Apple improving conditions in China

“Apple ‘determined’ to improve conditions at plants in China”

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

CNN Tech

The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, has stated that the company is currently doing everything in its power to stop the horrid working conditions at its manufacturing plants in China. At the annual Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco, California, Cook told hundreds of investment professionals that they know people have a very high expectation of their company, so Apple is doing more than anyone in their industry to improve such working conditions. Foxconn is the manufacturer that runs the plants in China, where there are reports of long working hours, underage workers, and a secret, militaristic culture. Cook also stated that the problem of underage labor is extremely rare and not to be tolerated, so they are starting to work with vendors farther down the supply chain to eliminate child labor. Apple’s code of conduct allows no more than sixty hours of work per week, which is 20 more hours than in America. There are reports of this code being broken in factories. Apple has $98 billion dollars in cash, which Cook states is more than needed to run the company, but there have been no indications of whether or not Apple will be issuing dividends to shareholders.

According to this article, it does not seem like there is too much emphasis on changing the working conditions in China. The conditions of workers became publicly known as an issue, so Apple needed to react somehow. Although actions should be taken, I believe that Tim Cook is just presenting this message to say that Apple will change the laws for working conditions. There is not much proof of Apple taking a stand in China, other than the fact that they said the company will start using vendors who do not participate in child labor. This alone may help, but it also does not change the long hours adult workers are forced to work and the conditions they are placed in. I think Apple can take a much bigger stand on the issue than what they are actually doing. This message by Cook seems like something to just brush off the issue, when in reality there should be more serious actions taken.