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    The Week

    Apple's Foxconn probe: Will it improve brutal working conditions?

    By The Week's Editorial Staff | The Week – Tue, Feb 14, 2012
    After coming under fire over punishing practices at the Foxconn factories in China where iPhones are made, Apple CEO Tim Cook calls for a third-party investigation

    Apple announced on Monday that it was asking the nonprofit Fair Labor Association (FLA) to investigate the reportedly hazardous working conditions at the Foxconn manufacturing plants in China, where many Apple gadgets are made. CEO Tim Cook's call comes after a detailed exposé in The New York Times and a nationally syndicated story on NPR, both spotlighting brutal working conditions in the Chinese factories — from relentless 12-hour, seven-day-a-week shifts to awful wages to a hauntingly high number of suicides. Do Cook and Apple deserve credit for stepping up?

    Give Apple credit: A third-party investigation is "exactly what the doctor ordered," says Dave Smith at the International Business Times. Under former CEO Steve Jobs, one of Apple's more unsettling traits was its ability to "distort reality," oftentimes "spinning negative news into positive news and positive news into extraordinary news." Cook understands that in this case, "his company could not come clean if it didn't look for outside help." That level-headedness is an asset, and "that's why Apple, and all Apple users, should thank Tim Cook." 
    "Apple approves Foxconn investigation: Why Tim Cook deserves credit"

    But it's not nearly enough: The "good news" is that Apple is finally taking action, says Wayne Rash at eWeek. The "bad news" is that Chinese workers are unlikely to see improvement anytime soon. Even if violations are found, there isn't much Apple can do. There's "little in the way" of actual enforcement mechanisms. The sad truth is that once the inspection results are revealed on FLA's website, "Foxconn will revert to business as usual." 
    "Foxconn inspections are good PR, but Apple needs to protect workers"

    And the problem is bigger than Apple and Foxconn: "This is about economics," says John Biggs at TechCrunch. Sure, Apple is sending in the FLA to investigate. But cheap labor is the reason China's economy is exploding, and "what Shenzen makes, the world takes." Once the smoke clears, these factories will revert to their horrible conditions, and Apple will continue to sell truckloads of iPads. This isn't a Foxconn-only problem — it's the whole manufacturing industry. This probe merely (and ineffectively) inspects "the canopy of the tree while ignoring the disease-infested trunk."
    "False alarm: Why the Apple/Foxconn debacle clouds the real manufacturing mess"

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    9 comments

    • Saundra
      Saundra  •  Irvine, California  •  3 mths ago
      Some day we'll get a grip on the fact that the Chinese do most our manufacturing with what amounts to slave labor and you use or consume any of their foods, kitchen items, medicines or any agricultural products at your own peril. I know it's becoming increasingly harder to do but, BUY AMERICAN!
    • just me
      just me  •  3 mths ago
      There are 2 machine builders left in the US. One of them buys most of the parts overseas and assembles the machines here. We will be held hostage by others at some point because of this. We can no longer compete because of the cost of union labor. Like it or not.
      • Noah
        Noah 3 mths ago
        If it wasn't for 'union wages' there would be close to zero money in the system. Given that consumption would fall and many, if not most 'small businesses would fail. I suspect that is what will happen at some point in the future. Most people will have such limited incomes that deep dish poverty will be more the case than not. We'll manufacture nothing, we'll educate nobody, we'll price most people out of any hope for 21st century medical care and for most of the population this will be a 3rd world country with a few 'rich', a small attached 'middle class' and shifting population of poorly paid workers out of work more often then employed. There will no particular tax base to support even our bloated military. Actually this was Russia in 1917....a few rich, a small 'middle class' and an exploited 'working class' with no particular representation in government or anywhere else. You WILL get what you want...a government owned by a corporate elite...low wage workers and a whale of a lot of Americans with nothing to lose. Vote for the GOP/Tea/Fox/jesus freak party...they're on your side!
    • luvchanel
      luvchanel  •  3 mths ago
      China won't do a thing. How much money do you think the government makes on the deal?? This IS NOT all apple profit.
    • Patrick F
      Patrick F  •  Cranbury, New Jersey  •  3 mths ago
      This is a good first step, but it needs teeth.

      If Apple's bottom line is affected (i.e., people boycott Apple products over this) then Apple will change its tune. While the status quo is profitable, Apple won't budge, nor will other Asian factories, nor will other American companies that use them.

      Their are too many Chinese people desparate for a job for them to demand better working conditions. For all the millions that would protest conditions today, millions more exist that will get right on the assembly line. The power to change this is in the hands of consumers.
      • A Yahoo! User 3 mths ago
        And American consumers are fat, dumb, and happy, so the likelihood of a consumer backlash is slight at best. We're more likely to protest a drop in build quality than we are the working conditions of people on the other side of the world who make the stuff. We just do not care. At all. The cohort that do care are so small as to be dismissed as no more than a rounding error.
      • h2o4ever
        h2o4ever 3 mths ago
        There are nearly 1.5 billion chinese. We can't fix their problems, they have to rise up and do it.
      • luvchanel
        luvchanel 3 mths ago
        Caldude: Exactly. American had to rise up and fight for their conditions. The Chinese have to do the same. American's can't enforce changes at the Foxconn plant it's not our country !! The Chinese are lining up to get that job, so I guess the majority don't find it that bad. Apple can make it in the US but then the cost would be 5 times higher...then those screaming about China will be screaming about the price, always screaming about something.
    • Tone
      Tone  •  3 mths ago
      It's just cosmetic damage control. The stuff big corporations do to look good till the storm blows over.
    • E
      E  •  3 mths ago
      since apple will not be able to export ipads from china soon, they will need to move that manufacturing somehwere else. This will come by the "inspection" and wil be used as the justification fro moving. 2013, no ipads will be made in mianland China.
    • the doctor
      the doctor  •  Los Angeles, California  •  3 mths ago
      LOL, Foxconn is one of the biggest manufacturers in China, paying wages several times that of the local companies. Samsung and the rest of the electronics manufacturers pay less and care less. But If you want to see slave wages and dangerous working conditions, look at any Chinese company that isnt approved by the government to deal with foreign firms. Local authorities wont let you near them if you make it know you are coming by. its time we face facts, incredibly low wages and lousy working conditions are acceptable and supported by Chinese culture. You cant fix what the chinese government considers acceptable. our standards are laughable in their eyes, making it impossible to enforce them. its much like america 80 years ago, electricity and running water, glass windows and non-dirt floors, education, all things that we take for granted are in short supply there, but also not really expected or desired by the people.
    • James S
      James S  •  Burlington, Washington  •  3 mths ago
      "Even if violations are found, there isn't much Apple can do"

      there isn't much they can do? they can stop having their products made there. oh wait, that would hurt their profits.....my bad.
      • Robert
        Robert 3 mths ago
        ha ha yeah you need to watch that kind of language it is socialist.
    • Robert
      Robert  •  3 mths ago
      Note that AFTER ". CEO Tim Cook's call comes after a detailed exposé in The New York Times" means that he did not bother before and probably will not now.

      ." That level-headedness is an asset, and "that's why Apple, and all Apple users, should thank Tim Cook." are you kidding me, before Tim Cook became CEO he was the Exective in Charge of the whole situation, he set it up. He is the reason apple moved manufacturing out of the USA so he could benefit from the very thing that is Slave Labor.

      Tim Cook is the leader of the electronics industrys push to move to China. Apple is so proud of what he has done they rewarded him 400 million last year. Advance Technology using Advanced Slavery Technics

      Apple will not get another dime of mine.
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