Cook: Apple will lead the way in improving working conditions

Apple CEO Tim Cook defended his company's record on working conditions for the employees that make the parts and assemble the products that Apple sells. And he noted that Apple is continually assessing how it does business, with an eye toward improving the lives of its workforce.

Cook's comments came during a wide-ranging session Tuesday at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, in which the Apple CEO fielded questions from analyst Bill Shope on everything from iPhone sales to Apple's vast cash holdings. But Cook's comments on working conditions at assembly plants may have been the most noteworthy remarks to come out of Tuesday's hour-long event. For starters, much of the financial data Cook covered on Tuesday had been discussed during last month's quarterly earnings announcements. Also, Cook's comments were the most extensive public statements an Apple executive has made on the issue of working conditions at Apple suppliers since a New York Times report on Chinese assembly plants. Previously, Cook had commented on the Times report in an email to Apple employees, and he issued a statement on Apple's commitment to a safe, fair working environment in announcing the Fair Labor Association's audit of final assembly suppliers earlier this week.

"No one in our industry is doing more to improve working conditions than Apple," Cook told attendees at the Goldman Sachs conference. "We are constantly auditing facilities, going deep into the supply chain, looking for problems, finding problems, and fixing problems. And we report everything because we believe that transparency is so very important in this area. I am so incredibly proud of the work our teams are doing in this area. They focus on the most difficult problems, and they stay with them until they fix them. They are truly a model for the industry."

Get the highlights of Tim Cook's talk at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in our edited transcript of the event

The issue is clearly one of importance to Cook, who was Apple's chief operating officer before he was appointed CEO last year. But Cook noted Tuesday that his experience with factories wasn't limited to his time as an executive--earlier in his career, he worked in an Alabama paper mill and an aluminum plant in Virginia.

"Apple takes worker conditions very seriously, and we have for a very long time," Cook said Tuesday.

While supply chain issues can be complex, Cook acknowledged, the company's philosophy toward the people that assemble its products is very simple: Every worker has the right to "a fair and safe workplace, free of discrimination, where they can earn competitive wages and they can voice their concerns freely." Suppliers have to agree to that to do business with Apple.