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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.
Not Blackberry - all their phones are 100% built by Native Mountie Craftsmen.
#DeleteChrome
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?
...always swear themselves free of participation in this, in particular Android users. Not a troll post. Just think about what camp it is always bringing this up, in particular with fingers pointed on Apple, never Samsung, never LG, never HTC etc.
Whilst their siblings worked in the mills because they were small enough to crawl into the machinery and would be lucky if they came out alive?
Sure, we have moved on from child labour, but it took time and social / economical development to achieve. Why should we then suddenly impose our current position upon a developing nation?
Only Fairphone.
well since electric vehicles are 6% of the global demand for lithium, probably not. "Other" batteries such as cellphones, laptops, etc are 23%,
Electric vehicles are the biggest growth area, but other devices are currently the biggest demand.
at least according to financial prospectus, and I always tend to follow the money.
Why should we continue to embrace the idea that amoral companies can do anything they choose in the name of profits?
Why should we continue to give a damn what companies think is best for them?
Why the fuck have we mistaken "shareholder value" for "the economy"?
Big fucking deal, the 1% make a better ROI on Apple et al because we let them act like sociopaths, if it's only the corporations and major stock holders who benefit?
Fuck that, all these companies gutting the economy for their own profits doesn't help all but the richest people. And it's time we stopped giving a fuck about what benefits the richest people.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
In keeping with his current theme, Candidate Trump claimed that if the supply line is the problem to Apple making their products here, he will allow *American* seven-year-olds to mine for Cobalt in the United States, making America Great Again and competitive in the world.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Yup, my wife and I decided that the only way we'd buy diamonds is if they came from a conflict-free source, which meant buying Polar Ice diamonds from Canada as they were the only source not tainted by DeBeers that could be reliably traced (I'm not sure if the situation has changed since we made our decision, that was 15 years ago and the conflict free movement has received a lot more support since then). We paid a slight premium for the stones, but the fact that they were being custom set was the major expense (using local labor is quite a bit more expensive than having kids in China or wherever set the stones, but again worth it from an ethical standpoint).
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
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.
I kind of agree with you, but receiving stolen property is a crime. Why not receiving child-abuse property?
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
The beavers collect the birch trees ... the moose mill them into components ... the geese assemble them ... the seagulls are in charge of packaging ... and the seals handle marketing ... and Temporary Foreign Workers write the code.
What do you guys use?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
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.
Hypocrites. Amnesty International workers and members who use an Apple, Samsung or Sony phone or laptop are just as "guilty" as Apple, Samsung or Sony.
Amnesty International is no better than the ambulance chasing lawyer looking for the person/organization with the deepest pockets to exploit rather than going after the truly guilty. In this case Congo Dongfang Mining (CDM), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chinese mineral giant Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Ltd.
Would not Tesla be the biggest offender.
No. Tesla sources cobalt from North American mines.
Are they not the biggest user of lithium batteries?
No. Several cellphone manufacturers use more lithium batteries than Tesla. Tesla is not even the biggest manufacturer of electric cars.
They seemed pretty eager when we hired them.
There was a great video on the topic by John Oliver as to how exactly how clothing companies have been "dealing" with the same issue. Basically it is about plausible deniability. Except in this analogy (Tech VS Clothing), it is another degree of separation. Company A (Clothing/Technology Company) deals with a Company B (Supplier) usually in China/India/Etc... and is told to adhere to code of ethics. Company B subcontracts out to Company C and D (also Suppliers). Company C and D subcontract out to Companies F,H,I, and J (Manufacturers)... It is found that Company I and J use child workers. Company A says they had no idea, and told Company B to act ethically. Companies I and J go out of business (briefly) then start up new companies K and L, and start all over again. In this instance, it is like Companies F,H,I, and J get their materials from Company M (as it produces 50% of the worlds X so is cheaper).
Anyway bottom line, is keeping the whole supply chain straight (pardon pun) is complex and difficult to enforce any adherence to ethical standards upon. Amd that's if you are really intent and interested in doing so, not just giving it lip service for when it pops up in the media every decade or so... Probably made even more difficult when as the article says, the offender supplies most of the worlds cobalt, so sourcing from else where in volume is probably logistically difficult and expensive. Then again, with the commodity cost of cobalt and how much of it is used and given say the markup on these sorts of devices (I'm looking at you Apple), you'd think they could be a bit more discerning without much hit to their bottom line if they cared. Unfortunately, they likely don't.