Foxconn

Apple-Foxconn relationship probed by 'Sunday Morning' (video)

What's the dirty secret behind all our glittering tech gadgets? That question was on the minds of many this week as The New York Times turned up the heat on a long-simmering story about Apple supplier Foxconn's labor practices (and Apple's response to the situation). In the following video, reporter Martha Teichner of the CBS News program "Sunday Morning" takes a look at the Foxconn-Apple relationship.

Reporters' Roundtable: Apple's China problem

NOTE: Please read our update on this episode: The Mike Daisey retraction. Also see the editor's note below.

Apple is the most valuable U.S. company there is, and the most powerful and influential consumer electronics company by far. It is obscenely profitable.

This amazing success is built on the backs of hundreds of thousands of factory workers, almost all of them in China, who assemble iPhones, and other products from other vendors, in giant, science-fiction-scale plants that never stop.

These plants take their toll. On workers in China. And on jobs here in the United states.

Two recent pieces of outstanding journalism highlight the issues. First, there's a series developing in The New York Times, co-authored by Charles Duhigg, that kicked off in the Sunday edition: "How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work." A follow-on piece, "In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad," ran Wednesday.

Second, a "This American Life" episode, "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory," has reignited interest in monologuist Mike Daisey's report of his trip to visit the birthplace of his iPhone, the Foxconn plant in China.

Today we have both Charles Duhigg and Mike Daisey on the Roundtable, and we're going to talk about Apple's muscle, how it works with Chinese manufacturing companies, if there's any chance that manufacturing could return to the U.S. And if it would be a good thing if it did.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has responded to the emerging reports on working conditions at Apple's device manufacturers. I discussed this response with Duhigg in a separate interview, which is at the end of this Roundtable (at the 24-minute mark, if you want to go straight there).

Editor's note, March 19, 2012: "This American Life" announced late last week that it's retracting a story it did recently about working conditions at Foxconn that included an interview with Mike Daisey as well as an excerpt from his monologue "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs." It said it was doing so because of "numerous fabrications" it found. CNET's Josh Lowensohn has the details in this story. Daisey's own statement is on his Web site. A recent investigative report by The New York Times looked at working conditions in Apple's supply chain in China.

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Dear Apple: Do something about Chinese working conditions

Open letter to Apple: You have the power to force good working conditions across the consumer-electronics industry, and it's time to make it happen.

Over the past year or so, stories about working conditions at Chinese manufacturers have trickled into the public consciousness. There were spikes of awareness when, for example, an explosion at the Foxconn factory in Chengdu, China, killed four. Then again when another factory explosion occurred a few weeks later.

Most recently, an amazingly detailed story from The New York Times and a heartbreaking episode of This American Life highlighted conditions in China, and Apple's … Read more

The 404 981: Where the world is a vampire (podcast)

As the case for Web censorship moves forward, Twitter announced today that it'll soon block tweets on a countrywide basis when they violate local restrictions, so we can look forward to our government making it illegal for Nickelback to fight back against their Twitter haters.

We're surprised that some Google users are upset about the company's new "streamlined" privacy policies--don't they know that Google knows more about you than your own mother?… Read more

Apple-Foxconn tale goes well beyond Apple, and tech

Apple CEO Tim Cook has responded to a New York Times report about the working conditions at its Foxconn contract manufacturer as false and offensive.

In a long letter to employees published by 9to5Mac, Cook outlined how Apple cares about workers in its supply chain and takes steps to audit how they are treated. The response comes after a New York Times went into detail about how Apple’s China manufacturing efforts are a) necessary due to U.S. inability to be nimble and b) the cost advantages of making your electronics abroad.

Apple was the main target of the … Read more

Tim Cook: Apple cares about 'every worker' in its supply chain

A day after a report detailed harsh working conditions at one of Apple's component suppliers in China, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company cares about every worker in its supply chain and that any suggestion to the contrary was "patently false and offensive."

Yesterday, The New York Times published an exhaustive report that profiled hazardous factory conditions linked to scores of injuries and a handful of deaths. The report recounted an explosion at a plant in Chengdu that killed four, focusing on the final months for Lai Xiaodong, a 22-year-old who had worked a few months … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1578: Who died to build your iPhone? (Podcast)

On this week's Buzz Out Loud, Brian and Molly take Apple (and others) to task for unsafe and inhumane working conditions at consumer electronics factories in China. It's time for Apple and us, the consumers, to demand better. Plus, Google's privacy policy changes, Netflix's big bounce-back, and Computer Love. And meet Givit, the way to share private videos of your kids or, um, other things.

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A kinder, gentler Apple? Don't bet on it.

You may have heard by now that the New York Times wrote an article called "In China, human costs are built into the iPad" that takes a look at the dark side of producing Apple's products in China.

It's not the first time the Times and other publications have written about the "punishing" work conditions at Foxconn, the contract manufacturing behemoth that also makes products for loads of other companies, not just Apple.

Foxconn--headquarted in Taiwan, but (according to Reuters) the largest private employer in mainland China--has been frequently in the news for fires and explosions at its factories along with a spate of worker suicides. But coming on the heels of Apple's jaw-dropping earnings and news that it had $98 billion squirreled away in cash, the article seems to have really touched a nerve, the "Occupy Apple" kind.

I don't think anybody's faulting Apple for wanting to make a good profit on its products or trying to keep up with demand. But what seems to be the big friction point is how much profit Apple is making and how it continues to squeeze its suppliers and manufacturing partners to the Nth degree. … Read more

Putting a human cost on the iPad

A day after Apple announced record profits, a new report provides a detailed look at the conditions that workers at its suppliers in China have had to endure.

The company, which reported $13 billion in profits yesterday, has been plagued by reports of long hours, unsafe working conditions, and physical punishment of employees in factories that make parts for its popular devices. Dozens have been injured and a handful killed in explosions and other accidents at the plants.

In a seven-month span last year, two explosions at iPad factories in China, including at the Chengdu facility, killed four and injured … Read more