Is it fair to single Apple out for factory worker abuses in China?

Last week, the BBC released on an undercover investigation at a factory of Apple supplier Pegatron. Investigators found a variety of problematic practices: worker IDs were illegally held, new workers were coached on the answers to an important safety test, and workers were aksed to work long hours for many days in a row (one worked 18 days without a single day off, despite asking for one repeatedly).

This is unfair to Apple!

In the wake of the report, some pundits have pointed out that the focus on Apple – which is frequently called out for labor rights abuses in China – is unfair. After all, Apple itself doesn’t own or operate any Chinese factories. It is Apple’s suppliers who are ultimately responsible, some argue, since they operate these factories, and it’s unfair to single out Apple when companies like Pegatron supply electronics to lots of different companies. Apple is far from the only big tech company getting its gadgets from Pegatron and Foxconn, after all.

That’s more or less what Apple itself says, too. In response to the BBC report, the company stated:

We are aware of no other company doing as much as Apple to ensure fair and safe working conditions. We work with suppliers to address shortfalls, and we see continuous and significant improvement, but we know our work is never done.

Apple also releases a public yearly report on labor practices at its factories (you can find its 2014 report here).

So, is it fair to single out Apple for labor rights abuses? Not really.

Long live unfair Apple reporting

Reporting that’s focused on Apple when it addresses Chinese factory abuses is going to keep popping up, though, and that’s a good thing.

Here’s why: news reports about Apple get lots of attention. This article you’re reading right now is likely to be my most-read opinion piece this week, simply because the title contains the word “Apple.” In the world of tech news, Apple is a five-letter piece of clickbait. It can bring readers to a story they otherwise would never care about.

That’s important because the sad truth is that most people aren’t, by default, going to care about the plight of China’s poor migrant workers. People care about news stories that have some kind of connection to their lives, and the average tech media reader doesn’t have any real connection to a Pegatron floor worker. People do feel connected to their iPhones, though, and connected to Apple as a company. Love it or hate it, lots of people spend lots of time thinking about Apple, talking about Apple, and interacting with Apple products. When Apple gets thrown into a story about Chinese factories, what once seemed irrelevant to most readers becomes relevant. Suddenly, people start to care.

So, yes, the media uses the public’s interest in Apple to bring attention to stories about labor abuse in China. Yes, this is not fair to Apple, because its guilty-of-abuse suppliers also supply many other tech companies. But for me, the ends – bringing public attention and scrutiny to the abuse of migrant workers – justify the means. It is, after all, reports like last week’s BBC investigation that have forced Apple to get stricter and stricter with its suppliers, and while there are still many problems, the situation in many factories is better than it used to be.