Apple report reveals child labour increase

[Joanne98]

Source: The Guardian

Apple found more than 91 children working at its suppliers last year, nine times as many as the previous year, according to its annual report on its manufacturers.

The US company has also acknowledged for the first time that 137 workers were poisoned at a Chinese firm making its products and said less than a third of the facilities it audited were complying with its code on working hours.

Apple usually refuses to comment on which firms make its goods, but came under increased scrutiny last year following multiple suicides at electronics giant Foxconn, one of its main suppliers.

Last month, anti-pollution activists accused the firm of being more secretive about its supply chain in China than almost all of its rivals.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/feb/15/apple-report-reveals-child-labour

[Donnachaidh]

1. how many DUers support child labor because they need toys?

Gee - you can google something at the newsstand -- that makes up for the children working as slaves for Apple. :sarcasm:

[onehandle]

3. Do you own any electronics? You support child labor. Here's where --->

Child labor... Slave labor from edge to edge.

[Donnachaidh]

4. touched a nerve?

Good. :rofl:

Think of those tiny hands putting together that toy you need to find a restaurant, next time you use it.

[onehandle]

5. At least Apple is and doing something about it. Dell, HP, Microsoft, and all the others...

Including Brand X electronics of all types from cell phones to microwaves to cars, use the same suppliers. Apple gets attention, because although they ship a fraction of what other companies ship, they are the tech leader in the world.
_________________

Over the course of 2010, Apple found 37 "core violations" across 127 supplier facilities located across Asia—Apple defines a "core violation" as a serious breach of Apple's code of conduct, which prohibits worker abuse, the use of underage labor, intimidation of workers, and so on. According to the report, Apple discovered one facility that was exposing workers to toxic chemicals, four facilities that either presented false payroll records to Apple or gave misleading answers to Apple's audit team, one bribery attempt, one attempt to coach workers to give positive answers to Apple's audit team, and a total of 91 underage workers across 10 facilities.

Apple's responses to these violations largely involved the company telling the manufacturers to tighten up their practices—in the case of toxic chemicals, Apple required the companies to discontinue their use and improve their ventilation systems, for example. Some facilities with underage workers were found to have poor ID check systems, so they were told to send the kids back to school and improve management so that such a thing wouldn't happen again in the future. (Sending the kids back to school doesn't just mean kicking them out of the factory, either—Apple says that suppliers must pay for educational expenses and lost wages for six months or until the worker turns 16, whichever is longer.)

Facilities that were found to be underpaying workers were told to start paying the appropriate amount and to respect local law.

There were a handful of cases, however, where Apple decided the violations were too much and severed its connections with the firms in question. For example, one facility had apparently falsified its payroll records multiple times with Apple in the past and was found to be doing so yet again, resulting in the loss of Apple's business. The same happened to one facility whose manager attempted to bribe Apple's audit team into giving a good report.

Another facility that employed an unusually large number of underage workers (42) apparently had no interest in remedying the problem. "Based on the poor likelihood of improvement, we terminated business with the facility," Apple wrote in its report. Apple didn't name which specific manufacturers made which violations.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/02/apples-2011-supplier-report-underage-workers-bribery-and-severed-business.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

[Safetykitten]

18. Ahhh...the Apple is using child labor so much cooler defense.

[LanternWaste]

15. I would imagine that as North Americans, our totality of guilt...

I would imagine that as North Americans, our totality of guilt is separated only by degrees.

[Demeter]

21. I'm NOT Accepting Any Guilt for Multinational Corporations

and the self-appointed "elite" that runs them and our government. And I can only advocate for a total removal of multinational corporate money and influence on our national affairs and perhaps even our economy.

I advocate for home-grown manufacturing, design, development, marketing, service, etc. We can import raw materials, we can ship out finished goods. Enough with fracturing the economic processes amongst all the nations so that only the Corporations profit, as they spread corruption, pollution and degradation of people around the world.

Until we have rules enforced in this country to separate State, Religion, and Corporation, we cannot expect other nations to do so.

[raouldukelives]

8. And lets not even delve into 401k's

One can only imagine the horrible things done to make a few dollars from brutal labor practices, big oil, pharma and the MIC. Heck, I bet the ithings are great for checking the market gains from misery.

[superduperfarleft]

9. Do you own a computer?

Most likely, it's got something in it that was manufactured by Foxconn. It's not like the only produce parts for Apple products.

Beam. Eye. Etc....

[Xenotime]

2. This is one step below slave labor.

[OhioChick]

6. Shameful n/t

[Kingofalldems]

7. Repubs seem to love child labor

[ChromeFoundry]

10. No surprise n/t

[savalez]

11. Suicides, Child Labor, Posioning. Apple sucks. n/t

[alfredo]

13. The suicides were within the average for Chinese workers,

which is lower than the suicide rate in the US.

Apple does these reports to see if suppliers are living up to agreed upon standards in their contract.


Before condemning Apple, lets see how they handle what they have discovered.

From Onehandle's reply above:

Over the course of 2010, Apple found 37 "core violations" across 127 supplier facilities located across Asia—Apple defines a "core violation" as a serious breach of Apple's code of conduct, which prohibits worker abuse, the use of underage labor, intimidation of workers, and so on. According to the report, Apple discovered one facility that was exposing workers to toxic chemicals, four facilities that either presented false payroll records to Apple or gave misleading answers to Apple's audit team, one bribery attempt, one attempt to coach workers to give positive answers to Apple's audit team, and a total of 91 underage workers across 10 facilities.

Apple's responses to these violations largely involved the company telling the manufacturers to tighten up their practices—in the case of toxic chemicals, Apple required the companies to discontinue their use and improve their ventilation systems, for example. Some facilities with underage workers were found to have poor ID check systems, so they were told to send the kids back to school and improve management so that such a thing wouldn't happen again in the future. (Sending the kids back to school doesn't just mean kicking them out of the factory, either—Apple says that suppliers must pay for educational expenses and lost wages for six months or until the worker turns 16, whichever is longer.)

Facilities that were found to be underpaying workers were told to start paying the appropriate amount and to respect local law.

There were a handful of cases, however, where Apple decided the violations were too much and severed its connections with the firms in question. For example, one facility had apparently falsified its payroll records multiple times with Apple in the past and was found to be doing so yet again, resulting in the loss of Apple's business. The same happened to one facility whose manager attempted to bribe Apple's audit team into giving a good report.

Another facility that employed an unusually large number of underage workers (42) apparently had no interest in remedying the problem. "Based on the poor likelihood of improvement, we terminated business with the facility," Apple wrote in its report. Apple didn't name which specific manufacturers made which violations.

[Xolodno]

12. Who knows how bad it really is....

...when people have their wages shrinking, they have to buy cheaper and cheaper. Manufacturer's seeing their growth vanish then resort to cheaper suppliers and take the suppliers "word" that no child/slave labor was used. The continued repression of wages just keeps this going down a negative spiral. Companies will continue to turn a blind eye in order to meet the new lowered purchasing parity.

[Yavin4]

14. So, If Children Are Making Apple's Products....

then why are they so damn expensive? How can they be so expensive when labor costs are so little?

[LanternWaste]

16. I would like to think the difference is in quality of product

I would like to think the difference is in quality of product. But I would imagine the reality is that the additional money (above and beyond profits) goes to Madison Avenue and the middlemen in order to better sex up the product, and make it appear "more American" to the consumers.

The PC wars of the past 15 years seem little different than the cola wars of the 80's-- market an appeal to a particular demographic(s), a well-timed memo to marketing, and voila, instant fan base at the expense of objectivity.

[Omaha Steve]

17. R #5

[druidity33]

19. Unrecced... and here's why...

I'd like to see you find an audit report for Gateway or Dell. The fact that they made this publicly available information is a positive thing in and of itself!

I'm a Mac user but i'm not an idiot.

If you own a TV, DVD player, Computer, or really any electronic device... then you are contributing to child/slave/dismal labor conditions. Why pick on Apple?

:shrug:

[StarsInHerHair]

20. exactly, look here for clothing manual labor wages

..."at 22 US cents per hour, a Bangladeshi worker gets a
fourth of the 86 US cents that his Chinese counterpart takes home.

Two Tiger economies pay much more. The average wage of a garment
worker is $1.07 in the Philippines and $1.18 in Malaysia, says Global
Apparel Manufacturing Labour Cost Update 2008, prepared by US-based
consulting house Jassin-O'Rourke Group.

The study shows that the average hourly wage of a garment worker is
$0.51 in India, $0.44 in Indonesia, $0.43 in Sri Lanka, $0.38 in
Vietnam, $0.37 in Pakistan and $0.33 in Cambodia.""...

http://consumerist.com/2011/02/analyst-material-labor-costs-increases-will-inflate-clothing-prices.html

So if you're wearing clothes, you're supporting this.