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Apple Lets the World In on Its Supply ChainPosted on Jan 13, 2012
In a bid to increase transparency and overcome some dreadful PR from recent years about certain components of its global supply chain, Apple Inc. posted a lengthy “2012 Progress Report” about labor practices, working conditions and company ethics on its main website Friday. Even making the names of specific suppliers available was a big step that may signal a sea change in corporate culture, at least for the company in question if not the industry. Click here to read the full report.
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By Blueokie, January 14 at 2:07 pm Link to this comment
More PR whitewashing nonsense in the beatification effort on behalf of the legacy of Steve “The Sleaze” Jobs.
Report thisBy Oceanna, January 14 at 1:00 pm Link to this comment
Human lives and slavery are irrelevant to Apple. Their report is little more than a
PR move to counter the emerging reports from the last several years of suicide and
inhumane working conditions.
There was obvious reluctance to for the company to do anything about the
Report thisconditions until recently. But it doesn’t look like slavery, child labor, and the death
of workers will tarnish sales and Steve Jobs’ legacy.
By bunkerhill, January 14 at 10:13 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
@EmileZ, Foxconn is nothing but a centralized slave
camp in modern time.
@Tim Arnold, Apples made initial iPods in the plant
of San Francisco and it was a profitable operation.
The only motivation they moved the plants to China
was to take advantage of slave labors. While they may
be willing to pay for environment friendly factories
or provide free education to workers there, but they
would never want to pay fair wages to the workers in
the form of money and reasonable work hours(not even
on par to local standards). So please don’t be fooled
or distracted by all those seemly progressive items
in this report.
APPLE SHOULD AT LEAST PAY WORKERS IN FOXCOON ON PAR
Report thisTO LOCAL CITIZENS BASED ON PER CAPITAL INCOME OF GDP!
BEFORE THEY SHOW WILLINGNESS TO THAT, IT IS ALL JUST
A CYNICAL PLOY.
By Tim Arnold, January 14 at 6:41 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
on emilez comment;
We don’t live in a perfect world but, I do like the
Report thisreport by Apple. At least they are attempting to do the
right thing and are showing some accountability.Many
companies are doing the wrong thing and don’t care at
all.
By EmileZ, January 14 at 3:18 am Link to this comment
Democracy Now headline from Jan. 12….
Chinese Workers at Xbox Factory Threaten to Commit Mass Suicide
In news from China, dozens of factory workers assembling Xbox video game consoles threatened to commit suicide last week. The workers climbed to the roof of the factory last week in a protest reportedly over wages. The factory is owned by the manufacturing giant Foxconn, which makes parts for Microsoft’s Xbox console as well as iPads and iPhones for Apple.
Report thisBy bunkerhill, January 14 at 2:36 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
I am sorry to say this is nothing except a PR effort
by Apple to cover their use of SLAVE workers. If you
look into the report, you will see there is no
mention of wages and benefits, the sole motivation
Apple closed its US plants and started using overseas
suppliers to make their iProducts. Why do I say Apple
uses slave labors? Simple. In the civil war era, an
average slave only received living cost benefits
(slaves did not receive wages)from his/her master
that was equivalent to 15% percent of the wage income
of free labor. Compare to workers in this country who
worked on iPod initially, the workers in China
foxxcon only earn less than 5% percent. On top of
that, the workers in Apple’s Foxxcon earn between
15%-23% of an average Chinese citizen earns, based on
IMF and world bank per capital income estimates of
Chinese annual GDP. In other word, the wages for
these Apple supply factory workers is not only at a
slave level when comparing to American workers, but
also when comparing to average Chinese citizen’s
income. We should not be fooled by all those Apple’s
PR brownie points in this report. The last time I
checked, the prisons in America also provide free
education, uphold environment standards, healthcare,
and board. Big deal!
Apple needs to 1) disclose how much they pay their
Report thissupply workers to the world, and 2) at least pay
each worker on par with Chinese GDP’s per capital
income.
It is time for moral minded progressives to stop
being apologists for Apple and Steve jobs on this
issue and demand them living up to what they claim.