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John Willoughby
Was does Apple do when Foxconn asks for higher rates to improve the workers' situations, Apple pays the rates, and then the workers' situations do not improve substantially? They have to work through Foxconn management. Can they abruptly shift production of iPhones and iPads to another supplier and achieve better results? It's true that Apple's manufacturers desperately want Apple's money, but they work in a culture with no tradition of worker rights. They will nod gravely to Apple, build a break room for their workers, pocket the balance of Apple's increased investment and move on with business as usual.
I wish Apple would bring manufacturing jobs back to the US, but the reasons Steve gave Obama as to why they would never return are still valid. Still, I'd like the option to pay 20% more for an Apple product manufactured in the US. A pity that there aren't too many more who would.
Apple should do the same thing with Foxconn that it did with CompUSA, Circuit City, Best Buy, etc. when they claimed they would improve the Mac shopping experience, but failed to do so.
The
reason Steve gave as to why manufacturing jobs will never return to America is that (unlike China) we actually enforce our labor laws. This is an indictment of Steve and Apple's executive team, not our country or its manufacturing sector. That's why this is such a problem for Apple - it's hard to fix a problem when you view it as a competitive advantage rather than a ethical failure:
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New York Times
Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.
A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.
The industry even admits that it wouldn't actually cost more to manufacture their products in America:
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New York Times
In part, Asia was attractive because the semiskilled workers there were cheaper. But that wasn’t driving Apple. For technology companies, the cost of labor is minimal compared with the expense of buying parts and managing supply chains that bring together components and services from hundreds of companies.
Instead, they make up some BS about supply chains, hoping we'll ignore the fact that many of Apple's key components, like glass (Kentucky) and A4/A5/etc. chips (Texas) are manufactured here in America.
