Introduction:Organization of Apple was established in 1976 as a computer company.

However, in the last decade, Apple has expanded into a complex company that specializes in much more than just computers. In 2001, Apple broke the barrier with the iPod, eventually becoming the dominant market leader in music players. In following, Apple joined the phone industry in 2007 with the iPhone, which has also been widely successful. Apple is known as a consumer goods company; therefore evaluating its value requires understanding its products and consumers. This would be very challenging where Apple competes with many different companies throughout the different industries it takes part in. Apple has established a unique reputation in the consumer electronics industry since it is flexible from its philosophy of comprehensive aesthetic design to its distinctive

Jan 27 2012 Yesterday the New York Times had a really good hard-hitting piece on Apple's businesses practices. Apple manufactures all those gadgets we love to buy through Chinese companies it contracts with. And though Apple has a supplier code of conduct regarding work and safety standards, its suppliers don't do a very good job meeting it: [A]audits have found consistent violations of Apples code of conduct, according to summaries published by the company. In 2007, for instance, Apple conducted over three dozen audits, two-thirds of which indicated that employees regularly worked more than 60 hours a week. In addition, there were six core violations, the most serious kind, including hiring 15-year-olds as well as falsifying records. Over the next three years, Apple conducted 312 audits, and every year, about half or more showed evidence of large numbers of employees laboring more than six days a week as well as working extended overtime. Some workers received less than minimum wage or had pay withheld as punishment. Apple found 70 core violations over that period, including cases of involuntary labor, under-age workers, record falsifications, improper disposal of hazardous waste and over a hundred workers injured by toxic chemical exposures. Most notoriously, there were a bunch of suicides in recent years at Apple's biggest supplier, Foxtron. In theory, Apple terminates

relationships with such companies. In practice, they rarely do. Meanwhile, they push their suppliers to the breaking point to save costs:

Every month, officials at companies from around the world trek to Cupertino or invite Apple executives to visit their foreign factories, all in pursuit of a goal: becoming a supplier. When news arrives that Apple is interested in a particular product or service, small celebrations often erupt. Whiskey is drunk. Karaoke is sung. Then, Apples requests start. Apple typically asks suppliers to specify how much every part costs, how many workers are needed and the size of their salaries. Executives want to know every financial detail. Afterward, Apple calculates how much it will pay for a part. Most suppliers are allowed only the slimmest of profits. So suppliers often try to cut corners, replace expensive chemicals with less costly alternatives, or push their employees to work faster and longer, according to people at those companies. 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 theyll come back the next year, and force a 10 percent price cut. So you have a situation where Apple's profit incentive is opposed to its code of conduct. They have a little division dedicated to enforcing that code, but it doesn't take much imagination to know that such priorities will continue to get

steamrolled by the larger business interests of the company. You can set all the rules you want, but theyre meaningless if you dont give suppliers enough profit to treat workers well, said one former Apple executive with firsthand knowledge of the supplier responsibility group. If you squeeze margins, youre forcing them to cut safety. The picture that emerges is not pretty: Weve spent years telling Apple there are serious problems and recommending changes, said a consultant at BSR also known as Business for Social Responsibility which has been twice retained by Apple to provide advice on labor issues. They dont want to pre-empt problems, they just want to avoid embarrassments. The article notes that many other technology companies do a much better job on these issues. Perhaps not coincidentally, Apple recently released its quarterly numbers, showing that it earned a record profit of 13 billion dollars. Its profit margin on the latest iphone is something like 44%. It seems fairly obvious that Apple could enforce its safety and responsibility code with relative ease if it merely accepted profit margins of say, 40% instead of 44%. This is a good example of why I have never had any interest in a career in the corporate world. Even a company like Apple that provides wonderful goods to millions of people does so by cutting ethical corners and behaving in an immoral manner. At a

certain point, it is up to us, the consumers, to demand more social responsibility of our businesses.
jessecurtis.blogspot.com/.../apples-unethical-business-practices.html

Problem1:Apple's latest supplier report details labor issues January 13, 2012
by Josh Lowensohn January 13, 2012 10:17 AM PST

In an auditing report on the factories where its products are made, Apple says its findings include cases of underage workers and environmental violations. It also says it has joined a third-party auditing group.

A shot of a worker from Apple's annual report. The company says it found that its suppliers stuck to its maximum 60-hour work week just 38 percent of the time.

(Credit: Apple) Apple today took steps to add more transparency to the way it makes its products, including the human labor involved. The company published its latest progress report (PDF) detailing its auditing practices, while saying that it increased the number of audits by 80 percent compared to what it did in 2010. Apple said that it addressed the issue of underage labor, and managed to get cases of it "down significantly." However the company said that there were still six active cases, and 13 past cases of it taking place at its component suppliers, but not in the suppliers where its products were put together. The company added that it has educated more than a million of the employees in its supply chain about their rights. Among the other findings in Apple's annual report are that its suppliers stuck to its maximum 60-hour work week just 38 percent of the time. The company also found "some violations" of its compliance code for environmental standards while examining 14 facilities, resulting in 58 facilities getting their air emissions systems treated. Alongside the report, Apple became the first company to join the Fair Labor Association, which will act as an independent auditor in Apple's supply chain. "We're extremely proud to be the first technology company admitted to the FLA," said Jeff Williams, Apple's senior vice president of operations in a statement. "Last year we performed more than 200 audits at our supplier's facilities around the world. With the benefit of the FLA's experience and expertise, we will continue to drive improvements for workers and provide even greater transparency into our supply chain." That supply chain also became more visible in the form of a two-page list of suppliers (PDF) Apple uses to make its products. In it, the company noted the companies are responsible for "97 percent of Apple's procurement expenditures for materials, manufacturing, and assembly of Apple's products worldwide." The updated report comes amid more controversy at Foxconn, one of Apple's key manufacturing partners. The company made news this month when workers threatened to commit mass-suicide in response to what they alleged to be poor working conditions. Earlier this week Foxconn said it settled the dispute among some workers, but that 45 workers had left the company. In recent years, more than a dozen Foxconn workers have committed suicide at its facilities. The report is the latest in a series that have been published following scrutiny of Apple's product manufacturing. Previous reports have focused on underage workers, working conditions, and disposal of hazardous waste.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-57358758-248/apples-latest-supplierreport-details-labor-issues/#ixzz1ncC3a2OV

Problem2:

Suicide Threats and Strike Attempts at Apple Manufacturer: China's Workers Fighting for Rights at Work
a factory that makes iPhones and Xboxes among other gadgets, is seeing strikes by workers over low wages, long hours, and terrible conditions.
n 2010, a total of 18 of their colleagues in the Shenzhen campus of the Taiwan-owned company did attempt suicide; 14 died. Some employees and labour organisations blamed a combination of factors for the workers' deaths: low wages, long working hours sometimes up to 16 hours a day and inhuman treatment. Workers at the campus, some claimed, were not even allowed to talk during working hours. Like many other similar factories, Foxconn, the world's largest electronics manufacture, is staffed mostly by nongmin gong (peasant workers) because they are cheap. These migrants often have no friends in the city.
http://www.alternet.org/story/153783/suicide_threats_and_strike_attempts_at_apple_manufacturer% 3A_china's_workers_fighting_for_rights_at_work http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/7763699/Protest-at-Chinese-iPad-maker-Foxconnafter-11th-suicide-attempt-this-year.html