Mirela Iverac
Mirela Iverac is a General Assignment Reporter for WNYC.org, covering a wide range of topics – from immigration to courts and crime. She joined the station in March 2011.
In November 2011, Mirela was recognized ...
Critics Petition Apple Store to Improve Conditions for Factory Workers
Thursday, February 09, 2012 - 10:56 AM
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Change.org human rights organizer Sarah Ryan hands over sigantures to the Apple store manager in Grand Central. (Mirela Iverac/WNYC)
- Join the Discussion [1]
Activists delivered a quarter of a million signatures to the Apple store in Grand Central on Thursday, asking the company to improve labor conditions for its suppliers’ workers in overseas factories.
Sarah Ryan, human rights organizer from Change.org, was among a handful of activists who delivered signatures collected on the site to the Apple’s store manager Thursday morning.
“It’s my delight to carry all these signatures from around the world,” she said.
Last month, Mark Shields, an Apple user from Washington, D.C., posted a petition on Change.org asking Apple to release a worker production strategy for new product releases and to publish the results of the Fair Labor Association monitoring of its suppliers in China.
“We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain,” Amy Bessette, Apple’s spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We insist that our suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect, and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes wherever Apple products are made.”
Bessette, Apple's spokeswoman, said the Fair Labor Association's auditing team will have access to the company’s supply chain and that they will report their findings independently on their website.
An investigation by The New York Times last month and This American Life portrayed conditions workers in Chinese factories that Apple uses face, leading to increased pressure on the company.
Consumer watchdog group SumOfUs.org, also posted a petition, asking Apple to “overhaul the way its suppliers treat their workers in time for the launch of the iPhone 5,” which is expected later this year.
SumOfUs.org and Change.org joined their efforts and, next to New York, delivered the 250,000 signatures to Apple stores in Washington, DC, San Francisco, London, Sydney and Bangalore.
Shelby Knox, director of organizing with Change.org, who was outfitted in a sandwich board emblazoned with an image of what she called “an ethical iPhone," said she expected Apple will listen to the demands and “treat the people who work for them as they treat their customers.”
Ryan said most of the now nearly 200,000 people who signed the petition asked for more ethical standards from Apple, rather than for a boycott of their ubiquitous products.
Though labor conditions in China might be a problem for other companies as well, she added, Apple’s customers expect of the company to step-up its efforts and be the leader that sets the standards.
Comments [1]
The New York Time article and subsequent CBS piece where cheap sensationalistic fluff aimed at the less educated.
I suggest a follow-up article by the Times looking into conditions at non-Apple factories in China comparing work hours, salary against national average, age of employees, and the names US companies using this labour.
Anyone with a high school level understanding of macro economics understands that Apple cannot single-handedly change the socioeconomic conditions of the Chinese labour force. Nor is it their responsibility. You cannot simply double salaries at one particular factory. Additionally, salaries are relative and can’t be compared to any Western nation without taking into account the local cost of living, housing, etc.
There is little doubt that Chinese workers are subjected to longer working hours and lower salaries than in the west, and conditions can always be improved. It should be noted though that these workers come from all over China for what are regarded as high salaries. Potential employees line up every morning outside Foxconn with the hope of landing employment. This is not slave labour.
Interviewing one or two ex Foxconn employees about the long hours and tough management culture is ridiculous. You could find the same complaints from ex-employees about most companies including the New York Times. Long hours, tough boss, stress; who hasn’t experienced that at some point in their working lives. Life can to tough for the less educated in society regardless of their country of origin.
Those that have taken up this cause and are protesting Apple’s “tolerance” of it’s supplier’s treatment of its Asian employees are incredibly naive. Most will have little information on the actual working conditions at Foxconn, the salaries paid relative to the national average, or Apple’s policy on supplier responsibility. Apple hold it’s suppliers to some of the highest employee working standards in the world.
One wonders whether the protests directed at Apple over workers rights are truly altruistic or driven by competitor influence? These ‘cause of the month’ groups such as Change.org, PETA, Occupy Wall Street, etc., are notorious for protesting injustice regardless of the facts. Apple is an easy target as they have chosen to publish the results of there supplier audits. Before we crucify Apple lets just shift our gaze to other US companies using Asian labour and compare working conditions. Let’s see their audit reports...what’s that? no report?! Wonder why that would be?
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