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Apple execs know and don't care about terrible conditions in Chinese factories
By Virginia SmithJanuary 26th, 2012, 6:00 pmComments (25)
The New York Times has launched an investigation into the factories that churn out our beloved Apple products, and it's not pretty. Suppliers used to manufacture new models of iPads and iPhones have come under scrutiny for underage labor, unsafe exposure to hazardous chemicals, brutal hours, and dangerous conditions that in some cases have led to fatal explosions. And all this comes after a significant company crackdown on factory conditions.
"We've known about labor abuses in some factories for four years, and they're still going on," a former executive for the company told the Times. "Why? Because the system works for us. Suppliers would change everything tomorrow if Apple told them they didn't have another choice. If half of iPhones were malfunctioning, do you think Apple would let it go on for four years?"
Multiple sources from the company confirmed that switching to more ethical suppliers would be expensive and difficult, given that few factories can keep up with the manic demand for new Apple products. "We're trying really hard to make things better," said another former executive, "But most people would still be really disturbed if they saw where their iPhone comes from." However, sources from various suppliers as well as advocacy groups claimed that Apple's aggressive cost-cutting all but ensures that factories will end up cutting corners to improve speed as well as profit margins.
Before we single them out too harshly, it should be noted that horrendous factory conditions have been reported at plants for tech companies including Dell, Nokia, Sony, Hewlett-Packard, and I.B.M. One labor firm that works with Apple to monitor factory conditions even called the company "a leader in preventing under-age labor [...] doing as much as they possibly can."
Not everyone is all that optimistic that the situation will improve any time soon. In the harsh words of one current executive: "You can either manufacture in comfortable, worker-friendly factories, or you can reinvent the product every year, and make it better and faster and cheaper, which requires factories that seem harsh by American standards. And right now, customers care more about a new iPhone than working conditions in China."
Terrible, but not untrue. How many people do you really think are going to go cold turkey on their Apple gear in the wake of this news?
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Commentarium (25 Comments)
I will! My single boycott may not matter, but it's a start.
Definitely not buying an iPhone 4 or 5. Fuck that.
The dirty little truth of business that no one wants people to know is this: ethics has no place in the bottom line.
Never bought an Apple product in my life. I can't begin to imagine why it would be the least bit difficult for anyone to do without them.
Then again if the consumers don't care, why should Apple? Apple is still selling boatloads of products.
There's a saying: what goes around, comes around. Seems like the source of that which came around to visit itself on Mr Jobs has now been revealed.
Yes his pancreatic cancer was clearly caused by his immorality. Anyone healthy can now be assumed to be moral too.
You keep thinking its a justice-free, I-shant-reap-what-I-sow existence. Lord knows adults aren't immune to believing in fairy tales.
Not surprised apple wouldn't care much, but doesn't the Chinese government have a responsibility to its own laborers? They're willing to look away to get the jobs. Jobs that in the past might have gone to Americans and at better wages. But not in the new world order of global free trade.
They better not care. As a stockholder, I don't care either. Their only concern is to run a profitable business, like most any other publicly traded business.
If the consumers care, talk with your money and buy elsewhere.
Whether you're a stockholder or not, you are a human so I would hope that you might have some compassion for fellow human beings. It's unethical for companies to succeed in business while they are not treating their employees fairly. In an overpopulated country like China with 36% living below the poverty line, there is not a lot of competition between employers. Where the employer has a monopoly on labor, there should be labor regulations in place to prevent abuses on employees.
And unfortunately, boycotting Apple products won't make a difference because I'm sure most companies of that size likely take their cues from their peers.
This is the cards we have been dealt. Businesses respond extremely well to consumer behavior (i.e. not buying). I don't deny the metaphysical altruistic truth to your comment, but by invoking a negative conclusion ("And unfortunately, boycotting Apple products won't make a difference because") you effectively are just bitching. So you hate "the system" but the system is to hateful to be changed. I guarentee Apple will make changes--superficial as they may first be--if consumers made and effort.
I don't think there is any reason to come out with a new product every year. It's the marketeers who drive consumerism, not the consumer who cannot choose what they are offered.
It's also not as if Apple is passing on the saving to the consumer, or steering clear of a monopoly. Dodgy ethics all around.
Marketers do not drive consumerism... how dumb are you?
uhh, marketers pretty much invented consumerism.
That's great that people are saying that they are not going to get an iPhone. But what kind of phone is sweatshop free? Probably not a single one...
I already buy no Apple products. For me it's just pactical; who wants an O.S. that can't run 2/3 of software? I mean really...
These are the conditions Republicans are doing their damnedest to impose on American workers here with "right to work" bills. Slavery is dead but surfdom could be on the horizon.
serfdom.
what do you think student loans are =surfdom!
...only applies to student loans at schools like uc santa barbara, university of miami, and university of hawaii.
Maybe one of these days Congress will wake the fuck up and place huge tariffs on imported goods so it's no longer economically feasible or a shareholder-driven requirement to manufacture overseas. The US is dying, and the pace can be clearly measured one shuttered factory at a time.
If China does not care, why should Apple?
The main difference between apple and "Dell, Nokia, Sony, Hewlett-Packard, and I.B.M" is that PC products are cheaper. I thought that apple made products that are environmnetally safe and ethically made. Congrats Apple!
Sure, boycott Apple. Don't you think that if we all boycotted Apple then another company would move into its space? And what makes you think their vendors would treat their employees any better? Wake up folks, the problem lies not with Apple alone ... indeed, consumer action working with them rather than against them could be the only force powerful enough to affect any changes that will make an impact on an entire industry instead of what this really is - one single case amongst many, many more..