Apple Sharing The Initial Cost Of Improving Foxconn Worker Conditions

While speaking at the opening of its new China headquarters in Shanghai, Foxconn chief Terry Gou told the press that Apple is currently splitting the initial costs of improving the factory conditions in China right down the middle, a 50/50 split.

Reuters managed to grab an important quote from the Foxconn chief:

“We’ve discovered that this (improving factory conditions) is not a cost. It is a competitive strength,” Gou told reporters on Thursday after the ground-breaking ceremony for a new China headquarters in Shanghai. “I believe Apple sees this as a competitive strength along with us, and so we will split the initial costs.”

Sadly, there aren’t too many companies who put their money where their mouth is when it comes to improving worker conditions in far off places that are out of sight of average customers. Amazon, Sony, and Microsoft all currently have products being manufactured in Foxconn factories, but we haven’t heard a peep out of any of them regarding the obviously terrible working conditions in the factories. Mum’s been the word.

Apple, on the other hand, is facing the problem head on, trying to fix the problem and provide better working conditions for the factory workers who work on their products. Apple, not Sony or Microsoft, will be assisting Foxconn with the initial costs required to give employees a safe and quality working position within Apple’s manufacturing circles.The next time you’re eyeballing a fancy new piece of electronics, think about that before putting your money down. While it’s sad that the situation even exists to begin with, it’s even sader that three of the larger tech companies in the world are doing nothing about changing the problem, yet still they manage to use Foxconn services.

Joshua is the Content Marketing Manager at BuySellAds. He’s also the founder of Macgasm.net. And since all that doesn’t quite give him enough content to wrangle, he’s also a technology journalist in his spare time, with bylines at PCWorld, Macworld and TechHive.