Apple’s ‘Nike moment’: Dissecting the human cost of iPhones

The US anti-sweatshop movement was born the day we discovered how our Nikes were stitched together. Two decades later, we are discovering how our cherished iPhones are made, giving Apple a ” Nike moment” of its own. Worker suicides at Apple’s main Chinese supplier, Foxconn, in 2010, followed by reports of forced overtime, child labor, minimum wage violations and unsafe working conditions at its suppliers, have contrasted with Apple’s status as creator of hallowed devices and its spectacular $13 billion in profits – 30 percent of sales – in the first quarter. The reports have fuelled a budding protest among students and labour unions who call for Apple to compel its suppliers in China to improve the conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers who assemble its iconic products – workers whose wages contribute a mere $10 to the cost of a contract-free $549 iPhone 4. But if the troubling conditions at Foxconn’s assembly lines raise anew fundamental questions about the responsibility of corporations in this age of global capitalism, the outcry raises a basic question too. Does pressure by consumers and governments in the West to improve multinationals’ behavior in poor countries do more harm than good? More…

News selected by Covalence | Country: China | Company: Apple, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. | Source: The Economic Times