This weekend I read this article about Apple’s suppliers and some questionable labor practices. Although I should pay closer attention to human rights, especially those of children, if I am being completely honest I often skip these articles. Too depressing, and it seems like such a big problem to fix. And it is one I am not sure we want to fix. In many places, working in a factory making supplies for an American company is probably better than the alternatives for most children. It isn’t like these kids are choosing between staying home and playing Wii or going to work in a rug factory for Ikea. I haven’t made up my mind about these complicated issues, to say the least.
I paid more attention to this article because I just finished reading the Steve Jobs biography. I am not one of those wacko Apple-obsessed people; although I do love Apple products, I have never camped out to buy a new phone. Yet I found this book fascinating on so many levels, so I recommend trudging though it (it is long!). For our purposes, there are many interests discussions of leadership and values. Jobs was not a nice man, but he had a way of inspiring greatness that is an interesting study of do’s and don’ts for future leaders. Apple itself is a great example of a company that got very big but maintained its values, for better or for worse. I am not saying Apple was an ethical company at all times, but the things that Steve Jobs valued from the start (making great products, not money, for example), still apply today, if you believe the book anyway. Finally, the book has some interesting discussions of intellectual property law, some of which I may come back to when we get to that topic in LA245.
Now, finally on to the latest article about Apple’s suppliers. Although I feel like labor practices around the world are a hard problem to solve, if you are a company like Apple, you have some influence. Does responsibility come with influence? I would imagine that Apple has the power to force many of these suppliers to change labor practices — the article cites a few examples of life improvements Apple has demanded — but should Apple do so? Do we want iPads to cost more, or use safer labor to build them? In other words, it is easy to say that we want fair labor, but harder if that changes what we have to pay for our products.
The article emphasizes transparency, probably because this is the first time Apple has ever published its supplier list. I am a big believer in transparency; one of my guiding life principles is the publicity rule: if I wouldn’t want my actions to be on the front page of the newspaper, I shouldn’t do them. This is a great example of Apple following this principle. And the truth is that Apple is a company that others pay attention to; thus it has the opportunity to encourage others to be transparent. The reason I like transparency so much is that allows us all to follow our own values. If we are truly offended by what goes on at Apple’s suppliers, we don’t have to buy Apple products. I hear those Blackberry things are really great.
4 Comments
Yuchen Qin posted on January 18, 2012 at 8:55 pm
Like it: “if I wouldn’t want my actions to be on the front page of the newspaper, I shouldn’t do them.”
This article reminds me of one of Apple’s major suppliers typically assembling its products–Foxconn( I don’t know why it’s not on the list), a Taiwanese factory located in Shenzhen, China. A lot of my friends’ iphones are from there. Not long before, 13 consecutive suicides of this company’s employees were reported because of the huge pressure on those staff and the little salary. It is not only a problem of the company management, but also ethical.
Ryan Gee posted on January 22, 2012 at 2:57 pm
I believe that Apple is doing the right thing by posting its supplier list. Although it is a questionable method in showing that they receive supplies from worker abusing companies, Apple overall has the ability to influence ethnic practices. As Spooner stated above, Responsibility comes with influence, but I believe responsibility comes with influence over time. So Apple, by posting the supplier information annually, will allow its close followers to see the growth and influence they have spread.
Alexandria Chong posted on January 27, 2012 at 4:59 pm
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/tim-cook-we-care-about-every-worker/?smid=tw-nytimesbits&seid=auto
was watching bloomberg news earlier this morning, they did a feature on this and then i just read this article. I think the email Tim Cook sent out was the first step Apple needed to take in order to assure their customers and employees that they aren’t as heartless as the media is making them out to be, considering workers have died from explosions in their overseas factories. Nevertheless considering the depth of influence Apple has, even on me I have a Macbook, an iPhone, and iPod, they should really set an example for the rest of the companies out there. In terms of ethics, being in Law and Ethics, we’ve discussed that the only wrong thing is to not think about and make a decision. I really think their decision to start an investigation and make the progress available at apple.com/supplierresponsibility will definitely help them regain their status as the issue digresses. Yes Apple has done something ethically wrong with me but I think they do realize how much their example means for the business world and are trying hard to change that view back to one that resonates good ethics and good employer treatment.
Carolyn Le posted on February 11, 2012 at 11:19 am
Commenting on what you said earlier in the blog post about skipping articles that are too depressing, I also find myself avoiding news articles that make me sad, which are a lot of them, and I’m trying really hard to change that because I’m starting to feel a little ignorant about some current events. Anyways, in respect to Apple, I agree with Alexandria, that this is a great example of Apple trying to change their ways to have their company reflect values that they can proudly stand behind. I think the extra cost that people have to pay for Apple products are a little price to pay for safe and fair labor.