Apple Agrees To Labor Reforms After Serious Foxconn Analysis

Gibson 1
Mike Gibson
1/9/13
Shelly Daly
INTL 5800 First Night Assignment In the article Apple Agrees to Labor Reforms After ‘Serious’ Foxconn Violations shows a clear picture of the issues in the area of globalization. Foxconn has been producing the iPhone and iPad for Apple for some time now. What seemed to be a very beneficial deal for Apple, turned out to be a catastrophe, putting Apple in a tough position. Foxconn has been accused of poor working conditions for their employees. Many workers have complained about unfair treatment which has led to riots and 10 suicides. Also, the workers have claimed that the wages were too low. Foxconn took steps to satisfy the workers claims by increasing wages by 25% and hire more workers to
make up for the previous workers overworked hours. Although Foxconn produces products for more companies than Apple, Apple takes the heat because they are the leader in technology. They have decided to take on the responsibility because their image would be damaged because they would have been viewed as an unethical company. For this reason they have decided to take steps to make things better. The issue lies in the area of production cost because if cost of production goes higher it is possible that the iPhone and iPad prices can increase as well, or Apple just takes a hit for this to satisfy their consumers

Gibson 2 and the workers at Foxconn. This situation puts Apple in a tough position and shows that being a global leader in technology isn’t always easy. This article relates to chapter 1 and 5 in the book in many ways.
The first way is that it touches on why companies engage in international business. Apples motive was to expand their sales, acquire resources, and to reduce their risk. They thought that it would be to their advantage to do business with Foxconn in making their products. The reason being was that the cost of production was very low which helped Apple to make huge profits. Another way that this article relates to the chapters is that it shows why companies care about ethical behavior. Apple knew that their image would be damaged if they disregarded the outcry of the Foxconn employees and the criticisms of the media. Even though they aren’t the only company that does business with them, they decided to take steps to reforming this situation because they didn’t want to allow it to ruin their image which would affect their sales and would decrease their advantage over competitors. Another way this article relates to the chapters is the labor conditions that are described. Employees at Foxconn are said to be over worked, treated unfairly, and paid very low. These are the issues that companies have to face when it comes to globalization. There are many things that have to be considered in this process. Globalization can be a big success if it is done the right way and that proper steps are taken. Ethics and responsible corporate behavior has to be taken into consideration as well. All three of these things are factors in success international business. Apple shows that they care about being successful in the international business spectrum by being ethical and taking responsibility for this situation at
Foxconn.

Gibson 3 After reading the chapters and the article I feel that Apple is in tough position. The reason being is that they are seen as the ones responsible for finding a solution to this problem. Being the leading company has its challenges, and this article clearly shows it. This is what comes with international business, the good and the bad. The thing is, is that China is known for poor work conditions and unfair treatment to employees. This is how things are over there. I feel bad for Apple because I think that there is nothing that they can really do to make this problem go away because it has something to do with Chinese culture. Apple has no control over how Foxconn treats their employees, but Apple is held responsible because of their image and they are the top technology brand.