Mike Elgan for Cult of Mac:
So that’s what Apple needs to do … Chip away at the problem, iteratively investigating, auditing and fixing. But also pay a little more to suppliers in order to meet these stringent requirements.
Apple gets more blame than it deserves for worker abuses in China, and doesn’t get enough credit for the enormous effort the company has expended in raising work standards in China.
I agree with Elgan up to a point, but the danger of Apple paying its suppliers more to meet improved requirements for factory conditions puts it at a disadvantage with its competitors, and that’s not in a place Apple (or its shareholders) wants to be.
In order for things to improve in China, there’s going to have to be a very delicately orchestrated effort between industry, commerce and international diplomacy. Even then, it will take time.
Agree on the need for an “orchestrated effort”, but the first part gives me a bit of a headache… Apple makes more profit than anybody else, with dream margins. A little less would certainly do (and we talk about peanuts here – even doubling the salaries, or halving the work hours, would not disadvantage Apple to a degree where they had less profits than the competition). While Apple does indeed do more than others, there is also no need to double profits every year, while factories explode, or are otherwise unsafe.
I know that is easier said than done, and not being the employer does also limit influence severely. Still, you can only get away with investigations and reports for a limited time. Especially when the reports look worse every year (they do). Whenever it becomes obvious that Apple can’t control the guys in charge there (a fact), there needs to be a plan B.
True change will come when the Chinese people demand it and their government listens to them. Let’s not forget that Chinese are also major consumers (not just producers) of these devices. Unfortunately we can’t count on that happening any time soon.
Forget about the competition issue. What about assurances that the money would go to the labor and not just into the pockets of the bosses.
Fact is that this isn’t APPLE’S problem. It is the Chinese government, the US government and dozens of companies that use outsourced labor including Apple.
Steve Jobs has been dinged for making a comment to the effect that the issues in the US aren’t Apple’s problem to clean up. He was speaking in terms of the notion that Apple, and Apple alone, is responsible for the issue. This is and was false, just as it is for China. Case in point, what was it, 2 months ago that some 100+ workers at a Foxconn factory threatened to jump off the roof en masse if they weren’t listened to about worker demands. This was more than the total number of folks that have individually jumped off a roof in the last 3-4 years, especially more than the folks that allegedly worked on Apple related lines. But no one takes about Microsoft’s China problem over that 100+ worker X box factory protest.
Just as the media harped on Job’s health issues, violating his privacy and shorting Apple stock several times with their doom and gloom in the name of page hits, they need to chill on this issue as being a singular Apple issue. It’s not. Talk about it if you wish but talk about the whole issue and what everyone can do about it
I think you guys should investigate the source(s) of this propaganda about Apple and discredit it–for the benefit of all the drones and zombies and tree huggers who believe it.