Worker Suicides Wipe Away The iPhone’s Smile

Pictures of the next generation Apple iPhone were also leaked to Vietnamese website Taoviet, which posted numerous pictures of the 16GB iPhone prototype, as well as a full tear down of the device.

But despite some of the negative headlines surrounding the iPhone 4G, analysts predict that Apple will still manage to shift millions of the devices. The company could ship as many as 24 million new iPhones in 2010, according to a report in Taiwan-based Digitimes.

Meeting that kind of demand has been a struggle for Apple in the past. The launch of its iPad tablet device in Europe was delayed, allegedly due to high demand for the tablet device in the US. Having to wait a few weeks for the device had Apple fans in Europe up in arms, claiming unfair behaviour on the part of Apple. But stopping to consider the conditions that the workers at facilities such as Foxconn face every day in a 60-plus working hour week casts these kind of complaints in a whole new light.

Foxconn itself has been keen to point out that it does not operate a sweatshop. Workers have received financial incentives to report fellow staff who look troubled and management have introduced exercise rooms where frustrated employees can let off steam. But while production facilities such as Foxconn may provide some benefits for staff there is a raft of difference between this and the kind of horizontal inclusive home-from-home conditions that their tech clients provide for their western workers. Sure, working in a cubicle at Apple or HP might have its downsides too but I bet the working conditions are light-years from what the average Foxconn worker experiences day to day.

Human Sustainability

Ultimately the problem goes down to what is sustainable. Apple, Dell, HP and others have received a lot of harassment from the likes of Greenpeace and others over the environmental impact of their devices and manufacturing procedures. Most vendors have made progress on cutting back on toxic compounds and improving the ability of their components to be recycled but what about the impact on the workers who create the devices? Not the actual health and safety – although these continue to be a problem – but the psychological impact of being part of a corporate machine, plugged into an intensive manufacturing process but with absolutely no control or input. Reduced to little more than a biological tool which would be replaced with a machine if it was financially viable.

Apple and others like to talk about creativity and “thinking different” yet the vast manufacturing and supply chains that enable their devices to be created depend on armies of dis-empowered, low-skilled workers toiling for hours over repetitive uninspiring tasks. Building devices that enable the privileged to feel creative requires millions of man-hours of dehumanising effort.

While it can be argued that low-skilled workers are not forced to work in these conditions and would probably rather do jobs like this then more physically demanding work in agriculture, the tech industry is predicated on creativity and innovation. Cold hard economics will always dominate if left unchecked but, as consumers, we should be putting pressure on the tech companies to make sure that their devices are created in a humanely sustainable way, even if it adds to the cost of the device.

After reading the reports about Foxconn and other facilities, my iPhone no longer makes me smile as much as it used to. Hopefully Apple and other hardware makers will be smart enough to realise that misery spreads fast. Only by making sure that positivity extends through its entire supply chain will the company guarantee that consumers continue to happily hand over their cash.