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The Human Cost of the Apple Supply Chain Machine (bloomberg.com)
Apple is still struggling to improve working conditions at its supply chain factories. China Labor Watch and Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Catcher, a key supplier for iPhone and MacBook casings, makes workers endure harsh safety conditions and unfair work terms in a factory in Suqian. According to observers and discussions with workers, the machines are not only loud, but spray fluid and metallic particles that frequently hit workers' faces only some of which have access to safety goggles and gloves. From the report: Hundreds throng a workshop where the main door only opens about 12 inches. Off duty, they return to debris-strewn dorms bereft of showers or hot water. Many go without washing for days at a time, workers told Bloomberg. "My hands turned bloodless white after a day of work," said one of the workers, who makes a little over 4,000 yuan a month (just over $2 an hour) in her first job outside her home province of Henan. She turned to Catcher because her husband's home-decorating business was struggling. "I only tell good things to my family and keep the sufferings like this for myself." "I asked for the earplugs many times but they didn't have any. The loud noise of 'zah-zah' made my head ache and dizzy," one of those employees told Bloomberg.
I'm really tired of the Apple Shaming Society. It's like theres some group of people out there whjo make it their bussiness to rapidly notify all of us apple users or non-users that the company-that-can-do-no-wrong has a skid mark on it's shorts. Really were not thew naive. We don't exhalt apple to sainthood. It's a company that makes products we like or loath but it's not expected to be saintly. And most people even know that apple does go a mile further than most it is making sure it's foxconn suicide nets are secure and that the toxic effluent is at least mint flavored and made from recylced whale blubber not fresh kills.
Apple had the courage to remove the headphone jack. And to drive prices up to $1,000 per unit. These measures will ultimately result in improved working conditions for those who are privileged to be building Apple's hardware. I heard that the wealth trickles down.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Last time you bought something, did you check if everyone involved was being treated fairly? Are you responsible for all the production steps that happens when you buy anything?
Let's say you buy some Oreo cookies:
- where did all the ingredients come from? Was there any people or animals harmed? What about harm to the land itself?
- how was the packaging manufactured? Which method was used to procure the oil used to make the plastic packaging? Was it harmful to the environment?
- how much polution was produced to make the cookies, the packaging, transport it between the supplier and the warehouse, then the warehouse to the grocery store where you shop? And when you drove there to buy them and bring them back to your house?
Say what you want, but even if Apple are trying, they're only working via contracts with manufacturers. They can ask of them to adhere to certain standards, but the fact is that everything costs money. That's capitalism at work.
#DeleteFacebook
Apple isn't able to produce phones that sell for only $1,000 without slave labor. They only have $231 billion of cash on hand. Think of the children of the Apple executives.
If all countries had laws that required the selling company to prove that their workers are treated and paid humanely ...
... the third world would spiral further into poverty and desolation thanks to rich western doogooders taking away their only competitive advantage: cheap labour.