In the past couple of weeks we’ve seen Apple team up with the FLA (Free labor association) in a bid to clean up its act in the manufacturing branch. Let’s face it, Apple doesn’t have a brilliant record when it comes to this sort of thing.

On Wednesday, an extensive article appeared on the New York Times website documenting the story of the infamous explosion in the Chengdu factory used by one of the manufacturing companies in partnership with Apple. It covers a brief study of the life of one particular employee injured in the blast, who sadly died from his wounds 2 days later. Using the story as a backdrop, the piece goes on to question Apple’s manufacturing ethics. It’s a pretty stark outlook on the situation, and contains some rather graphic description, but if you’re interested, I wholly recommend reading it.

Do you see what he did there? Factory workers in protest against working conditions

Apple hasn’t really appeared too ruffled by any of the claims up until now, they understand there is a problem and are taking up the initiative to do something about it. Granted, it may be a little overdue, but better late than never. This particular article however has provoked a response from Apple, Tim cook has set out his position in an email sent to Apple’s 60,000 or so employees.

In the opening he writes:

“As a company and as individuals, we are defined by our values. Unfortunately some people are questioning Apple’s values today, and I’d like to address this with you directly. We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain. Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern. Any suggestion that we don’t care is patently false and offensive to us. As you know better than anyone, accusations like these are contrary to our values. It’s not who we are. For the many hundreds of you who are based at our suppliers’ manufacturing sites around the world, or spend long stretches working there away from your families, I know you are as outraged by this as I am. For the people who aren’t as close to the supply chain, you have a right to know the facts”

The full email can be read here, over at 9to5 Mac, but I want to just highlight some of the key points. Cook goes on to explain how Apple has been “raising the bar”, inspecting more factories year upon year and improving conditions for countless numbers of workers. He also highlights the fact that Apple are the only company in the industry doing “as much as we are, in as many places, touching as many people”.

Cook ends the email with a promise:

“We will continue to dig deeper, and we will undoubtedly find more issues. What we will not do — and never have done — is stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain. On this you have my word”

I admire Tim Cook for taking this step. It can’t be easy working for Apple when every day more and more stories are appearing about the harsh treatment of factory workers. ”You work for Apple? Don’t they employ all those underage kids? And they don’t pay their workers properly right? And remember when all those guys threatened to jump off the roof? If I was ever put in that situation, I’d be pretty embarrassed.

However it’s all very well saying all this, but do you think Apple are doing enough? After all, there are no real outside pressures for change, in a survey conducted by the New York Times 56 percent of respondents said they couldn’t think of anything negative about Apple. Fourteen percent said the worst thing about the company was that its products were too expensive. Just 2 percent mentioned overseas labor practices. What’s ironic is that making drastic changes to the manufacturing process could potentially make products even more expensive.

So there you have it. Apple has made its disposition clear, but is it all just meaningless corporate waffle? Or is this really the start of a radical improvement? Only time will tell. Let us know how you feel about this situation down below! There are bound to be people with differing views, and we would love to hear from you all!

Via: 9to5 Mac