Do you support child labor exploitation? Then buy Apple products

Some people from within the organisation "Global March Against Child Labour" located here in the United States have asked me to help in some of their legal fights against child exploitation. As I said, I'm on my way out. My health is not what it used to be and I've decided there's no use just waiting around for the end. I'm dying so I might as well go down with a fight.

I've just started looking over some of the old trial dockets and I'm going to at least try and set the foundation to take on Apple. Therefore I'm asking that Skip and the rest of you to please make yourself aware of what it is your supporting when you buy an Apple product. Let me just inform all of you that Apple shares hit over $500 a share and I think they have the resources to clean up the mess they're making.

As a father and grandfather and an old hippie that fought the good fight, I pretty disgusted by what I see in the modern world. But I'm hoping that today's youth will help plaint one more seed of change before I'm gone.

Read the links below and passe the message.

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/28327230/

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/apple-and-child-labor-why-its-a-non-story/6144

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/8324867/Apples-child-labour-issues-worsen.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/28/foxconn-plant-china-deaths-suicides


Apple said that 91 children under the age of 16 were discovered to be working last year in ten Chinese factories owned by its suppliers.

By comparison, in 2009, Apple said eleven underage workers had been discovered.

“In recent years, Chinese factories have increasingly turned to labour agencies and vocational schools to meet their workforce demands,” said Apple’s report.

“We learned that some of these recruitment sources may provide false IDs that misrepresent young people’s ages, posing challenges for factory management,” it added.

In response, Apple said it had “intensified” its search for workers under 16, the minimum legal working age in China. In one factory it had found 42 children working on the production line and has now terminated its contract. Apple said it decided that the management “had chosen to overlook the issue and was not committed to addressing the problem.

((NB. I think it's pretty vulgar that I'm not able to find any american sources online to back this story.))

 

I think the link says it all.

 

how do you know some poor kid in china isnt taking care of an entire family on his apple cheque ...or putting a sibling through school....you can not prove that any of these kids want to be some where else,,,,

hopefully those kids you are getting fired dont have to buy monthy inhalers for asthma or any other medication now that they have no income thanks to you

 

The Original Post Was Made 7 Months Ago, I'm Sure Things

Have Changed Since Then....



Cheers Glen.

 

Well if you are in any way upset about people being exploited in Chinese factories then stop buying all electronic equipment. Cameras, phones, computers...the lot. Because its all made there and most of it by Foxconn.
Interesting article in a UK paper about the riots there recently that held up production of the iPhone5.
Back in 2010 there were several suicides by workers. For a while...and this is true, Foxconn made new employees sign a bit in the contract where they promised not to kill themselves.
That would work wouldn't it?
There you are, miserable tired and about to end it all by jumping off the roof when suddenly you remember......
"Damn! I'll be in breach of contract if I do this. Shit, then I'll be in trouble. Oh well, back to the production line I go."

This has since been repealed as some wise person pointed out that is was going to probably be rather less than effective.

 

I think the OP stated that Apple was willingly supporting child labour.
Which isn't true.
Child labour occurs in factories working for Apple.
When Apple do an audit they are the ones that find practices of child labour - and set out to stop it.
The fact is, at the moment , it is cheaper to make things in China.
Imho, most peoples objections stem from the fact they do not like outsourcing.
I doubt things have changed.
I imagine the instances highlighted in the links have been rectified.
But there will still be people under the age of 16 working in an Apple affiliated workplace somewhere.
There really isn't a way for Apple to prevent this occurring with out having their own people in every single factory every single day.

 

You're joking. There's no way on Earth that Apple wouldn't at the very least be aware of the possibility of child exploitation in their factories.

 

If Apple are aware, complicite and do nothing - that is something that should be investigated and rectified. Even criminal charges brought to bare. Is there any evidence for that?

 

Your post title has an error in it. It should read "Do you support child labor exploitation? Then buy any computer products that are currently on the market, or any other consumer goods"

 

child/slave labor is used for most things we purchase
Sad but true

I would bet the computer the OP used to make this thread was on a machine made with child/slave labor

Microsoft is no better then Apple. Slave Labor-More profit for the greedsters.

 

Mayor Salt, bein' correct itt. There's almost nothing you can possibly buy that hasn't been paid for in exploited workers' blood, tears, and/or lives.

 

It depends what you consider 'slave labour' 'child labour' and 'exploited'. Do some workers around the world have exactly the same rights as you or I have? Nope. Do you have the same rights as I have? Nope. Do I have the same rights you have? Nope.

 

I can't upgrade my ole iPhone 4s to the 5 until February

 

Child labor is not always bad. However, children and adults working under abysmal/unsafe conditions for minimal pay and no hope of improvement or advancement is incredibly common in most of the manufacturing countries. This is not merely a matter of relative deprivation, but actual privation.

 

I appreciate that is true. I wouldn't say this is the case with Apple affiliated companies. I could be proven wrong - but have seen no evidence yet. There are terms people throw around without providing any evidence. The fact an Apple employee might work a 12 hour shift without an hour break or is not able to have a cigarette break every 20 minutes - isn't 'slave labour' etc etc etc - is it?

 

I'm referring not to the point the OP is making, but to my point about consumer goods in general.

 

Fair enough.

"There are terms people throw around without providing any evidence."

I wasn't talking about you, btw.

 

Let me google that for you.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=foxconn+working+conditions

 

Also Salt and BOR have done a good job of identifying the flaws in the question to start with, but I'm finding the 'but not Apple, surely' naïveté a bit trying.

 

What are you actually Googling for me? Issues regarding slave labour? Abysmal working conditions? Unsafe working conditions? Please be more specific. Do you not think I Googled 'Foxconn' to see what might be going on? Do you not think I know most companies have employee/employer disputes? Do you not think I know how unions operate and their rhetoric? I can assure you the vast majority of unions around the world have issues concerning the employees they represent and the companies those employees work for. It can be healthy.