In the wake of accidents and deaths at its Chinese factories and increased scrutiny of its labor practices, Apple announced that it would allow a corporate-funded labor monitoring group to evaluate its factories, including Foxconn. While some praise Apple for taking steps to improve their supply chain, others say that they are not going far enough, and that the monitoring group that they are using is too close to the corporations it monitors. Scrutiny of Apple began last year after a string of suicides at a supplier factory in China. Since then, more reports have surfaced about working conditions in that and other factories, drawing attention not only to Apple but to the entire industry.
See "Apple lets labor watchdog audit Chinese suppliers' factories", David Sarno and Andrea Chang, Los Angeles Times, February 13, 2012