” ‘You can set all the rules you want, but they’re meaningless if you don’t give suppliers enough profit to treat workers well,” said one former Apple executive with firsthand knowledge of the supplier responsibility group. ‘If you squeeze margins, you’re forcing them to cut safety.’

[…]

” ‘We’ve had this conversation hundreds of times,’ said a former executive in Apple’s supplier responsibility group. ‘There is a genuine, companywide commitment to the code of conduct. But taking it to the next level and creating real change conflicts with secrecy and business goals, and so there’s only so far we can go.’

[…]

” ‘You can either manufacture in comfortable, worker-friendly factories, or you can reinvent the product every year, and make it better and faster and cheaper, which requires factories that seem harsh by American standards,’ said a current Apple executive. ‘And right now, customers care more about a new iPhone than working conditions in China.’ ” (>>)