Apple in the press and feeling the squeeze

Sorry for the title. I couldn't resist it.
The New York Times put out an article last week about the compliance problems at Apple factories. I also received a request from the Huffington Post to comment on it, which I did. The Internet has been buzzing with indignation by Apple users and tech bloggers, and boycotts of their products have been called for. There wasn't much new in the report, except that they had a few quotes from ex Apple executives saying that business basically trumps compliance. And why, I ask, is this news? It would be a brave executive that would stand up and say " Let's reduce our profit forecast so we can pay factory workers more money".
This is more the reality.
“The only way you make money working for Apple is figuring out how to do things more efficiently or cheaper,” said an executive at one company that helped bring the iPad to market. “And then they’ll come back the next year, and force a 10 percent price cut.”
Here's the article in full

Explosian in Apple component factory

The scrutiny by Chinese NGOs is not abating. If anything, it is getting stronger.
Here's a report from the Washington Post by Hayley Tsukayama,

Chinese officials are investigating an explosion last weekend at another factory in China that makes components for Apple products.

Apple supplier Pegatron Corp. said in a statement that the explosion at the Shanghai factory occurred in dust collection equipment, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. The wire service said local media reported that 61 people were hurt and more than 20 hospitalized but that none had life-threatening injuries.

The explosion rocked the Riteng Computer Accessory Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Pegatron, in Shanghai’s Songjiang district. The early details of the blast appear to closely mirror a blast at another Apple supplier’s plant earlier this year.

In May, an explosion at a Chengdu plant run by Foxconn killed three workers. The accident was believed to be caused by combustible dust in an air duct. Buildup of aluminum dust had been flagged as a workplace hazard just months earlier by a labor advocacy group called Student and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior.

Apple has faced scrutiny from such groups in the past for the labor practices at companies — particularly Chinese companies — that produce components for its popular consumer technology gadgets. In its 2011 Supplier Responsibility 2011 Progress Report, Apple said that it asked for an independent suicide prevention review of the conditions at a Shenzhen plant and was investigating a report that workers at a different company had been exposed to unsafe chemicals.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Shanghai explosion. Company spokeswoman Carolyn Wu told the AP in China: “Our hearts go out to the people who were hurt in Songjiang. We are working closely with Pegatron to understand the cause of this accident.”

How Local Watchdog Groups, Not Western Companies, Are Shaping Business Practices in China

Here's an interesting story from Forbes Magazine. I know I have been bleating on for years about sustainable CSR being achieved through worker inclusion and factories taking ownership of their compliance policies and process, but it is nice to see such a formidable magazine coming to the same conclusions. Here's a link to the article in full

http://www.forbes.com/sites/amywestervelt/2011/12/06/how-local-watchdog-groups-not-western-companies-are-shaping-business-practices-in-china/