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Apple released its 10th Supplier Responsibility Progress Report this March. “There’s a right way to make products”, Apple proclaims. “It starts with the rights of the people who make them.”1 Currently Apple has 346 suppliers in China alone, more than those in Japan (126), the United States (69), Taiwan (41), Korea (28), Malaysia (23), Thailand (19), the Philippines (19), and Vietnam (18) put together2. Are Chinese workers enjoying their rights in Apple’s supply chain? What responsibility does Apple have to the Chinese workers who make its products?
Apple boasts that its supplier code is “one of the strictest in the industry”3. In 2015, Apple conducted 640 audits against its own standards, far surpassing the 39 audits it conducted in 20074. It reported that 97% of its audited suppliers in 25 countries achieved compliance with its requirements of a “60-hour maximum workweek”5. In the words of Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer reporting to company boss Tim Cook, the nearly 100% compliance with working hours is “a number that is virtually unheard of in our industry”6.
