“工厂设施是顶级的；工作条件远远高于平均水平。”

    公平劳工协会（Fair Labor Association）主席奥瑞特•范•希尔登在初步参观富士康（Foxconn）工厂后对路透社（Reuters）说了上面这番话。苹果（Apple）的iPad正是由该工厂制造。

    苹果近期因为中国代工组装厂的工作条件遭受了猛烈地抨击：工人自杀屡见报端，独角戏演员麦克•戴西发布了童工系列访谈，《纽约时报》（New York Times）刊发了头版报道，数十万准客户联名签署请愿书。

    本周二，苹果首席执行官蒂姆•库克在主持投资者会议时遭遇的第一个问题就是这件事。他给出了详细的回答：

    库克称：“在我们这行，没有哪家公司像苹果一样致力于改善工作环境。”他还强调：“我们绝对不会容忍使用童工。如果发现哪家供应商故意使用童工，我们一定会解除合同。”

    次日，苹果专门聘请非营利组织公平劳工协会对自己工厂展开独立调查。本周三，该协会主席接受了路透社的长篇专访。

    公平劳工协会的范•希尔登称：“当我迈进富士康工厂时，我感到非常意外。与一般服装厂相比，富士康工厂真的太安静了。因此富士康肯定不存在服装厂才有的那些问题，例如劳动强度太高、加班太频繁和工作压力太大等。 它的问题可能是（这样的环境）会让工人感到单调、乏味，可能还会与外界产生距离感。”

    希尔登指出，公平劳工协会自上世纪90年代起就一直在处理中国工厂里的自杀事件。

    希尔登说：“这些工厂招聘了很多来自农村的年轻人，他们都是第一次背井离乡。他们从农村生活方式转向城市工业化生活方式。很多时候，这种变化相当剧烈，会给这些年轻人带来巨大的震动。”

    希尔登补充道：“我们发现，他们经常需要某种精神上的关怀，但又无法得到满足。”很多工厂一开始并没有意识到工人们需要精神上的关怀。

    无论是有心还是无意，范•希尔登的评价都支持了库克的辩解，即苹果的大部分竞争者也都同样在使用这些工厂代工，其中，苹果在改善工作条件方面的力度最大，最后却只有苹果背上了骂名。

    贡品劳工协会的调查尚未全面展开，范•希尔登在这个时候就给出这样的正面评价显得有些奇怪。

    戴西说：“我当时就震惊了。调查尚未开始就对涉事公司妄下断语，我不知道还会有哪个劳工团体认为这是妥当的行为。”戴西此前在中国深圳发回的报道引起了国际社会对当地富士康工厂问题的关注。

    译者：项航

    "The facilities are first-class; the physical conditions are way, way above average of the norm."

    That's Auret van Heerden, president of the Fair Labor Association, speaking to Reuters after an initial visit to the Foxconn factory where Apple's (AAPL) iPads are built.

    Apple has been hit with a barrage of criticism over the working conditions in the Chinese factories where its products are assembled: from newspaper reports of worker suicides, by monologist Mike Daisey's interviews with underage workers, by a front-page exposé in the New York Times, by petitions signed by hundreds of thousands of would-be customers.

    It was the first question put to CEO Tim Cook at an investor conference Tuesday, and he answered at length:

    "No one in our industry is doing more to improve working conditions than Apple," he said. "We think the use of underage labor is abhorrent," he added. "If we find a supplier that intentionally hires underage labor, it's a firing offense."

    The next day, the president of the non-profit organization Apple has invited to conduct an independent investigation gave a long interview to Reuters:

    "I was very surprised when I walked onto the floor at Foxconn, how tranquil it is compared with a garment factory," said the FLA's van Heerden. "So the problems are not the intensity and burnout and pressure-cooker environment you have in a garment factory. It's more a function of monotony, of boredom, of alienation perhaps."

    He noted that the organization has been dealing with suicides in Chinese factories since the 1990s.

    "You have lot of young people, coming from rural areas, away from families for the first time," he said. "They're taken from a rural into an industrial lifestyle, often quite an intense one, and that's quite a shock to these young workers.

    "And we find that they often need some kind of emotional support, and they can't get it," he added. Factories initially didn't realize those workers needed emotional support."

    Whether intended or not, van Heerden's remarks served to support Cook's contention that no one has done more than Apple to address the working conditions at factories most of its competitors use, but for which it's taken all the heat.

    Some found it odd that van Heerden would grant any kind interview at this stage in the FLA's investigation.

    "I'm flabbergasted," says Daisey, whose reporting out of China's Shenzhen city helped draw international attention to the problems there. "I know of no labor group that thinks it appropriate to comment on a company it's investigating before that investigation has even begun."