Apple Leads The Way, As Always
I was just re-reading the article I posted about yesterday, Foxconn workers talk about jobs, work with Apple, by John Boudreau, and I came across something hidden away in a paragraph near the middle that I wanted to talk about.
It cites Thomas Dinges, an IHS iSuppli analyst, who said,
The focus has mostly been on Apple and its key supplier, Taiwan-based Foxconn. But all global consumer tech brands and countless Asian component-makers will face pressure to ensure the workers who spend their days assembling gadgets get better treatment.
Despite all the negative attention Apple has been receiving about its corporate social responsibility (CSR) practice, it is important to recognize that other technology companies and their supplier factories are no better, and in some cases worse.
Apple’s recent effort to make changes, including aligning with the FLA and vowing to take a more active role in ensuring that its supplier factories are in line with worker’s rights laws and standards, are really the spearhead of a nacent movement for worker’s rights and CSR in the technology industry.
Just as Nike headed this effort in the international garment industry in the ’90s, Apple is the CSR forerunner of today in the technology field.
I’m excited to see where this goes, where Apple takes it. But Apple needs prodding from its consumers.
If we want to see a CSR revolution in the technology field, we, the average consumer, need to be pushing Apple to innovate in this as well as in iPad design.
Do you think that Apple will be able to lead the technology industry in a CSR revolution?
What role should you, the consumer, take on?
Who Built My iPhone? 
Apple will do what it is obligated to do, not by its consumers but by its ruling authorities. Now that Apple and the Department of Justice are butting heads, chances are Apple will take steps to partially clean up its image.
That being said I feel that these will be temporary. Voting with your dollar is the most effective method of inserting desires for change in operation to a CEO’s attention.
Apple appears to be on a knife’s edge right now with all of it’s court cases and lackluster performance on the NASDAQ recently.
Great post!
Thanks for your comment!
It’s true that Apple has been the focus of media attention on several fronts lately. I agree with you that this attention won’t last, but if it could be used to get people interested and invested in Apple’s practices, then that would be a great step towards getting people to push Apple for change.
Do you think, then, that a boycott of Apple products is in order? I know that some of those tactics were used by Nike consumers in the ’90s with success.
I have previously said that I don’t think a boycott is the best way to push Apple to change, but you’re right to say that it would go a long way towards influencing Apple’s practices, because the dollar is a powerful motivator.
I don’t believe a boycott would be effective, mainly due to the zombie like loyalty of Apple consumers. When I worked there you could pretty much tell the customer whatever you wanted about a product and they believed you unconditionally.
The vein of Apple is and always has been it’s stock. The reason it had done so well up until this month was due to the sell more each month mentality, but this is due to change very rapidly. Apple has milked the consumer pretty much dry and with global markets the way they are headed, retail sales world wide are going to take a massive dive.
One of the more concerning facts would probably be that Apple has always shaken up its employees, taking their wages and under paying them in order to keep ahead of the trend using something called the Employee Stock Purchase Plan. The scam works by promising that if an employee allocates 10% of their wages into Apple stock, they will be given the lowest buy price for that quarter of market trade.Employees are told every morning how this is a fantastic opportunity and never once given a lesson in market fundamentals and how this actually screws the independent investors, which are the real controller of the stock value.
The ponzi scheme is collapsing, taking out what employees thought they would be able to retire on. In reality a stock collapse (which looks pretty imminent) would do far more damage than a boycott ever could.