A few weeks ago the New York Times published a much discussed investigation of the appalling working conditions in the factories of many of the Apple suppliers in China. There had been much talk about this before, but the NYT investigation confirmed it beyond doubt. In a comment to this post, Chris Fraser (professor of philosophy in Hong Kong and thoroughly familiar with China-related matters, both ancient and recent, so a very reliable source), provides the link to an article arguing that things are even worse than painted in the NYT article. In particular, one of the strategies is to recruit students from vocational schools to do ‘internships’ in the factories, which means working for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, for a ridiculously low pay. The vocational schools are part of the scheme, as they threaten not to allow the student to graduate if he/she does not go through the ‘internship’. Moreover, it seems that the schools also pocket a sizable portion of the salaries themselves. Appalling doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Now Apple announces that an independent inspection of its suppliers will be conducted. About time... Recently there was also a petition demanding ‘ethical iPhones’, which gathered 50.000 signatures. Let’s face it, Apple simply isn’t a very nice company. Its aura of coolness let it get away with such unacceptable practices for much too long – and here’s the explanation for the scandalous profits made by Apple.
You might think that all big companies are the same, and that it is just a matter of degrees, but that’s simply not the case. Unilever, for example (admittedly, a completely different kind of company) is a big multinational where attention is paid to the ethical implications at different stages of production: from the suppliers of raw material to the factories, and so forth. In particular, a few years ago they pledged to acquire palm oil only from sustainability certified producers, and have discontinued their contract with suppliers who did not comply with the demand. Nothing is perfect, of course, and last year a report was issued detailing how even in some certified tea plantations supplying for Unilever, minimal working conditions were not respected. But at least there is the official commitment to work with suppliers committed to sustainability and ethical trading. (Full disclosure: my husband works for Unilever.)
Apple, just get your act together and stop being this 'glamorous' but utterly disappointing company. As much as I love my iPod, I’m not buying anything from you as long as these issues are not truly addressed.
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