Bloomberg’s series showed the grim reality of the life of workers who make the shiny Apple phones so coveted by the world’s consumers. The stories by Cam Simpson were impressively detailed. He went down the supply chain to write about migration, the tactics of recruiters and life in the Himalayan villages that supplied the bonded labor to Apple’s subcontractors.
Simpson also questioned the contractors and Apple about their practices. His eye for detail made the story compelling. Weeks after reading it we still remember the images of the stranded workers in Malaysia forced to eat rice flakes after their contracts were abruptly terminated, then returning home still in debt to the brokers who had sold them the right to jobs at the factories of Apple’s supplier.