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Apple, Samsung, and Sony Face Child Labor Claims (amnestyusa.org)
An anonymous reader writes: Amnesty International has accused Apple, Samsung, Sony, and other tech companies of failing to do basic checks to ensure minerals used in their products are not mined by children. A new report explains how cobalt is harvested from mines by children as young as seven years old. The cobalt then ends up in lithium-ion batteries sold to device-makers throughout the world. The list of companies who use these batteries also includes Daimler, Dell, HP, Huawei, Lenovo, LG, Microsoft, Vodafone, Volkswagen, and ZTE. Amnesty International notes that half the world's cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where many mining operations have terrible track records for accidents and concern for workers' welfare. They say, "the vast majority of miners spend long hours every day working with cobalt without the most basic of protective equipment, such as gloves, work clothes or facemasks to protect them from lung or skin disease." According to UNICEF, about 40,000 kids worked in mines across southern DRC in 2014.
They have to be accountable for the actions of a 3rd party? I understand sourcing responsible materials is ethically and morally sound, but there has to be a point at which the blame is on the supplier and not the buyer....right?
Personally, I would draw the line between buyer and seller. I don't see why a buyer should be held accountable for the actions of a seller, and you can hardly blame corporations for being "merciless heartless beasts that only care about profit" when the same societies casting those stones are also the ones constantly pushing companies to keep reducing costs to the consumer. Also, how can a company remain competitive when another company without scruples can just buy the cheap components and undercut you.
Also, let's not get into the conditions of the nation sourcing sweat-shops and child labor. Most of them are so poor that families have no choice but to have children work in order to support themselves. Cracking down on child labor in the DRC will probably result in many families starving because those few pennies that those children were earning were probably keeping the family fed.
I know it sounds like I'm a heartless person, but too frequently I feel some high-horse crusader will come in and shut down vital economies without ever having a plan to supplement those economies they shut down.
As opposed to "Socialism in Action" which includes "hey you can't use that, or that , or that, or that or that ...." Because of some bug, slug, rock formation, the 1% or the .....
And denying income to people because you don't like kids working, when they are likely the only wages they'll ever see is cruel. Yeah, better for the kids to starve because there is no income than to have them work in mines.
In other words, for every choice you make, there is likely to be something someone can criticize.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Oh, I understand economics.
I understand that the modern lie of continued profit growth for companies is impossible, I understand that it's bullshit to say maximizing shareholder value drives the economy instead of just leeching off it, I understand that cutting taxes for the rich will never ever do anything for anybody but the rich, I understand that letting corporations play shell games to avoid taxes doesn't help anybody but them.
Modern economics is a whole series of bullshit lies which mostly ensure the 1% owns more and more while leaving the rest of us to beg for scraps.
Having the world dictated based on what is good for sociopath corporations is only of benefit to those sociopath corporations, and the rich investors who make the money. And it doesn't do a damned bit of good for the rest of us.
Offshoring is just corporations changing part of an economy into "shareholder value" at the expense of the nation who lost the jobs ... it's nations subsidizing shareholder profits, but it sure as fuck doesn't benefit the nation.
Modern economics is such a web of lies and bullshit as to defy any form of credibility. It's just theft on a global scale.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
They haven't "subcontracted" anything to child miners, as nicely inflammatory as that sounds. They bought batteries, simple as that.
And the battery manufacturer didn't subcontract to child miners - They bought individual mass-produced cells and wired them into the desired form factor and electrical characteristics.
And the battery cell manufacturer didn't subcontract to child miner - They bought the various electrolytes and pre-made membranes that get wrapped up and turned into individual battery cells.
And the electrolyte manufacturers didn't subcontract to child miners - They bought simple precursor chemicals that they use as feedstock in producing highly specialized battery electrolytes.
And the precursor chemical manufacturers - Think names like DOW, DuPont, BASF, Exxon, Eastman, etc - didn't subcontract to child miners - They bought cobalt metal on the open commodities market and turned it into convenient, commonly used reagents that have a million and one downstream applications.
Now - The cobalt refiners, they might have bought directly from the mining companies that in turn use child labor. Of course, they no doubt buy from a huge pool of mostly-legitimate miners and don't have the resources to police every hole in the ground that sends them the occasional barrel of crushed ore.
But yeah, let's blame Samsung here for one small portion of a looong supply chain over which they have little control beyond their immediate vendors.
There are very clear requirements in the international agreements on conflict minerals and child labour. They require Sony, Samsung, Apple etc to obtain documentation from their supplier that the parts they are supplying are free from issues. I am sure those companys are complying with that requirement. The problem is lower in the chain where documentation is being fraudulently provided by someone who knows they are making a false declaration.
Amnesty has a rosy eyed view of the world where manufacturers of end products have infinite resources at their disposal to go and audit their suppliers' suppliers' suppliers... to n degrees of separation with n being as large as necessary to get back to the source. But the general public is not willing to pay the price that would cost, Amnesty members included.