The Fair Labor Association, a worldwide worker’s rights nonprofit, is currently inspecting Apple’s supply chain at the behest of the company, a press release sent out this morning stated. The inspections apparently started this morning at Foxconn’s Shenzhen facility known as Foxconn City, with the manufacturer’s Chengdu facility slated for inspection in the future."We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we've asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in the release. "The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope, and we appreciate the FLA agreeing to take the unusual step of identifying the factories in their reports."According to the terms of the deal, the FLA will independently interview thousands of employees about their working and living conditions. That mostly means the FLA will try to talk to workers about their pay, job safety, healthcare, and, importantly, how well they are able to talk with management. Aside from the interviews, the FLA is supposed to also inspect living and work facilities, as well as search through employment documents to see if they can find anything that can shed light on the suicides and protests that have given Foxconn such a bad name in the first place.On the surface, it’s good to see Apple taking steps to ensure that their devices are manufactured responsibly, although one wonders what took them so long to pick up an independent auditor. (Apple’s fluff-filled release states that the company has audited “every final assembly factory in its supply chain each year since 2006,” although that was done in house.) Still, it’s not hard to be skeptical, considering all of the heat Apple has taken lately — well, for years now — over questionable working conditions at its suppliers and Steve Jobs’ insistence that an iPhone couldn’t be made in the U.S. — a statement rooted in the difference between American and Chinese working conditions.Think of it this way: The FLA is a respectable organization, and certainly suited to the task of inspecting working conditions. But when Apple itself says its suppliers have pledged full cooperation — as in, they’ve already been notified of coming inspections — how are we to know that the conditions the inspectors find aren’t just a show? Really, that’s the crux of the whole manufacturing issue. So while it’s great for Apple to chat up its commitment to audits, until proof arrives that shows the higher-ups in China actually care about workers’ rights, we likely won’t know the whole story.
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