What about Pegatron and “their” responsibility?

Dec 20, 2014 15:23 GMT  ·  By

By now you’ve probably heard that Apple is being held accountable for the countless violations occurring on iPhone production lines in China. Despite the fact that Pegatron and Foxconn make devices for numerous other companies, everyone has their eye on Apple for bearing the biggest responsibility to push for change.

The harshest conditions are somehow always seen in the iPhone factories. Whether or not that’s true only on Apple’s production lines, it certainly seems plausible that Apple - being the most valuable tech company - can be used as a scape goat to achieve whatever goals the media might have. I stress that it’s plausible, but certainly not a proven fact.

Politics and Unions

Jack Purcher, an advocate for Apple’s spirit of innovation, offers a pertinent take on the BBC report about Apple’s broken promises to improve the lives of its workers on Chinese assembly lines. He attacks the subject from every angle in a lengthy analysis spotted with remarks that can be considered biased.

One key takeaway from the mile-long piece: “With Apple dedicated to at least trying to get factory and worker conditions better, imagine how much worse it is in factories with absolutely no guidelines or regard to workers.”

Even if Apple isn’t doing everything in its power to adjust the worrying conditions in Pegatron’s factories, it is still doing something. They make a big case out of it with that annual Supplier Responsibility Report, which may or may not reflect reality. For all we know, they have their mind set to it. Unlike others, who also get their fix at these factories but fail to state the actions they take to ensure fair treatment for the workers who slave away to make their precious electronics. Perhaps Apple’s biggest mistake is to brag about these efforts without any guarantee from Pegatron that these rules are indeed being abided in their sweatshops.

What Apple can and cannot do

The Cupertino company has a reported 1400 people in China struggling to maintain order in these factories. They receive instructions from thousands of miles away, and they’re not authorized to take over Pegatron’s facilities, nor to fundamentally change the way these factories operate. They’re only there to supervise and report wrongdoings, or at most twist the arm of the manager who went over the line. Pegatron is the boss when it comes to the manufacturing operations, not Apple.

Pegatron is a contractor, not an Apple subsidiary. It’s operated by what seems to be corrupt staff that will squeeze ever drop of energy out of every production line worker, then replace them with new workforce when they’re no longer able to fulfill their exhausting duties. There’s certainly no shortage of applicants, so the concern for each individual worker is gravely diminished.

Pegatron doesn’t seem to care about the moral of the worker, which shouldn’t surprise anyone, to be perfectly honest. Not when the contracts are worth millions, if not billions of dollars. Consider this: even with the workers collapsing on their production lines from exhaustion, the yield rates are still not high enough to fulfill demand. Chew on that one for a while.

At the same time, we can’t turn a blind eye to the fact that these things are happening on a regular basis. Pegatron indeed seems to be violating everything in Apple’s rulebook. The problem is that this is happening in nearly every industry, not just the technology sector. More often than not, it’s not a single party’s fault.

The first people who should be held responsible for the way those poor workers are being treated are the managers at Pegatron. It’s not like Apple can hire anyone else to build millions of iPhones every month. Foxconn’s hands are already full, and there are few (if any) manufacturers with the right equipment to carry out the task.

Conflict minerals

For anyone asking about the even-graver issues in Indonesia - another sensitive aspect touched by the BBC documentary on Apple’s “broken promises” - we admit there’s not enough information to make any pertinent assumptions.

But we will choose to believe that Apple has no reason to lie - and frankly couldn’t - when it says the following in a letter to 5,000 UK staffers exposed to the BBC special.

“Our team visited the same parts of Indonesia visited by the BBC, and of course we are appalled by what’s going on there. Apple has two choices: We could make sure all of our suppliers buy tin from smelters outside of Indonesia, which would probably be the easiest thing for us to do and would certainly shield us from criticism. But it would be the lazy and cowardly path, because it would do nothing to improve the situation for Indonesian workers or the environment since Apple consumes a tiny fraction of the tin mined there. We chose the second path, which is to stay engaged and try to drive a collective solution.”

Because, you know, it’s going to happen whether Apple likes it or not. And it’s going to happen whether you like it or not, while you’re playing Candy Crush on your shiny new iPhone. Want to make a change? Don’t buy anything Made-in-China. Good luck with that, by the way.

Apple suppliers (6 Images)

Juvenile worker in Indonesia extracting tin
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