“As Apple Inc, the world’s most valuable listed company, braces itself for a report into alleged poor working conditions among its army of low-cost suppliers in China, it could heed the lessons from another big-brand retailer that faced similar issues two decades ago,” Terril Yue Jones reports for Reuters.
“‘Apple is facing its ‘Nike moment’,’ said Teresa Cheng, international campaign coordinator for United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), referring to accusations in the 1990s that suppliers to sportswear retailer Nike Inc mistreated workers,” Jones reports. “Such is the California-based iPad and iPhone maker’s dominance of the technology sector that its response to the non-profit Fair Labor Association’s (FLA) report – expected this week – could affect conditions across China’s vast electronics supply chain… ‘Unless we hold Apple’s feet to the fire, they’re going to get away with profiting off the same sweatshop conditions and driving a global race to the bottom while fooling the public and making it look like they’re getting better, just like Nike did,’ Cheng at USAS said in emailed comments.”
Jones reports, “Apple stresses its partners are required to adhere to strict global standards. ‘We insist our suppliers provide safe working conditions, (and) treat workers with dignity and respect,’ said spokeswoman Carolyn Wu. ‘Our suppliers must live up to these requirements if they want to keep doing business with Apple.’
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If the report is any good for Apple, it will be discounted and/or ignored by those with an agenda that has very little to do with Apple save for coattailing on the brand for free publicity. See Greenppeace and Consumer Reports.
Newsflash #1: Factory work is repetitive and boring. Until robots take over, that’s not going to change. That’s why the young, usually students, take those jobs in China. They are not 40-year old heads of households with kids and a mortgage. These are not career jobs.
Newsflash #2: U.S. citizens are used to U.S. living conditions. Seeing non-U.S. living conditions usually shocks the non-travelled U.S. citizen. That does’t mean companies should be accused of abusing sweatshop labor when they are doing no such thing.
Newsflash #3: People commit suicide. Pampered millionaires commit suicide. Foxconn’s rate of suicide is less that China’s as a whole. Those who use the tragedy of suicide in order to advance their agendas are vile.
Watch the ABC News video of the Foxconn factory here. We do not see anything that even remotely resembles a “sweatshop.” Read about young Chinese citizens lining up by the thousands for Foxconn jobs here. United Students Against Sweatshops would do well to find some real sweatshops to be “against” for a change. It does not advance their cause to concoct “sweatshops” where there are none. It only makes them look dishonest and desperate.
Related articles:
FLA President: Foxconn factories ‘first-class; way, way above average’ – February 15, 2012
Apple CEO Tim Cook calls New York Times supplier report ‘patently false and offensive’
Apple audit led by COO Tim Cook prompted improvements at Foxconn – February 14, 2011
Media blows it: Foxconn employees face significantly lower suicide risk – May 28, 2010
This is an important moment in Apple’s history. If they play these cards right, they have a huge opportunity to shine. Facts don’t matter and reality is subject. If they can use the example of “antennae gate” to take the lead, elevate the discussion and in this case show the world how to address concerns about the complicated issue of fair labor practices – Apple can once again prove it’s the greatest company on Earth.
BS, they are still “the greatest company on Earth.”
haven’t they done the above already? Despite the unfortunate grammar, Cook’s open letter was very open. They have a section on the site just on this, they’ve hired third-parties to monitor conditions, they’ve twisted foxcon’s arms into giving a 20% pay increase across the board… What new, big response are people still expecting???
I was going to say. The “Nike moment” is months if not years past. The conditions in Foxconns factories have been in the news since the suicide cluster, Apple itself has been reporting on its contractors going on 4 years, and conditions in Chinese factories have been known since Apple started making the iPod there.
The FLA report is important, but the spokesperson is grossly overstating the situation.
Just like antennagate, this is a non story. Apple has been working on the problem for years. It is in very good shape right now.
The United Students should be looking closer to home where the suicide rate in America’s colleges and universities is two to three times greater than the Foxxcon suicide rate.
There is a real cause for the United Students to work on.
Excuse me, but working conditions are mainly the responsibility of the utopian state.
So you are saying that a corporation has no responsibility to the working conditions at it’s manufacturing facilities?
What about the environment?
Serious question, explain your statement and view please?
Is the suicide rate at Foxconn higher/lower than in Hollywood? Washington, DC?
My understanding is that the suicide rate at Foxconn is lower than elsewhere in China, which suggests that Foxconn (Apple) is a good therapy?
A “Nike moment,” how creative.
An important point you failed to mention: It would be hypocrisy for USAS to single Apple out. They should boycott anything made in China. At least Foxconn’s factories are being audited by the FLA. How about the factories where their Christmas presents were made? Do they have their FLA certificates?
‘They should boycott anything made in China.’
No they shouldn’t – they should get a real job.
So, is Foxconn a subsidiary of Apple now? How is Apple facing its Nike moment, when Apple doesn’t actually own “sweatshops” ? That is a HUGE difference. One that everyone seems willing to overlook.
This is nothing more than abusing a global brand to gain notoriety.
Nike didn’t own any of their factories either. Their shoes were made in the same factories that their competitor’s (Adidas, Reebok, etc.) shoes were made in. Therefore, Apple’s moment is very similar to Nike’s moment.
Your contention is that a corporation bears no responsibility for the actions of its subcontractors?
What a convenient moral and logical loop hole you have discovered. We can just overlook ANYTHING, because “we didn’t do it”, just bass the buck…
What do you exect from Reuters, the news trash outfit that anyone with a left wing agenda can scribble for.
Green-piss and USAS (you is arse) should go out and make something, be useful to your fellow man (sorry ladies).
Tim Cook, please take these steps to fix this issue:
1. Ignore these people.
2. Keep being awesome.
The problem that Apple faces is that people are shouting but not listening and certainly not thinking.
Logical arguments won’t work against a closed mind. Apple haters will continue to keep this issue in the headlines and repeating a fiction often enough will effectively make it appear to be true.
If Apple were to pay assembly workers more ( even though they have already increased rates recently ), it could afford to do so. I’m not so sure that Apple’s competitors who use the same factories could afford to match the same pay rates, so if could be a way for Apple to shift the focus onto those companies, but those companies are very successfully keeping quiet and letting Apple take the flack and they may well be able to keep doing so whatever happens.
However, as labour costs increase, so the appeal of using robotic assembly increases and existing workers might find that their services will no longer be needed. That will portrayed in the press as callous Apple firing poor workers, rather than misguided, interfering do-gooders screwing things up for them.
“Sweatshop”. Hardly. Fully air conditioned clean rooms. Biggest danger to employees is when they leave work and breath the highly polluted air in the Chinese cities. I would venture that job satisfaction level is well above that of many US workers. Try working in back of a hot fast food restaurant on your feet all day and facing piised off customers because his order was screwed up. Most of these do gooders never had a real job.
I’ve seen sweatshops in NYC that look worse than the conditions at Foxconn. At least Foxconn has air-conditioning.
Brilliant response. Find the real sweat shops not the companies that are working to improve conditions. A load of baloney by people who have not got a clue!!
That’s ok MDN, if the report is anything less than stellar I’m sure you’ll ignore and discredit it as you pursue your own agenda. A case of the pot calling the kettle black! 🙂
Yeah just like I’m sure your heart bleeds for how the Chinese workers building things for HP and Dell and Microsoft are faring. Oh, wait, no you don’t care at all.
Because you are a single brain called Apple hating hippocritocal troll.
Piss off.
I hope every worker at Foxconn is treated well regardless of the products they are making or what company they are building them for!
Bloody hell, pointing out the obvious to MDNs take makes a poster a troll. Only on this forum would such a mindless accusation be made automatically.
piss off yourself wanker
Yes, but didn’t you accuse MDN of something that hasn’t happened yet? Can you at least wait until they do it?
As for whether they are right or wrong, let me just say, I’m Chinese, born there, schooled there, worked there and had a home there until I sold it last year. MDN’s take is mostly right from my own experience. I will be going back to China in April, and interestingly, I will be visiting an ancestral home near Zhengzhou, where Foxconn’s newest plant is. I will try to get my nephew to get a job there, though I think he’s far too lazy to even try. I’m too old to try, but I’d do it, if only to satisfy my own curiosity.
The real stress is lack of work. No income is highly stressful and lacking a job decreases moral. Unemployment creates conditions that lead some people to consider suicide. These students are missing the real dilemma relating to work.
USAS is nothing more than a nuisance organization fueled by their own overrated sense of importance and self righteousness.
It never ceases to amaze me, the sheer arrogance coupled with ignorance we Americans have with regard to how different other parts of the world are. Working conditions in a country with 1 and a half billion people will never be the same as they are here. We may not like it, but the more people there are, the less valuable people are. We will never be able to direct the way the Chinese treat their people.
Oh there will be lip services given, smiles, handshakes, photo opportunities, but when it comes down to it, China sees tens of thousands of people being pulled out of poverty at a time as a huge plus. They don’t have the luxury of providing posh conditions for every single one of them, any more than we have.
People would kill for those jobs in China, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they already had. The suicides were widely publicized by people who can’t do simple arithmetic, otherwise they would have seen that the number of suicides was nothing abnormal for a population the size of FOXCON’S employee roster, not to mention the fact that none of us knows why any of the suicides were actually committed.
Bitching and moaning about Chinese company employee conditions is at best naive. To those people who think it’s so rough, go open a shop and some densely crowded urban area and cut chicken heads off all day and see if you wouldn’t dream of a nice cozy FOXCON position.
Amen. This is not a story about labor conditions in China, this is a story about preying on ignorance and arrogance of Americans to tar and feather Apple do they can drive page hits and this Advertising Dollars.
This story is really about what damage Google has done to the Internet and to news organizations. Turned once great organizations into bottom feeding Internet page-click trolls.
Agree 1000% with both of you.
+1 I couldn’t say it better. There’s a new meaning to the phrase “population density” in the USA.
I think the World Bank, just published a report that China’s last decade 700M of its poorest people were pulled out of extreme poverty. The vast majority were those rural poor who migrated to factories at the coast.
WHOA! Hold on there buddy.
You said: “the more people there are, the less valuable people are. ”
WOW! Startling admission for a conservative. So much for “the sanctity of life” I thought EVERY life was SACRED and therefore MUST be protected. Is this not a conservative plank?
The MDN take is spot on perfect.
Everyone talks about how great China is doing. This is a country where female infanticide is still practiced. I don’t see any dumb ass “students” marching around about that.
China still limits the number of children people can have, and boys are more valuable, so guess what people do? We’re worried because people work overtime in factories?
Think about it. Literally killing girls because they are technically worthless. Where is the outcry from all these infantile human rights groups? No publicity in it I guess unless you can find some ridiculous way to blame Apple for it.
Now China facing a catch-22. Because of their limits, the number of young people to work in factories is declining!!! Oops!
http://www.economist.com/node/15606229
Actually, the Foxxcon factories make girls worth a lot more now than they used to be.
Most of the girls working at Foxxcon are supporting their parents and the odd grandparent as well.
As more girls become decent old age insurance, fewer girls will be aborted/have their newborn head bashed upon a rock.
Foxxcon is a win/win.
“Newsflash #1: Factory work is repetitive and boring.”
Typical MDN right wing BS.
“Just about everyone working for the Bavarian automaker — from the factory floor to the design studios to the marketing department — is encouraged to speak out. Ideas bubble up freely, and there is never a penalty for proposing a new way of doing things, no matter how outlandish.”
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_42/b4005072.htm
The situation is utterly, ridiculously different. 81 million people live in Germany. 1.5 billion live in China. In China, you simpleton, people are a commodity. They are fungible. You have a problem, you don’t solve it, you toss people on it. FOXCON employs 1/8 the population of the entire country of Germany. Over 1 million people. How many people work for BMW, bust guess 15,000.
Another news flash mr “Artist.” Those BMWs are being put together with any number of parts made in freaking CHINA. DUH! What kooky fantasy world do you people come from?
BMW has to listen to employees, they can’t just go outside and scoop up another thousand.
Stunning insight into the minds of conservative corporatists right there TC, thanks for highlighting it!
“people are a commodity. They are fungible.” – Your Words.
This is how people of color were considered, and generally speaking women, not to long ago in the US. I see the slavery mindset is alive and well.
This is a morally corrupt position, you would fit right in the bilderberg group.
“Artist”, are you a member of USAS? Because your overly-simple mindset would fit right in with the other morons.
Even when factory workers are occasionally contributing new ideas, that doesn’t change the fact that assembly line work is repetitive and boring.
And comparing BMW to FOXCONN is apples and oranges. Different industries, different number of employees, different countries with different politics.
The point is that USAS is trying to make something from nothing.
1 We know nothing of Foxxconns employee suggestion process.
2 BMW builds 1.5 million cars in a year. Foxconn (not Apple) builds that many iPhones every month. You don’t get those numbers if every worker spends a lot of time debating each unit.
Apple builds that number of iPhones not “every month,” quiviran, but every few DAYS!
You are, of course, correct. I thought about how to phrase the comparison too long and used Apples quarterly production figure instead of annual. It takes about a week to build 1.5M iPhones. I’m from the olden times when transistors came one to a can, so it astounds me every time I think about it.
As a management consultant in my past life, I have worked for clients in many industries. One of them was the largest US automation manufacturer and supplier to many large manufacturers in Europe. In fact, as part of my work, I visited every large German auto manufacturer including BMW, Daimler, Volkwagen, Porsche, Opel, and hordes of their suppliers. I can assure you, that factory work even BMW factory work is “repetitive and boring”.
Had to chuckle at this. It won’t be the last time, either.
I hope no one on the left is surprised that attention will not be focused on Big Oil or Big Pharma anymore, rather it will shine on Big Pod.
Yes, Big Socialism is never happy with any successful endeavor other than their own.
So, in many ‘enlightened’ minds, Apple is now up there with Exxon, Wal-Mart, Haliburton, and Merck.
Libs have finally met the enemy that is them….
Cut the “libs” crap.
Why?
TowerTone,
I am a (Canadian) liberal and I am not surprised at all. Too bad the US doesn’t have more parties to once and for all to separate rampant socialism with leaning towards the left. Same applies to the right, being conservative or going far right. Both socialists and right extremists (Tea party) are few in number due to their radicalism (like singling out Apple and other companies to ‘boost’ their position). With many students it is ‘fun’ to have a cause regardless of the damage that is done. I hate the shallowness (and I repeat, I am a liberal).
I hope Apple tackles this head-on. I doubt the students will stop using the Apple products that their parents pay for anyway.
BTW, the Chinese government does not complain about ‘sweatshops’. The number one issue that has been pegged as having the largest potential for causing unrest in the world is male youth unemployment (Egypt, Syria anyone?). China has dug themselves into a hole and work very hard to make sure young people have jobs. They make manufacturing jobs attractive to international companies (e.g. in pharmaceutical/vaccine manufacturing amongst others) specifically to this end. Apple takes advantage of this BUT brings in a new level of management, one that actually improves workers lives. Let the damn students tackle that one. Besides, as Steve himself said, the USA is to blame as they do not have the capacity to meet Apple’s needs. Where else in the world can you get 10,000 engineers to re-work a product starting essentially overnight. Certainly not in the USA.
You think asking to control government waste, controlling the national debt, prevent unnecessary wars, and having the government stay out of minuscule personal issues is “extremist,” “Buster,” ? Yeesh.
Methinks you have watered it down a little. In fact I believe most people think that governments should control waste, the national debt, prevent unnecessary wars, and having the government stay out of their personal issues. Do you seriously think people actually think that governments should not control waste? You cheapen your arguments.
My point is, most people want responsible government regardless of their stripes and once you lean too far from the center, most are a little uncomfortable and are either extremists who know what they are doing or stupid and don’t see the ‘whole’ and the damage it could cause.
As for the engineers, please re-read my comments as I agree with you, they cannot do it overnight. What they can do is to START to do it immediately because you can get 10,000 engineers on board at moment’s notice.
BTW, having talked to manufacturers (more in the pharma field), the cheaper workers is not much of an issue anymore and is not the deciding factor as so much is done by machine. It is more about regulation.
What conservative is looking for that?
Bush let the no bid war-support contracts to his vice-presidents former company (controlling government waste should at least get showers that don’t electrocute our soldiers)
The fastest growth in government debt got its start under Ronnie Raygun.
Lying to Congress and starting a war in a country with no involvement in 9/11 was a Bush Cheney charade.
Government out of personal issues. Hmm, the Supreme Court said that in 1973. The Republicans have been trying to get the government back into that issue ever since.
Conservatives are all about conserving their power. And they’ll go to any extreme to do so.
1) Haliburton had no-bid contracts before and since. Get over it.
2) Reagan had to rebuild the military after the Vietnam war and the Democrats decimated it during the 70s
3) They did not lie to Congress. You are a sheep. Worse than that, you are a tool of other sheep.
4) You have no understanding of Roe v. Wade nor what the Justices believed were the guidelines that abortion should follow. Hint: It wasn’t a judgement for abortion on demand.
Why would I think you might have the capacity to further study what I have said? To do that, you would have to want to know the facts, and not the soundbites of others to ‘win’ for your team.
The real question is do you have that same capacity? Most reasoned society will debate, and honest folks do sometimes admit they are wrong and change their opinions when educated. Nothing gets accomplished with both sides screaming.
With that said, let’s drop the name calling for a bit an see if you practice what you breach, or are you blinded by party ideology and propaganda.
Leaving all of your other points alone for future debate, lets focus on the first one.
I would like you to google “halliburton crimes” Start at the top and work your way down.
Then come back here and explain why you have such blind faith in such an abusive and corrupt organization.
I realize this will be hard for you, it is never easy to admit you’ve been fooled. But if there is one thing I am certain of, without any doubt it is that Haliburton is a war profiteer, their employees have committed dozens of crimes,and their facilities have polluted and poisoned communities.
I am a MARINE war vet. I fell ill to a “mystery pathogen” walking one minute, woke up DAYS later in an army field hospital. Was told “they don’t know what happened” 6 other guys in my unit suffered the same thing. We ALL felt that we were lied to about something. We all felt like we were going to die, we were that sick. two weeks in a bed with an IV drip of I still don’t know what, treating I don’t know what. Can I actually blame Haliburton? NOPE. Were they involved with my base facilities, YES they were. I’ve read enough about them to form a reasonably educated opinion.
By “Miniscule” do you mean: voting rights or women’s reproductive rights? Both of which are under constant attack by the GOP?
You can’t get 10,000 engineers to re-work a product overnight, but you can get 10 to find issues in components and supply chains.
This is about cheaper people and as Jobs told Obama, overregulation.
I’m sure you know by now that when I say ‘libs’, I am referring to the uber-left free riders that are killing our society and Europe’s.
They know just enough to make them dangerous….(and annoying).
MDN Take takes the words right out of my mouth. With this, I totally agree, and am frustrated by irrational and ill-informed motivated hysteria. I am repulsed by anti-Apple bias fueling some of it, too.
Note to USAS:
Please engage brain before operating mouth.
USAS is either ignorant of the facts or manipulating them. Take your pick.
we know the attacks on Apple is B.S.
one BIG difference today for Apple vs Nike is that technology has changed.
I don’t know much about the Nike issue but at that time (1990s) with the internet etc much less developed Nike didn’t have much chance to defend itself or have supporters defend it.
Today with the internet, pro Apple sites (or rather non Apple hating) sites like MDN and it’s readers can comment on the absurdness of the charges, other bloggers can write, people can tweet, email links to their friends etc. We probably can’t stop the Apple hate but at least there’s a chance of fighting back which Nike didn’t have.
every time some dumb apple hating site spews Apple nonsense just go and comment and quote your facts: suicide rates lower at Foxconn than U.S colleges etc. Do let orgs like SumofUs get away with moronic petitions against apple like accusing it of ‘poisoning’ workers with iso-propanol (i.e child safe rubbing alcohol !!)….
typo: “Do let orgs like SumofUs” should be “do NOT let… “
OK kids. China is indeed a criminal nation hellhole. That’s a given.
But it is critical to KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT before you go on a crusade. Please go do your homework about Apple and China NOW.
I’m not going to embarrass you or harass you for your mistakes. A youth revolution against the self-destructive Corporate Oligarchy, bad biznizz and Neo-Feudalism is LONG overdue. I will ever support it and participate. But Apple is for real in their deeds and intent. Look just about everywhere else for the ACTUAL targets worth our efforts.
: – Derek
I agree with you 100%.
BUT, there is something wrong with the blind allegiance just because it is APPLE. Most of their recent oversight has come (it appears) as a result of negative attention (on them, and other companies)
I do believe there was a time when a blind eyes was turned, not just by them, but by everyone. there was not awareness, nor concern of the issue. That is changing.
Awareness is a good thing, it leads to debate and reform.
Humans are utterly fallible, each and EVERY one. Greed can be a powerful motivator. History is full of examples of companies exploiting their workforce, the environment, as well as customers. That is an incontrovertible FACT.
It makes no sense to stick ones head in the sand and pretend that isn’t true, and “it can’t happen here” It is intellectually dishonest to assume everything Apple does is altruistic or inherently good or fair.
BUT, there is something wrong with the blind allegiance just because it is APPLE
Of course there is. The same goes with the political allegiance BS we see around here.
My old line regarding the subject:
We humans never know everything about anything.
I believe we must, nonetheless, have opinions. Therefore, I believe we must work to our best ability to know what we are talking about. This student group has FAILed to do so. They’re on their own blind train of thought and that’s upsetting.
Foxconn already HAD their Nike moment. When Nike had their Nike moment, the result was the formation of FLA to audit their factories. FLA is already auditing Foxconn, so the moment has come and gone.