Apple and Tim Cook “deeply offended” by BBC report

The BBC Panorama report into Apple’s supply chain only aired last night but the company has been quick in its response. In an exclusive email leaked to the Telegraph, the company’s CEO Tim Cook and Senior Vice President of Operation Jeff Williams have issues a response that says they are “deeply offended” by the BBC’s allegations.

In the email – which was sent to around 5,000 staff in the UK, William said both himself and Cook were

“…deeply offended by the suggestion that Apple would break a promise to the workers in our supply chain or mislead our customers in any way. Panorama’s report implied that Apple isn’t improving working conditions,” he continued. “Let me tell you, nothing could be further from the truth.”

Williams went on to say that the company had shared various facts and perspective with the BBC in advance but they were “clearly missing from their programme“.

In the Panorama report, the BBC claimed that although Apple clearly outlining the standards it expects its supply chain to adhere to, the reality was that very little had changed and workers will still forced to work long hours (in some cases over 20 percent more than Apple’s max guidelines). The report also dug deeper and ‘revealed’ that illegally mined tin (often in very dangerous conditions) often made its way into Apple’s supply chain and that although Apple does undertake checks on its supply chain, its key tin suppliers often acquire tin from questionable sources.

Williams counted Panorama’s claims by reportedly saying (in the email):

“Apple has publicly stated that tin from Indonesia ends up in our products, and some of that tin likely comes from illegal mines.

Tens of thousands of artisanal miners are selling tin through many middlemen to the smelters who supply to component suppliers who sell to the world. The government is not addressing the issue, and there is widespread corruption in the undeveloped supply chain. Our team visited the same parts of Indonesia visited by the BBC, and of course we are appalled by what’s going on there.

Apple has two choices: We could make sure all of our suppliers buy tin from smelters outside of Indonesia, which would probably be the easiest thing for us to do and would certainly shield us from criticism. But it would be the lazy and cowardly path, because it would do nothing to improve the situation for Indonesian workers or the environment since Apple consumes a tiny fraction of the tin mined there. We chose the second path, which is to stay engaged and try to drive a collective solution.”