Apple's reported Foxconn protest not actually about Apple

Another group of workers at Foxconn have taken to the roof and threatened to kill themselves in protest at working conditions and pay. This is of course immediately reported as being about Apple who are indeed one of Foxconn’s major customers.

All of which is rather odd because the dispute doesn’t seem to be about manufacturing Apple equipment at all, but about Microsoft. Here’s how Reuters reported the story:

Workers at a Chinese factory owned by Foxconn, Apple Inc’s main manufacturer, threatened to jump off the roof of a building in a protest over wages just a month after the two firms announced a landmark agreement on improving working conditions.

They then go on to point out that Apple’s profits and sales are soaring.

Now they don’t actually say that this protest is about Apple, that’s true. But it’s also the impression you get from reading the piece, that it is indeed about Apple. What with all the talk about the 2010 suicides, the FLA investigation into Foxconn at Apple’s invitation and so on.

However, there’s a rather important detail left out of that report: