Apple would probably prefer that you pay attention to the hype surrounding its recently unveiled iPad, but a sadder, more disturbing part of its business is what’s getting press these days.
A series of suicides on the grounds of Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturer that dominates the supply chain for the world’s largest computer makers, has Apple on the back foot.
Twelve employees at Foxconn’s sprawling industrial park in Shenzhen, China have thrown themselves from buildings or otherwise perished this year, leaving Foxconn’s chairman and founder at a loss for words.
“From a logical, scientific standpoint, I don’t have a grasp on that,” Terry Gou told reporters on May 27. “No matter how you force me, I don’t know.”
However, a quick check on working conditions in Gou’s facilities offers clues. According to employees, (who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals) conversation on the production line is forbidden. Bathroom breaks are limited to 10 minutes every two hours. Verbal abuse is frequent.
The focus on this once-secretive firm began in July of last year when an employee leapt to his death after being interrogated over a missing iPhone prototype. The steady trickle of incidents has forced Gou to open his facility up to the media, culminating in a press tour in which he showed off the company’s large mental health center complete with rows of women working hotlines.
The organization’s reaction to the spate of deaths has been, well, reactionary. A 30% pay raise has been announced. Nets have been set up around buildings, counselors retained, and Buddhist monks have visited to cleanse the buildings of evil spirits. There are also reports that the firm has begun to ask employees to sign a “no suicide” pledge.
However, there is no word regarding changes in the way employees are treated, an issue likely to cause consternation for Foxconn’s clients, including Apple, Dell and Nokia.
Apple is “all over it”, according to CEO Steve Jobs. “Apple does one of the best jobs of any company understanding the working conditions of our supply chain,” he said.
Still, workers are routinely logging more than 70 hours a week—above Apple’s own guidelines, and are quitting the company’s Longhua factory at the rate of 15,000 a month. As the details slowly leak out, Jobs’ insistence that Foxconn is “not a sweatshop” begins to ring hollow.
For a man at the helm of arguably the most bulletproof brand in existence, Jobs is being remarkably tinned eared on this one. The optics of buildings surrounded by anti-suicide nets and brigades of counselors should be enough to have him on the next flight to China to either fix the problem tormenting Foxconn’s employees or looking for a new supplier. The thought that the person who actually constructed their brand new iPad subsequently killed themselves will eventually force Apple’s socially-conscious users to question the wisdom of their purchase.
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