Organized by Change.org and SumOfUs.org, the protests will see petitions, with over 250,000 signatures, delivered to Apple stores in order to convince the company to develop “a worker protection strategy”. So far, protests in Washington, D.C., New York City, San Francisco, London, Sydney and Bangalore have been planned, reports Gigaom. Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, SumOfUs’ executive director, says:
“Apple’s attention to detail is famous, and the only way they could fail to be aware of dozens of worker deaths, of child labour, of exposure to neurotoxins is through willful ignorance. That’s why our members are asking Apple to clean up its supply chains in time to make the iPhone 5 its first ethically produced product.”
This is, of course, a great initiative, and I think it’s fair to say that we would all like conditions in Chinese factories to improve. If you ‘re free, you should go along and add to the voice.
But here’s the thing: I don’t think most Apple users who claim to be deeply upset and shocked by the reports from China really mean it. Sure, I suspect they mean it in a I’ll-bitch-to-my-friends-at-length-about-how-disgusting-Apple-is kind of way. But they don’t mean it mean it. They won’t be willing to stand outside an Apple store for hours on a cold February afternoon, waving a placard. They won’t want to give up their iPad. They won’t want to stop buying into the Apple lifestyle.
Which is sad, because if most Apple users did really meant it, they could carry some clout. But what do I know? Prove me wrong. [Gigaom]
Antonia
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 8:32 PMSadly, the thing smells like anti-Chinese rhetoric to me (rather than support for the proletariat).
Jonny
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 8:38 PMBetter conditions costs $$ that will be passed on through the products… Do not want.
ozoneocean
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 10:44 PMThat’s not what Apple say. They say worker costs aren’t the issue, they say it’s just a lack of engineers or something. AND with their profitability and cash surplus they could easily afford to pay their Chinese workers far better and not even alter the price of the final product.
And yet they don’t.
LEO
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 8:45 PMWHAT ABOUT ALL THE OTHER TECH COMPANIES HUH? TOSHIBA, SAMSUNG HP, LENOVO. I DON”T THINK WORKER CONDITIONS ARE MUCH BETTER AT THEIR PRODUCTION FACILITIES, WHY ALL THE HATE ON APPLE WHEN THESE OTHER COMPANIES ARE DOING THE SAME THING? YOU IGNORANT PRICKS LEAVE APPLE ALONE.
salmonpie
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 8:49 PMChange needs to come from the top, Apple has influenced every other tech company in so many ways, here’s their chance to make real change. If they change others will follow
Richard
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 9:06 PMI’m sorry but thats a load of crap. The companies he listed are all multi million or multi billion dollar companies, and each one is capable of making a change if they want to. None of them require Apple to be the one to jump first, each one is capable of standing on its own two feet.
Sure, Apple could take a lead but you’re probably just as likely to see the competition use their good will as a way to under cut them and to try gain an advantage in the market. It’d be nice if the conditions improved, but Apple taking a stance is unlikely to have a radical effect on how China is run, nor will it necessarily encourage other companies to follow.
LEO
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 8:46 AMJust goes to show how apple has become the superior company. the others are too lazy to lift a finger so they just blatantly ripoff another company that comes up with an idea. pathetic just pathetic
Max
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 8:47 AMWhy shout? Apple is the target because they have the highest profit margin on they’re products. They also have close to $100 billion in the bank. Instead of spending money on worker safety / livelihood they spent $100 million on lawyers fees trying to take HTC (and other) products off the market. The arrogance of the company is wearing thin for many including myself. Secondly, Apple does not support community events, or donate to charity (apart from employee matching plan), which further highlights they’re greed.
Luke
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 9:11 PMDon’t forget that Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo all use these facilities to manufacture their products as well.
TonyInTsv
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 9:47 PMHang on didn’t Job’s himself say that he was going to see to it that the workers who build Apple products are treated properly?…. Oh I see it was all just a great big marketing scam by Job’s.
Fortunately I can sleep well at night. HTC’s are made in Taiwan. The workers may not get paid as much as an American, but they do have free speach and can speak openly about the government without concern that they will be picked up and their family forced to pay for the 7.62x25mm bullet used to execute them.
Luke
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 10:56 PMDo you own a computer or a game console? can you sleep well knowing those devices are made in the same facilities as the iPhone, under the same working conditions.
PS. i will save you the embarrassment of completely missing the point of my comment, my point is that most gadgets are manufactured in china and its very hypocritical to just call out apple on this and not target other technology companies for the same thing. We are not hearing from people who are boycotting Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Samsung etc… unless they change their policies.
np
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 10:07 AMAhh yes Taiwan. The shining beacon of hope in regards to work conditions. http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20110501000024&cid=1103
http://somo.nl/news-en/somo-media-coverage/taiwan-joins-worldwide-campaign-against-it-sweatshops
Rob
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 9:32 PMHaha ahh nice job getting so aggressively worked up over Apple, you’re a good fanboy.
ozoneocean
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 10:48 PMBecause they are a US based company and are meant to have higher standards. They are also far more profitable and have more cash than those others you mention so they more than anyone else can afford to treat their works better.
This is really pretty, extremely, amazingly obvious.
(V)_(•,,,,•)_(V)
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 2:36 AMFalse… Samsung has much higher profits than apple due to them producing more types of electronic products. So Samsung is supposed to deal with that if we’re talking about who is making more money.
Jon
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 8:35 AM*sigh* … another example that using CAPSLOCK does not mean your opinion became louder. it just became annoying.. and before we know it you might start shooting everybody with a shotgun. chill out, Apple is a huge company, it can take care of itself without you “shouting at everyone” . -__-
KingTingsJoe199
Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at 1:58 AMRIGHT ON BRO!
Josh
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 9:06 PMAs Luke Skywalker once said “I care” I got rid of my iphone
Luke
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 9:16 PMAnd then what, if i may ask? you care by getting rid of your iphone and bought another phone that is made in the exact same facility.
By caring you should have ditched the technology all together and bought string and some cans.
Jeff
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 9:26 PMI am pretty sure string and cans are made in china in slave factories.
Jon
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 8:30 AMhahahaha +1 +1
TonyInTsv
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 9:51 PMNot all phones are made in China. HTC’s are made in Taiwan.
Josh
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 1:18 AMTo be honest Luke I did as much research as one can about the companies involved in poor treatment of workers around the world and went with HTC. It seemed the better choice when it came to treatment of workers. I can’t live without a phone or tin cans for that matter, but I can make a choice to choose a company that at least has some rights for their workers.
It maybe hard to believe, but some people can and do make changes to their lives – green PCs, recycle, use alternative transport, grow their own food, etc.
Rob
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 9:34 PMAlso for all these people bitching about “but the other companies do it too” need to realise when was the last time you bought anyone bought one of their products based on their image?
Apple is all about it’s image, so yes they should be he held to a hirer standard if they want to keep pretending to be so godly amazing compared to everyone else, that or people need to stop paying for over priced products and realise there’s nothing special about Apple in which case we’ll stop pointing out shit like this.
Nathan
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 9:37 PMI think the general focus on Apple comes from them being one of the larger American owned companies with hardware manufactured in Foxconn factories.
The way Apple release their hardware in cycles and with great immediate demand adds insane expectations on the workers causing the consistent breach of rights for these workers.
Richard is right though. There is no reason that any company with unethical business practices shouldn’t take the lead to improve themselves.
I think a good idea would be something similar to http://www.ethical.org.au but related to consumer goods. I know I’d make an effort to purchase from a company that actively pursued/maintained ethical business practices.
John
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 10:29 PMApple already pocket an enormous mark up on their products. They’re sitting on $97 billion in cash reserves. They could easily make the products in the USA and still make plenty of money.
DarthDVD_AU
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 10:41 PMIn a word…..
No.
You know there is laws against Conflict Dimonds and minerals (not to sure on the minerals) and the coco and coffiee companys have policys against explotive labour (child labour & indentured servitude), so I can’t see why apple can’t do the same, or the USA forcing Apple (or other company) to adopt such policys. After all they do have a MASSIVE markup on the costs of production. And to have production in the one place… well lets just look at the HDD manufactoring sector.. That almost got wiped out in Thailand.
Paul
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 12:14 AMThe reason apple is the focus is because they have enjoyed so much success this last decade, . I can’t buy another apple product until something is done l I find it difficult to buy any product now because of all of the abuse that has been made public in these factories
apple fanboy in android world
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 5:33 AMApple is not going to be shut because of you. Have you got a apple product at all?
Steve
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 4:27 AMThe focus on vilifying only Apple is absurd. Many consumer electronics firms, Sony, HP, and Dell among them use Foxconn / Hon Hai.
In the words of the immortal Pogo, “we have met the enemy and he is us.” We apparently prefer inexpensive consumer products over good jobs and *fair* trade agreements.
We enthusiastically seek bargains at Best Buy, Walmart, and Target, ad nauseam, while paying $5 for a cup of Starbuck’s coffee which will end up being flushed down our toilets.
apple fanboy in android world
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 5:32 AMI see a conspiracy by a cluster of companies secretly sponsoring this protest. IBM was building their laptops through Lenovo ages ago. No one seem bothered. As for as I know people aren’t herded at gun point to be taken in to the factories. There was a recent article which showed how many people lined up for job openings for a new Foxconn facility. If you say about poor working conditions what about the conditions of the junior doctors in the US, working 100+ hrs a wk, 36hr shifts. Come on you going to boycott hospitals when you get sick? Look around for an ethical hospital? Boycott NASA as people stood awake and worked non stop 48+ hrs during rocket launches. Hypocrites.
Azza
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 9:42 AMA major difference being that whilst they may do a lot of hours, the doctors working conditions are superior, they are compensated far better and once they have done this for a while their circumstances will change and will be making even more money.
Denis
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 10:27 AMI don’t think this problem is restricted to tech companies – all the multinationals behave in this greedy uncaring manner and I don’t foresee change any time soon.
Critta
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 10:58 AMRegardless of what the other tech companies are doing, the beast that is Apple can make a real difference to the lives of others. If it wants to be seen as ethical it will make a change, if not it wont.
Change has to start somewhere, why not with Apple. Sure it might cost you a little more as a consumer (first world problem) but it takes much more of a toll on their lives
TSH
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 12:00 PMNone of this matters because people aren’t going to stop buying the products or demanding low prices. Like George Lucas with Star Wars, the fans will keep paying through the nose for an updated version of the same thing because they are emotionally invested and it’s still what they want.
Look at how the world changed with “Occupy” (i.e., it didn’t) – somehow I don’t think a few newspaper articles and an Internet petition are going to do squat.
Having said that, other gadget-makers have an opportunity to take the “ethical” lead here if they want to improve their public image. Nokia could sure use a boost at this point!
Spock
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 6:40 PMI do not care. Blame gadget companies for China’s problems all you want, but it’s the Chinese government who lets it happen and it’s the Chinese workers who take the jobs and the money.
Screw them.