Apple has incentive to worry about workers’ rights

Imagine a company generating an extra $1.5 billion in sales every week compared to what it earned only a year ago – and nearly all of that coming from products that it had dreamt up from scratch within the last half decade. These were things the world didn’t know until recently that it needed. That would be like General Motors conjuring up its entire North American sales – all the Chevrolets, Cadillacs, Buicks and GMC trucks – from nothing, in the space of just a year. That gives some idea of the enormity of Apple’s recent success on the back of the iPhone and iPad. Without those inventions, it would be a struggling computer maker trying to fill the gap left by shrinking iPod sales. Instead, it is a world-beater with a share price that surged past $500 this week and didn’t stop to catch breath. It was only with the launch of the iPad that Apple’s stock market value topped that of Microsoft, a company that once seemed unassailable: it is now worth nearly twice as much.

That makes Apple’s handling of the supply chain labor issues that continue to dog it a central concern not just for its own future but for the industry at large. Its scale and conspicuous brand have brought it unwelcome attention. But it is already ahead of its main rivals in trying to grapple with the underage labor, excessive forced overtime and inadequate safety standards that continue to be alleged against it, and the new standards it is helping to set will be felt across the industry. One implication is that costs will rise.