Apple should not profit at the expense of low-wage workers
Li Qiang says conditions at its supplier plants remain poor despite pledges
I used to have an iPhone 4. It's the best smartphone I ever owned. Apple's designers pursue the highest standards for the quality of the technology they create.
As a human rights and labour activist, I once genuinely hoped Apple would apply the same earnestness employed in the pursuit of product quality to its treatment of the workers making its products. I hoped the fantastic profits resulting from Apple's technological advancements could allow equally great improvements in working conditions. Just like Apple CEO Tim Cook said: "We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain."
However, the company's efforts have made me lose hope. On February 28, I received an email from someone who said his brother-in-law, Tian Fulei, had died suddenly at the Pegatron factory. The medical records I saw gave the cause as "sudden death". Tian had kept an overtime log - he worked 12-hour shifts, up to seven days a week. That's 84 hours. Keep in mind Apple has repeatedly in public committed to a working week of no more than 60 hours, except in emergencies.
Watchdogs and the media have found that overtime is mandatory in Apple supplier plants. Particularly around the time the company is preparing to release new products, it's very difficult to get any time off.
In 2013, a 15-year-old child worker at Pegatron named Shi Zhaokun died. The cause given was pneumonia. Based on the attendance records provided to Shi's parents by the factory, in the four weeks before he died, Shi laboured for 280 hours, or an average of 70 hours per week.
It's unclear how many workers have died at Pegatron or Apple's other suppliers. In 2013, Pegatron said four workers had died. But we know of at least one other death. Such deaths could well have been prevented. But Apple and Pegatron both say they were not related to the working environment.
Long hours of overtime is just one of the many facets of poor working conditions in Apple's supplier factories. On March 9, more than 300 workers from Foxconn factories in Chengdu and Shenzhen were sent to the Quanta factory in Changshu to support the production of the Apple Watch. They were forced to sleep on a bus to Changshu because the factory did not have any space in its dormitory.