Mark Radcliffe takes note of Apple, Inc’s promise to help Foxconn create a safer and more ethical workplace for the workers who manufacture their products.
Regardless of where you stand on the issue of Mike Daisey and his “stretching of the truth” regarding his experience at Foxconn factories, it appears the attention he helped bring to the matter has contributed to ongoing changes there. Today another victory has been scored for Foxconn workers, as Apple and Foxconn announced a plan to share costs of improving the factories and workplace conditions. It’s no secret that Apple has plenty of cash to spare and frankly can afford to help those who contributed to their profits, but still I salute Apple for taking a leadership position here.
In an interview on NPR today, Fair Labor Association president Auret Van Heerden explained what would need to be done to improve conditions:
They will have to hire tens of thousands of new workers. They need to build dormitory rooms for them, add the cafeteria and workspace for them. So certainly, this is a project which will take, I think, the better part of a year or – to implement.
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What do you think? Will this make a difference? Is Apple doing what is right, playing a simple game of catch-up, or both?
The impression I get is that Apple are throwing some dollars and infrastructure at a problem that is big enough to turn the public against them. The question on my mind is whether they are changing their own culture and helping change the one at FoxConn to deal with the ‘modus operandi’ and decision making cultures that allowed this exploitation and unconscious behaviour to occur in the first place. Corporate Social Responsibility should not be about doing a few good things on the side. Those who really understand CSR understand that it is about creating value in everything you do… Read more »