It hasn't been a month since we last reported on strikes over working conditions in China, yet December 17th had seen an explosion at one of the factories of component supplier, Pegatron Corp.'s subsidiary, Riteng Computer Accessory Co. injuring 57 workers, 23 of whom needed to be hospitalised for burns.
Based in Shanghai's Songjiang industrial park, the factory had been preparing a trial-run, presumably of aluminium back panels as the firm manufactures back panels for Apple's iPad 2, with rumour that it would be switching to iPad 3 back panel production in the near future. It's suggested, much like an explosion at Foxconn's Chengdu plant back in May, which was involved in polishing iPads, killing three and injuring 15, poorly extracted combustible aluminium dust was the likely cause of the explosion.
This is not the first time as of late that an Apple supplier has come under fire for poor working conditions, for Foxconn, Apple's largest supplier, there was May's explosion at an iPad polishing factory, electrical cables on the rooftop of a separate factory in September had caught fire and the firm had suffered a string of suicides, blamed on poor working conditions. In October, a MacBook casing supplier was ordered to close a plant stemming from complaints over pollution, with 27 presumed Apple suppliers suggested to have had severe pollution problems, ranging from toxic gases to heavy metal sludge, according to a report produced by a coalition of Chinese environmental agencies. The recent strike at the Taiwanese Jinguan Computer Group factory in Shenzhen also comprised primarily of workers producing Apple products.
Apple is of course not entirely to blame for poor working conditions, it's not typical to expect to have control over a firm one does business with, Chinese labour activists agree "I don't think the international corporates are doing any better or worse than the local companies ... It's the many shortcomings in the Chinese labour laws and institutions that lead to poor welfare of the workers." Whilst it's clear that local firms must firm-up and improve standards, given the size of Apple's operation and the long list of failings, the large investment it has in suppliers and that suppliers have in business from Apple, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect a little more corporate responsibility, would it?
