Apple spin

[miriam_e]

This morning I received an email from Sum of Us, who have been trying to bring Apple's misdeeds to light and bring pressure to bear so that Apple repair the problems. It makes very interesting reading. I had almost been taken in by Apple's spin.

The fight to improve the treatment of workers in Apple’s supply chain is going to be a long, hard one – and it’s going to be fought on the shifting sands of PR spin, against one of the most sophisticated corporate media apparatuses in history.

So we think it’s important for the entire SumOfUs community (all 240,000 of us!) to take a step back from the day-to-day and examine how the fight has unfolded, both behind the scenes and in the PR war being waged in public since we first started campaigning a month ago to get Apple to address the rampant violations of workers’ rights throughout its supply chain.

How this all started

Like many of you, at the beginning of this year we had only a vague idea that there might be something rotten in Apple’s supply chain. We had heard about the suicides at Apple factories, but not much else.

After reading the New York Times’ exposé and listening to the This American Life episode in January, we started to learn more about how miserable life can be in the massive dystopian industrial complexes where Apple’s products are made.

As Apple consumers ourselves (most of our staff owns at least one Apple product), we wanted to act.

We contacted partners in China who investigate Apple’s factories, interviewing workers and former workers. We heard from relatives of Apple workers, thanking us for getting the word out. Like the letter we sent out last week from the pair of former workers, we were able to put faces to the statistics, and that motivated us to keep organizing to win improvements in workers’ lives.

Apple responds

Since the New York Times and This American Life reports and the launch of our campaign, Apple has gone on a charm offensive, hiring the so-called “Fair Labor Association” to inspect its factories and giving Nightline an exclusive, supervised tour of Foxconn, Apple’s largest supplier. Meanwhile, Foxconn announced a pay raise and hired Burston-Marsteller -- the PR firm that lobbied for Big Tobacco and helped corporations re-brand after the the likes of the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster, the Tylenol poisonings, and the massive Bhopal chemical spill.

While disingenuous, these actions show that the company is listening, that it takes us seriously and wants to maintain its image. But Apple’s moves so far are classic “early stage” corporate responses to a campaign, where a company wants to do the minimum effort to make people forget about the problem, without spending any real money on problems that by definition require considerable money to solve.

For example, Foxconn has raised wages as a PR move before – only to immediately offset worker gains by raising the cost of its dormitories and cafeterias. The truth is, Foxconn can’t afford to truly raise real wages for its workers because Apple refuses to let its suppliers earn a substantial profit – Apple had an astounding 44% profit margin last quarter, while Foxconn earned a meager 1.5% profit.

As for the supposedly “independent” Fair Labor Association, who Apple has hired to “investigate”: It is both funded and controlled by the very corporations it’s supposed to be monitoring and has a long track record as a PR spin machine rather than an effective watchdog for workers’ rights. In his first few days in China, before even the pretense of interviews with workers, the head of the FLA gave glowing reviews to the press simply on the basis of guided tours conducted by Foxconn executives. He even asserted that the suicide cluster that prompted Foxconn to put up its infamous suicide nets must have been due to “boredom,” as if workers were leaping from buildings for a cheap thrill.

Journalists fall for these traps all the time. So the next time you hear a positive story about Apple’s alleged steps forward in the press, remember that they may well have been suckered by Apple’s massive PR machine. If Apple makes any serious moves in response to our pressure to improve workers’ lives, we’ll be sure to confirm it with people on the ground and let you know!

Keeping up the fight

Thus far, we have been remarkably successful at getting the truth of what’s going on in Apple’s factories out to the media. Thanks to each and every one of you who signed, called, wrote and delivered petitions yourselves, this issue is front and center with Apple, and it’s not going away. Thanks to the credibility of a petition signed by over 120,000 people, our campaign has been featured in Forbes, the Washington Post, the BBC, Le Monde and Taren was interviewed on Olbermann. We even latched onto a silly facebook meme to help get the word out about our campaign!

Three weeks ago, we delivered our petition (along with another 250,000 signatures from Change.org) to six Apple stores on four continents. Then just last week, we held a rally outside Apple’s Annual General Meeting of shareholders to keep this issue in the news, and attempted to deliver your petitions directly to Tim Cook. Around the same time, hundreds of you stopped by your local Apple store to take the issue directly to Apple employees where it matters most -- its retail stores. Many of you were told by managers at those retail stores that they’d been told by Apple’s HQ not to accept our petitions.

This is how victories are won -- Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, is crossing his fingers and hoping that this goes away quietly, that people forget about Foxconn, and that the workers once again become faceless statistics. What they don’t yet understand is that we aren’t going to forget.

Our basic demands

In the fight for better working conditions in the tech industry’s supply chain, Apple is the 800-pound gorilla. They are the largest public company in the world, with a centralized supply chain and a commitment to a perfect final product. They have $100 billion sitting in the bank, meaning they can afford to ensure the people who make their products are treated humanely. Yes, other companies are also guilty of poor working conditions, but none has the ability to change the working conditions for millions of workers like Apple does. If Apple demands change, that change will ripple throughout the industry.

That’s why we’re demanding Apple make a few concrete changes, like ensuring factory inspections are conducted regularly -- and unannounced in advance to management -- by genuinely independent workers’ rights groups. We want to see an end to illegal amounts of forced overtime, and a commitment to paying workers a living wage (before overtime is factored in). We believe employees should benefit when Apple profits from their work. And we want Apple to put in place real sanctions with teeth for suppliers who violate its code of conduct.

For consumers, the additional costs will be negligible. Apple currently spends $10 on manufacturing costs -- including labor costs -- for each iPad, and $8 for each iPhone. Meanwhile, it makes hundreds of dollars of profit off each device, which has helped it achieve a market capitalization bigger than the GDP of all but 19 countries. The main difference for consumers will be a longer delay in product roll-out, as the most grueling conditions currently occur when Foxconn workers are cranking the latest iPad or iPhone. The questions is not whether you would be willing to pay more for your iPhone, but whether you could wait a few months longer to ensure that the people who make it are treated like human beings.

The way forward

Apple provides excellent customer service and cares deeply about its brand – but is also one of the most secretive corporations in the world and has built an organizational culture capable of blocking out the most intense outside criticism.

Our job, as consumers, is to continue to keep the pressure on until Apple decides that the risks inherent in the status quo – the risks to its brand, its staff morale, and its loyal customer base – are higher than the costs of taking real action to improve workers’ lives. That’s what’s worked in past campaigns like this, and it’s what will ultimately lead to victory in this campaign.

It will be a long fight, but it’s well worth fighting. If we can change the way the largest corporation on the planet treats its workers in the era of globalized supply chains, it will set a precedent that will reverberate globally for decades. Together, we’re already forcing Apple to pay attention – and we’re going to keep on fighting.

Now, in case you haven't already, here are three things you can do to help us keep up the fight.

Sign the Petition
Share of Facebook
Deliver the petition

Thanks for reading, and for fighting with us,

Taren, Kaytee, Claiborne, and Emma – the tiny SumOfUs team, working with you to take on the biggest companies in the world.


P.S. Haven’t read enough yet? Here are some more articles and resources to check out.

In These Times - Apple turns to the Larry King of Sweatshop Scandals
SACOM (Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior) video - The truth of the Apple iPad behind Foxconn’s lies
Mike Daisey’s Blog (Mike is the guy behind the This American Life story that brought all of this to light initially)

SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy. You can follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.

Comments

[thorfinn]

This American Life retracts the Mike Daisey story - he admits to making it up.

[miriam_e]

The "retraction" is a little misleading. They don't deny the facts about Apple and Foxconn, which they have verified. They simply say that Mike Daisy didn't do the things he said he did.

Here is an excerpt from their "retraction":

We did factcheck the story before we put it on the radio. But in factchecking, our main concern was whether the things Mike says about Apple and about its supplier Foxconn, which makes this stuff, were true. That stuff is true. It’s been corroborated by independent investigations by other journalists, studies by advocacy groups, and much of it has been corroborated by Apple itself in its own audit reports.

But what's not true is what Mike said about his own trip to China.

Apple is using it as spin again, expecting that most people won't read past the headline. Most people don't have the time to delve. It is telling that Apple are using Burston-Marsteller, the PR firm that worked spinning for big tobacco and the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. Most people still believe that nobody was hurt by that nuclear accident in total contradiction of the facts. This PR firm is amazing!... and incredibly slippery and sleazy.

[thorfinn]

I'd be with you, except that the "facts about Foxconn" are not what most people are up in arms about. They're up in arms about "child labour", "hexane poisoning" and "cover-up" - the elements of Daisey's story that he made up.

Yes, there are definitely labour issues at Foxconn - but the idea that Apple is trying to cover them up and hide from them is just outright conspiracy theory. Makes a great story, isn't even close to the truth.

[miriam_e]

I think you're wrong in your perception of what people are upset about.

It looks to me that most people are pissed that Apple sucks in massive profits on the backs of mistreated workers. It would take very little for Apple to actually fix those problems rather than giving the appearance of concern. If, instead of hiring incredibly expensive spin doctors (it must be costing them millions) they put that money toward improving conditions for Foxconn factory workers they would achieve a lot more respect.

I don't think anybody doubts that if Apple told Foxconn to fix things or lose Apple, that conditions would be fixed very, very quickly. (Anonymous Apple execs have said as much.) But Apple doesn't do that. They concentrate their energies on PR and spin. That screams that they are not serious.

[thorfinn]

Well, maybe we better both quit invoking "most people", as I suspect "most people" probably just don't care either way. (Which is certainly a bad thing.)

As far as "fixed" goes - I'm not as sanguine as you that Apple saying "fix it" will magically result in changes. I'm also fairly convinced that Apple *is* saying "fix it" and not getting as much change as they would like.

Now, perhaps they could certainly spare more money for Foxconn's employees - but that isn't as much of a fix as you might necessarily think.

They already pay way above market rate, including non-monetary conditions. If they were to do even more of that, it would certainly result in major supply issues for their competitors - who are already having issues with producing hardware at a reasonable cost, and their factories are *worse* than Foxconn, and most of them are much much less transparent than Apple are being about conditions at their suppliers.

That isn't likely to result in industry wide improvements - it's likely to lead to industry wide pressure to do more with less money at every factory *except* Foxconn.

ETA: Also, if Apple says "fix it or we'll go elsewhere" - where exactly do you think they're going to go to? To some other factory group in China, with worse conditions and worse quality control, and then start again on the upward climb, only with worse conditions to start with? It's not a real bargaining chip.

[thorfinn]

That said, there are some iPhones are that being at least assembled in Brazil, according to the rear panel info. I suspect *that* is Apple developing a stick to use against Foxconn, already in the wings. And I doubt they plan to be beholden purely to Foxconn's strings forever - it's not good business to have your entire supply chain be beholden to a single other company.

Once they have more than one string to their bow, then maybe the threat might mean something. Otherwise, it's pointless rhetoric.

[miriam_e]

Interesting. And good to know.

[miriam_e]

maybe we better both quit invoking "most people"

:) heheheh You're right, of course.

Maybe they are saying "fix it" and are disappointed with the results, but I doubt they are really putting their shoulder into it. Hiring expensive spin doctors says their attention is focussed on appearance more than actual change. Don't get me wrong. I do think they are doing some good things. I just think they have the ability to do great things and we need to be the thorn in their side to get them to do it.

Saying that they pay above the market rate doesn't really mean anything if they're still screwing their workers.

With the money Apple have sitting in the bank ($100 billion) they could easily buy Foxconn and fix it properly, and still have billions left. But they don't even need to go that far. I'm amazed that Apple haven't thought through the implications of paying their workers properly.

If they doubled their manufacturing costs by either ensuring Foxconn doubled the workers' wages on Apple products or else doubled the number of workers so that they didn't have to work such long hours it would only add $10 to the cost of an iPad or an extra $8 to the cost of an iPhone. That is negligible for the customer, but the ripple-on effect in China would be tremendous. Workers' expectations would rise. And customers' expectations would rise too. There would be pressure on other brands to compete on more than just the technology.

I'm also surprised Apple doesn't build their own plant. They could afford to. Maybe they are quietly doing just that. Then they could control conditions totally. Unfortunately I suspect one reason they haven't done it already is plausible deniability. "It isn't us. We didn't know they were doing that. It's out of our hands."

[thorfinn]

Given the amount of bad press they're getting about something that they're not doing, why wouldn't they hire expensive spin doctors, along with doing what they're already doing (i.e., trying to get the problem fixed)? It's not like they're short of cash to do so.

I'm really doubtful that Apple buying Foxconn (which I will happily bet you any amount of money you like that gov.cn would not let them do it even if they wanted to), would have any positive effects beyond what they're already doing.

Ditto for doubling worker's wages or forcing workers to work less - they already pay massively over market wages, and workers' already aren't supposed to be allowed to work more than 60 hours a week. That isn't having any kind of ripple on effect - everyone else is still being cheapskates and exploiting their factory workers even more terribly.

Actually going somewhere else might have some effect, but that currently isn't physically possible. I'd also bet good money that they're trying to arrange it, but Apple being Apple, you won't hear a thing about it until it's a done deal.

Monthly reporting of excessive work hours

[thorfinn]

Found by Daring Fireball: Monthly Reporting of Excessive Work Hours in Apple’s Supply Chain, Apple's Labor and Human Rights page is now updating the "Addressing excessive work hours" section monthly.

Monthly reporting to address excessive work hours.

In our effort to end the industry practice of excessive overtime, we're working closely with our suppliers to manage employee working hours. Weekly data collected in January 2012 on more than 500,000 workers employed by our suppliers showed 84 percent compliance with the 60-hour work week specified in our code. In February 2012, compliance with the 60-hour work week among 500,000 workers at those suppliers increased to 89 percent, with workers averaging 48 hours per week. That's a substantial improvement over previous results, but we can do better. We will continue to share our progress by reporting this data on a monthly basis.

As Gruber puts it:

48-hour average workweek and a five-percent month-over-month decrease in 60+ hour weeks — for February, the month where Apple was ramping up production of the new iPad (3).

So, there is improvement, and Apple themselves have said that they can (and should) do better, and I don't have any real doubt they're exerting as much real pressure as is possible. There's a pretty clear target spelled out there, and committing to report that monthly is a pretty clear sign to the public and their suppliers that they're pretty damn serious about that item in particular. If those numbers don't continue to go down every month until they hit target, I'll be very surprised.

ETA: Gruber's math is also backwards - 84% to 89% compliance is 16% failure to 11% failure, which is a reduction of 5% out of 16%, which means 31% reduction in people who worked 60+ hour weeks. In a month.