it's in Vietnam.
The plant in Bac Giang near Hanoi belongs to Luxshare Precision Industry Co., an electronics manufacturer based in Dongguan, China, that has supplied Apple for more than a decade. It got its start producing small components like connector ports and modules for speakers and chargers, and later graduated to devices like AirPods and Apple Watches. It’s currently the largest producer of the wireless Apple earbuds in the world, with analysts estimating it will ship around 50 million pairs of headphones this year, more than half of the global total.
