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NEWS > TECHNOLOGY > APPLE NETS HUGE RETURNS AFTER HINDERING FOXCONN SUICIDES
APPLE NETS HUGE RETURNS AFTER HINDERING FOXCONN SUICIDES
February 17 2011
New Taipei City, Taiwan – Controversy for successful companies is rarely a good thing. As has been seen by recent debacles such as the BP oil spill in the gulf, controversy can hurt, and hurt a lot. Major companies though are not immune to 
mistakes and oversights or of trying to get away with things. There are many examples in the corporate world of companies making major missteps, creating products for example that the public dismisses or ignores, but occasionally those companies find themselves in the midst of something much deeper.
Such a controversy could very well have hit one of the biggest companies in the world, Apple, very hard last year, tarnishing its well honed brand and risking billions of dollars in revenue. A string of suicides at Foxconn, the manufacturer of much of Apple’s product line, and the revelation of deplorable working conditions and mistreatment, could very well have dirtied the company, possibly damaging all the good will they have earned. Recognizing that danger, as well as the real human cost behind making iPhones, Apple decided to do something about the issue, working with Foxconn to try and eliminate those issues. Now with counselling services and large nets throughout the Foxconn facility many of those issues have been resolved, allowing workers to continue to make products with little or no risk to their health and wellbeing.
“The measures that we have put into place have made this a better place to work. Workers are much happier and they are pleased to come to work every day. We have done a number of things to make this a stronger place in which to work including these counselling sessions and these large nets which have prevented a number of suicides,” said a spokesperson for Foxconn. “It had become very clear that the measures we had in place were not adequate to prevent these types of incidents and so we have worked very carefully to prevent all such things from occurring in the future. These are very good nets.”
It is not clear how many workers use the counselling or net services. Many of the nets themselves are manufactured Ombabi Inc., an Indian company which has the highest suicide rate of all net manufacturers in that country.
“This very well could have been a huge blow to both companies. Had these suicides 
continued Apple would have had no choice but to move to another manufacturer or they would have risked diminishing their entire brand. People would still have bought iPads of course, but they wouldn’t have liked it,” said Scrape TV Technology analyst Ken Kevins. “Foxconn of course does business with a number of other companies and they would have risked losing those accounts which would have been devastating. Obviously no one likes incurring extra cost, but the small investment in these counselling services and nets probably prevented them from losing a lot of money.”
Other major companies which do work with Foxconn include Intel, Nintendo, Nokia, Dell, and Sony, the latter of which apparently resisted using nets at the facility.
“The real issue here is of course whether or not a similar uproar will occur with the net manufacturers. I mean dig deep enough down the line and virtually everyone does business with someone who does business who does something illicit. These chains are very deep and there are always going to be people who cut corners,” continued Kevins. “Ultimately you can’t prevent that type of thing entirely because corruption is a part if human nature. Hopefully this is the end of things for both companies no matter how far down the chain this goes, otherwise they’ll have to start chaining them up.”
Cisco, another major partner, reportedly pushed for explosive collars but that was deemed counterintuitive.
Martin Philton, Technology Correspondent
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