BBC exposes Apple's sweatshop, Cook gets angry

Cook, who is usually gentle and polite, couldn't sit still this time.

According to the Daily Mail, the BBC's Panorama program team recently conducted an undercover investigation into Apple's Chinese contract manufacturers. This news documentary, titled Apple's Broken Promises, secretly filmed and recorded the relevant conditions of Apple's contract manufacturers. The program accused Apple of not fulfilling its promises, and the working conditions and working hours of Apple's contract factory workers still violated the standards.

In this video, workers at the Pegatron factory in the suburbs of Shanghai worked 12-hour shifts and even fell asleep during work due to exhaustion. An "undercover" reporter working at a factory that produces parts for Apple computers worked 18 consecutive days despite repeatedly asking for a day off.

Another reporter said that his longest shift lasted 16 hours. "Every time I return to the dormitory, I am too tired to move. Even if I am very hungry, I don't want to get up to eat, I just want to lie down and rest. Because of the great pressure, I can't sleep at night."

The BBC report also pointed out that the tin used in Apple iPhones comes from mud pools in Indonesia, where child laborers are often threatened by mudslides, which have caused many deaths.

After the broadcast of Apple's Broken Promises, Apple sent an email to about 5,000 employees in its UK division, criticizing the BBC's behavior. Jeff Williams, senior vice president of operations, said in the email that he and CEO Tim Cook were both angered by the BBC's misleading report.

"The BBC report claims that Apple has not improved working conditions for supply chain workers. Let me tell you the truth. This is not the case," Williams said in the email. Apple once disclosed information about the current working conditions of its global supply chain to media including the BBC, but this information did not appear in the BBC documentary. The BBC selectively broadcast some footage.

Williams responded to the accusations in the documentary one by one. For example, regarding the issue of working hours, Williams explained that Apple tracked the weekly working hours of more than 1 million workers in the supply chain, and an average of 93% met the standard of a maximum working time of 60 hours per week. As for the issue of illegal mining, he said that these problems cannot be solved by the government, but Apple will work hard.

Despite his anger, Williams said Apple would take the issues mentioned in the report seriously and investigate them. He also stressed that people should not ignore the fact that no company in the world has made so many efforts like Apple to improve the working conditions of supply chain workers, not only direct suppliers, but also the living and working conditions of second- and third-level workers.

In 2010, a series of scandals in the supply chain seriously affected Apple's reputation, including the serial suicides of employees at Foxconn, a contract manufacturer, and the poisoning of hundreds of employees at Wintek, a Taiwanese company that produces touch screens. Later, Apple released a "Supplier Responsibility Progress Report" that detailed Apple's supplier code of conduct and published a list of supply chains that violated the rules.

The supply chain problem has been a long-standing problem. The solution to this problem is not only related to Apple, but also depends on the joint efforts of suppliers themselves, the government, and multiple regulatory departments. Among them, suppliers should be the main body of responsibility, local governments should perform their regulatory duties, and Apple should also assume corresponding corporate social responsibilities. In this regard, Cook has a long way to go.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.