Reference no: EM133118497

Question - On June 14th 2012, a Foxconn worker jumped to his death from his apartment building in Chengdu, marking the 18th reported worker suicide at Foxconn factories in China in just over two years. Many additional suicides may have gone unreported. But these deaths and the focus on conditions at Foxconn reflect only a portion of the troubling conditions at Apple suppliers.

This investigation of other Apple suppliers in China reveals that serious work-related injuries and worker suicides are by no means isolated to just Foxconn but exist throughout Apple's supply chain. For example, researchers found that at least two workers committed suicide at Flextronics' factories last year (Ganzhou and Zhuhai) and that upwards of 59 workers were injured in explosions at Riteng's Shanghai factory last December (both are Apple's suppliers). More broadly, this investigation of ten different Apple factories in China finds that harmful, damaging work environments characterized by illegally long hours for low levels of pay are widespread in Apple's supply, with working conditions frequently worse at suppliers other than Foxconn.

Required -

1) What will the impact of Foxconn's suicide incidents on Apple? What should Apple do to mitigate the impact? 

2) If you were Apple CEO Tim Cook, will you choose Foxconn as a supply chain partner? Will you get involved in improving  the work environment of your supply chain partners? Why?