When you see, hear, or use an iPhone, do you think of blood diamonds? Maybe you should.

In truth, the problem is bigger than just iPhones.

If you use any Apple product--iPod, computer, iPad, iPhone--you are likely handling a product that came from factory setting that practices less than ideal work standards for it's laborers.  The immediate, identified problem arises at the Foxonn complex in the Shenzhen province where the factory's 400,000 workers churn out electronic gadgets around the clock for Sony, Nintendo, Hewlett-Packard, Nokia and Dell--in addition to Apple. 

The issue pertains to inhumane work standards relating to long work hours, isolation of workers in the work process, and general indentured servitude.  Recently a rash of 13 suicides and 20 attempts of same have drawn increasing attention to the cost that some humans must "pay" to provide affordable electronic gadgets for the rest of the world.  With approximately 800,000 workers overall--and 400,000 in the one locale which is now in the media spotlight about an hour's train ride from Hong Kong--Foxconn's parent firm Hon Hai Precision Industry requires workers to work up to seven days a week, 12-hours a day--until just recently, all for $132 per month, or about 37 cents an hour.  

Is Apple really taking its supply chain policy all that seriously?

Under pressure from government authorities to improve working conditions, Foxconn recently gave an across the board raise to all line workers of 30%.  Now instead of making 37 cents an hour--it's now 48 cents; working conditions and demands were unchanged and which are consistently reported as flying in the face of Apple's policy for supplier responsibility.  

Most of those I mention this to are unaware of the problem, but it's far from a secret.  The Week is running a feature story in its current issue; in this report, overtime starts after 12 hours--and even then workers aren't necessarily compensated for overtime as such!  It is reported that the Chinese Southern Weekly sent a 20 year-old reporter undercover to Foxconn factory where, when he was hired, signed only one document:  An overtime consent form that released Foxconn from being responsible for overtime assignments and pay.  [His account of working there 30 days is pretty much in line with the reports from others and is described in an online blog.]  Many other sources are reporting the travesties, including the BBC and TechWorld.  

Apple's far from the first, but that doesn't change what's wrong.

So, what's the big deal?  Plenty.  

First, it's important to point out that this is far from the first case of supplier exploitation on behalf of American producers. Prior instances include neglect of oversight and guilt by association on the part of firms like Nike, Wal-Mart, Levis Strauss--and many others.  Without exception, public reaction has been very clear--U.S. firms are accountable for humane conditions in their workplaces, or those of their suppliers.

So what seems odd to me is how Apple--but also all the other firms noted at the top of this post which benefit economically as well--is handling the news:  it appears to be either in denial or complicit with what's transpiring.  Frankly, it's hard for me to believe that I--a consumer bystander--would learn of this, from different sources but each with similar details, before Steve Jobs did!  I would venture to say that Mr. Jobs ought to be paying more attention to both his firm's social responsibility obligations and the state of Apple's supply chain--he has to have known about this for some time.  

Second, this may an inflexion point in the transformation of cheap China prices.  Putting laborers into servitude is not the kind of economy we countenance for our ourselves as a society; it's hardly the kind of economic development and societal evolution that China would be expected to idealize in the long run for itself if it is to grow into a 21st century economic power.  Put another way:  the work and labor conditions at Foxconn are not those of a consumer friendly, pro-consumption society.

Could there be such a thing as "blood iPods"?

Finally, the bottomline is this, both morally and financially:  Are Apple's [and the other firm's] profits--if these reports prove to be generally true [and they presently appear to, indeed, be]--clean or dirty?  Are their inventions quite so wonderful if they are the product of a supply chain that's that not?  

At a personal level, a similar question can also be raised, are we as thoughtful consumers prepared to enjoy all the iPods and iPads and iPhones [and other electronic devices, too] that we might own in quite the same carefree way?  It seems odd--to put it gracefully--that one might possess devices that offer us freedom from the constraints of old ways and technology--when we know that they are likely made by people who, at a practical level, at least, are not themselves free, or even unable to derive substantial value from their time and labor.  

If you thought it strong before now, maybe the analogy of blood-diamonds is not all that far-fetched after all.  
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Comments

[Jag Venugopal]

First off -- do we understand what is causing the suicides? Is it low pay? Long hours? Lack of opportunities for socializing (most workers are migrants from rural areas according to one report). Why did they simply not resign or look for jobs elsewhere? Given that China is booming, surely, they would have found better jobs? Also, Apple has leaned on Foxconn to give workers a substantial raise. What if that does not fix the suicide problem?

Perhaps, just perhaps, the Chinese government is to blame, for not allowing trade union activity? If there was a functioning trade union, that would possibly have made matters better for the workers by giving them a voice with __their__ management?

Sure, we want to make sure that we're not using "blood diamonds", but that begs the question -- what is the "right" wage? Rather than tinker around with our ideas on what constitutes a living wage for a different part of the world and a set of circumstances different from ours, I would place my bets on pressuring China to ensure worker freedoms and ability to organize. And then, let the open market dictate the wages.