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Over the past few days, something of a public relations storm has been building (and indeed breaking) at Cupertino, where Apple is based. There have been regular rumours for a number of years that the technology giant counted some questionable companies among its chief suppliers, particularly Foxconn, a Chinese-based manufacturing corporation. One of the biggest indicators of worker mistreatment at Foxconn was an extremely high number of suspected suicides among employees. In July 2009, one employee fell from an apartment building shortly after losing an iPhone prototype. In the two years that followed, at least 18 other company employees attempted suicide or fell from buildings in apparent suicide attempts.

A number of other companies have also exhibited disturbing treatment of workers, with a number of explosions injuring or killing Chinese workers who were manufacturing parts for Apple throughout 2011. Last Friday, online organizers arrived in Apple’s new store in New York’s Grand Central Station to deliver over 250,000 hard copies of their respective petitions to the company. Other similar protests took place at Apple stores across the world. The activists, from Change.org and SumofUs.org (you can sign each petition by clicking the relevant link), wore sandwich boards in the shape of iPads as they delivered a number of cardboard file boxes filled with letters of dissatisfaction concerning Apple’s suppliers.

Petitions being handed over in Sydney, via CNet 

Perhaps the most significant element of this whole affair was the fact that many of the thousands of letters came from loyal Apple customers. This protest against the company wasn’t orchestrated by a group of activists from all walks of life; this was a unified and strong message from a great number of loyal Apple customers, customers Apple has used as the foundation of its brand.

Apple relies extremely heavily on its brand identity, almost more so than any other tech company (or any other company at all, some might argue). Apple products are instantly recognisable, as is the iconic brand that adorns them. If that brand were to become associated with the abuse of human rights, especially in the eyes of die-hard Apple enthusiasts, Apple could (unthinkable as it seems now, with the company recently declared the most valuable on the planet) suffer a fall from grace. Nike has long been plagued by similar allegations, and both GAP and Primark have suffered PR nightmares in recent years following sweatshop revelations.

Many companies have argued that it is difficult to track where labour is sourced, and that their suppliers are often misleading about their labour practices. However, for a company as scrutinous and quality-obsessive as Apple, you’d have to wonder why this attitude doesn’t extend to the bottom of the supply chain?

Well, it seems that this latest surge of public opinion has finally persuaded Tim Cook and the other execs to take action. In an official statement, Apple has announced that the ‘Fair Labor Association will conduct special voluntary audits of Apple’s final assembly suppliers, including Foxconn factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China, at Apple’s request.’ This voluntary investigation by an external body is certainly a brave move on behalf of Apple, as negative findings could deal even further damage to the company. The statement goes on to extol Apple’s commitment to fair labour practices. Tim Cook is quoted as saying: “We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we’ve asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers.”

Apple new store in New York's Grand Central Station, via Digital Trends

While the results of the audit will inevitably take some time to surface, it will certainly be interesting to see what action Apple chooses to take. If the audit declares Foxconn clean, surely the public won’t accept its validity. If it doesn’t, the company will be forced to review its suppliers and perhaps change them entirely. In either case, this annoyance for the execs at Cupertino isn’t going away anytime soon, and we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled to see how the company handles the pressure.

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