Women force change at Indian iPhone plant, sick from bad food, crowded dorms

A file photo of private security guards at the entrance of a closed plant of Foxconn India unit, which makes iPhones for Apple Inc, near Chennai, India. — Reuters

SRIPERUMBUDUR, India: For women who assembled iPhones at a Foxconn plant in southern India, crowded dorms without flush toilets and food sometimes crawling with worms were problems to be endured for the paycheck.

But when tainted food sickened over 250 of the workers their anger boiled over, culminating in a rare protest that shut down a plant where 17,000 had been working.