In 2013, Apple found that one of its suppliers, Suyin Electronics, a company that made HDMI and USB ports for the company’s MacBook series, employed underage workers. The manufacturer promised to clean up the matter, but in a follow-up investigation by Apple, three more underage workers, including one 14-year-old, were found on Suyin’s assembly line. Although Apple did not give Suyin new jobs in the wake of its findings, they continued to work with the firm due to a number of existing contracts, and it took a better part of three years before it finally cut ties.
In the other example, Apple investigated Biel Crystal, a company that makes glass screens for the iPhone. After Apple found that ‘the environmental, health and safety culture in Biel is weak at all levels of government’, it called for more than two dozen corrective measures. However, one year after the investigation, Biel still had to implement many of the improvements that Apple ordered, and the two continued to work together, in part because the removal of Biel from its supply chain Apple to a single glass screen supplier let look. This is what the business tries to avoid at all costs because it can use two suppliers against each other to get the best price for components. It also allows Apple to avoid situations like it encountered when it comes to Intel modems.
In addition, the penalty of Biel in that particular case would have meant that the orders were shifted to Lens Technology. This is the firm The Washington Post said this week using forced Uyghur labor to make parts for Apple, Amazon and other companies.
An Apple spokesman said The information the company has’ the strictest standards in the industry to ensure that workers in our supply chain are treated with dignity and respect … We keep a close eye on the suppliers we work with, and when problems arise we move quickly making sure they are addressed and resolved whether we end the relationship, which we have done many times. We’ve added Apple for additional comments, and we’ll update this article when we hear from the company.
Although Apple says it has cut ties with manufacturers many times in the past, its own reporting indicates otherwise. Since the release of the first iPhone in 2007, the company has removed 22 facilities from its supply chain. It’s a small fraction of the more than 2000 locations around the world that help manufacture the company’s products.