Apple Cracks Down on Bonded Labor Practices in iPhone Factories

Apple is taking a strong stance against factory workers being forced to pay for the privilege of getting a job. In the iPhone and iPad maker's latest Supplier Responsibility Progress report, the company says employees working in factories that make its products cannot be forced into bonded labor or paying recruitment fees.

Apple Cracks Down on Bonded Labor Practices in iPhone Factories

It's thoughtful of Apple to make this stand. How pathetic it came to them announcing this move as progress!

I am not a dis-liker of Apple. They are an innovative company that adds to the lives of millions, although not mine. I try to source goods from companies I trust and which have ethics - it's difficult, but I try.

With Apple's poor record when it comes to the prevention of the abuse of people making their phones (etc), coupled with their excessive profits, one wonders if anyone who buys Apple gives a toss and has any moral scruples. Are Apple aficionados so relaxed by all of this? Obviously they are.

Over the last few years Apple has been widely criticised for the way the people who work for the companies who build their products are used and abused, in the modern form of sweatshop working. They use these companies because they're cheap, far away from modern employment practices and out of sight. Labour is cheap and life is cheap in places like China, and repercussions for abuse are pretty limited, with Chinese employment law being a joke.

The most recent report on Apple's earnings makes the eyes water ($18bn last quarter - c. $34K per minute). With profits like that they need to bring some jobs back to the US and kick-start some significant local production? They would still be profitable. Admittedly Apple won't be able to treat the US workers like the Chinese, but it would be a bold decision. Alternatively, with such colossal profits, Apple should be able to act more assertively to stamp out the shocking abuses still going on - but noooo, it takes years for them to act. If they are only just getting around to bonded labour, it'll be another age before they seriously act on other matters!

Apple is one reason I am uncomfortable with globalisation. People hate bankers, but think Apple's OK. I think that's hypocritical as both make vast profits and both use questionable methods to get where they are going.

The tech company – already the most valuable on the stock market – reported profits of $18bn (£11.9bn) for the third quarter of the fiscal year,

The Guardian on Apple's recent profits

Suicides of employees making Apple products

Apple being offended by an investigation

The Apple spin from 2013 (PDF)

Apple spin 2015

A BBC report that adds detail to the OP source

Regards

They "announce" reform.

But they won't do anything.

Just more puppy-petting and kitten-brushing.

a reply to: paraphi

Of course people aren't going to slam Apple they're hypocrites

How many times do you have to listen to people say things like "I hate this Iphone" but then continue to use it? How many times have you passively mentioned to someone that the sweatshirt they just bought for £300 was made by poor person in Malaysia on possibly £15 a month. That smile that spreads slowly across their faces, that slow, condescending "I know it but I'll never admit it" smile. It freaks me out.

I fear for people's morality. I mostly fear for the next generation. As is said by most people the last generation never sees eye to eye with the first but these days morality is...... Well.... It's not there, is it..... Food for thought. I even had a friend argue with me once trying to JUSTIFY why Steve Jobs HAD to use slave labour! Unbelievable. He's no longer a friend btw. He used me and my gf for free lodging, messed the place up then, when asked to leave accused us of being unreasonable. Guess that explains a lot, eh.

I have to say I do feel a sense of shame while typing this post on my IPhone...

& there is nothing I can say to justify using it, knowing how they are made...





I'm sure this borderline apathy will weigh against me on Judgement Day...


If there was another way for me to stay connected to the World, I'd do it...


However the alternatives are either produced exactly the same way...
As Paraphi said, ethics in this sort of business is hardly factored in...

Or when it is, they are extortionate (I know, cry me a river, right!)



All I can do is pray for change.

a reply to: paraphi

Anyone who buys anything made by apple, is a terrible person.

The apple factories in China have conditions so horrible people used to regularly kill themselves to escape.

Instead of apple demanding better conditions, which they could easily afford.

They put bars over the windows so people can't jump out of them.

So they started jumping off the roofs.

So they put nets around the buildings so they couldn't jump. Off the roof either.

What kind of pos would buy a product from a company that supports this type of treatment?

Just my 2 cents

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

Buy Samsung. South Korean. Much better conditions.

Galaxy s5 is better than iPhone anyway.

originally posted by: paraphi
The most recent report on Apple's earnings makes the eyes water ($18bn last quarter - c. $34K per minute). With profits like that they need to bring some jobs back to the US and kick-start some significant local production? They would still be profitable. Admittedly Apple won't be able to treat the US workers like the Chinese, but it would be a bold decision. Alternatively, with such colossal profits, Apple should be able to act more assertively to stamp out the shocking abuses still going on - but noooo, it takes years for them to act. If they are only just getting around to bonded labour, it'll be another age before they seriously act on other matters!

Apple has actually stated before that they could move all of their production to the US while paying middle class wages and they wouldn't have to raise the price of their products, while still making a healthy profit.

The reason they don't do this is primarily shareholders, and corporations acting like sociopaths.

and the cash grab continues.

Today, I repaired an HP laptop with APPLE stickers to hide the HP logo...
I see loads of people using iTunes to listen to their music, yet they don't own any Apple products...
I constantly hear on how Mac is better than PC by people that never even used a Mac before...

How that company managed to have such a cult is beyond me! Apple buyers seem to like identifying themselves to the product and not what they do with it. These people that can afford to waste their money on their overpriced products surely get an ego boost when they see someone with "just" a PC. I've used many OS's in my life, it's not that I dislike Apple from a simple user's point of view, it's the whole overratedness that turns me off...

Also, why can I find plenty of Windows emulators for Mac, yet I can't easily find a Mac emulator for windows?
Gee, I don't know >_

a reply to: theMediator

Because most machines will run Windows. Apple locks their operating system to their hardware so you can't use just a software emulator. You must also have the correct hardware in order to run OSX. This is a result of a design decision from back in the early 80's. Bill Gates wanted his product on every computer IBM and anyone else pumped out. Apple on the other hand wanted to build their own brand. The move nearly bankrupted their company, and it severely crippled them for decades. If it weren't for some smart marketing people that make a brick look like a trendy phone, and marketing to people trying to be hip (compared to Windows and it's business use) Apple would look much different today.

Apple products are nothing special, they just know how to market them and give them good aesthetics. Think of tablets, Microsoft pioneered them back in 2002 to zero success outside of the medical industry. It took Apple another 10 years to make theirs, and they were still inferior.

originally posted by: infinityorder
Anyone who buys anything made by apple, is a terrible person.

I would not go so far as that. Most people are ignorant of the vast profits and methods deployed to manufacture the Apple products. Even those who are aware seem to blindly buy Apple. Some people, will then rail against the injustices of the world via their iPhone - which is a tad ironic. "Bah, those f*ing banks making all that money" and "We must fight for a better minimum wage"!

I wonder how many people who purport to support human rights do so via an iPhone. It's a joke.

Regards

a reply to: Aazadan

not entirely true. I was running Max OS X in VMWare for a while when I was looking into mobile app development. Generally not something the layman can do but it's achievable.

Totally agree about your other points though. Apple products are nothing special, they're generally dumbed down for the average/below-average users and marketing takes care of the rest. The hardware is over-priced and vendor lock-in crazy high.

They'll never truly fix the slave labour problem because it's too lucrative for them. Every few months we'll see a story about how they are cracking down on it, forcing payrises and better working conditions etc, people will applaud them for bettering society, and a few months later the whole farce starts again. Apple are driven by $$$, China is driven by $$$, you're not going to see significant change until people stop buying their products, which isn't going to happen because the marketers convince everyone apple is the bestest thing in the whole universe and everyone drinks the cool aid.

a reply to: paraphi

Apple is full of crap, they are owned by China now, they do what the communist Chinese party tells them to do, if they are showing anything right now is to appease the global markets that are not communist.

Nothing but full of Chinese crap is what apple is this days.

originally posted by: marg6043
a reply to: paraphi

Apple is full of crap, they are owned by China now, they do what the communist Chinese party tells them to do, if they are showing anything right now is to appease the global markets that are not communist.

Nothing but full of Chinese crap is what apple is this days.

If there was another way for me to stay connected to the World, I'd do it.