Quote:

Apple admits using child labour and poisoning workers Apple has admitted that child labour was used at the factories that build its computers, iPods and mobile phones At least eleven 15-year-old children were discovered to be working last year in three factories which supply Apple. The company did not name the offending factories, or say where they were based, but the majority of its goods are assembled in China. Apple also has factories working for it in Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, the Czech Republic and the United States. Apple said the child workers are now no longer being used, or are no longer underage. "In each of the three facilities, we required a review of all employment records for the year as well as a complete analysis of the hiring process to clarify how underage people had been able to gain employment," Apple said, in an annual report on its suppliers. Apple has been repeatedly criticised for using factories that abuse workers and where conditions are poor. Last week, it emerged that 62 workers at a factory that manufactures products for Apple and Nokia had been poisoned by n-hexane, a toxic chemical that can cause muscular degeneration and blur eyesight. Apple has not commented on the problems at the plant, which is run by Wintek, in the Chinese city of Suzhou. A spokesman for Wintek said that "almost all" of the affected workers were back at work, but that some remained in hospital. Wintek said n-hexane was commonly used in the technology industry, and that problems had arisen because some areas of the factory were not ventilated properly. Last year, an employee at Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that is one of Apple's biggest suppliers, committed suicide after being accused of stealing a prototype for the iPhone. Sun Danyong, 25, was a university graduate working in the logistics department when the prototype went missing. An investigation revealed that the factory's security staff had beaten him, and he subsequently jumped to his death from the 12th floor of his apartment building. Foxconn runs a number of super-factories in the south of China, some of which employ as many as 300,000 workers and form self-contained cities, complete with banks, post offices and basketball courts. It has been accused, however, of treating its employees extremely harshly. China Labor Watch, a New York-based NGO, accused Foxconn of having an "inhumane and militant" management, which neglects basic human rights. Foxconn's management were not available for comment. In its report, Apple revealed the sweatshop conditions inside the factories it uses. Apple admitted that at least 55 of the 102 factories that produce its goods were ignoring Apple's rule that staff cannot work more than 60 hours a week. The technology company's own guidelines are already in breach of China's widely-ignored labour law, which sets out a maximum 49-hour week for workers. Apple also said that one of its factories had repeatedly falsified its records in order to conceal the fact that it was using child labour and working its staff endlessly. "When we investigated, we uncovered records and conducted worker interviews that revealed excessive working hours and seven days of continuous work," Apple said, adding that it had terminated all contracts with the factory. Only 65 per cent of the factories were paying their staff the correct wages and benefits, and Apple found 24 factories where workers had not even been paid China's minimum wage of around 800 yuan (Pounds76) a month. Meanwhile, only 61 per cent of Apple's suppliers were following regulations to prevent injuries in the workplace and a mere 57 per cent had the correct environmental permits to operate. The high environmental cost of Apple's products was revealed when three factories were discovered to be shipping hazardous waste to unqualified disposal companies. Apple said it had required the factories to "perform immediate inspections of their wastewater discharge systems" and hire an independent environmental consultant to prevent future violations. However, Apple has not stopped using the factories. In 2008, Apple found that a total of 25 child workers had been employed to build iPods, iPhones and its range of computers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7330986/Apple-admits-using-child-labour.html

The-Excel wrote:

As if I needed another reason to fundamentally oppose Apple and what they stand for.

that thought process mirrored mine when i was reading the story

Rycona wrote:

That is fucked up. I mean, I always think about the possibilities of things like this going on in big business, as it's happened before, but when it happens, it still just kicks you right in the lower parts.

i know exactly what you mean.

this girl asked me for some money when i got out of walmart earlier today. she was pregnant and i would wager she was also a crackhead. she had her baby w/her and i would also he was a crack baby. she asked for some cash. i gave her some dollars. she asked for more saying she needed $4 more for formula for the baby. i gave her a $5.

am i stupid for doing that? probably. but if she really needed the cash for formula, i would be harming the baby directly and i wouldnt be able to live with myself. so, $5 for me means i get to buy an extra beer, or it could really buy the baby some formula. will i ever find out? probably not.

FNJ wrote:

I would have walked into the store and bought the formula for her.

i was thinking of that, but its the first of the month and wal mart was fucking packed and i was just exiting. she even asked me to go in for her, but i said fuck that. i gotta go home.

first of the month and people got their food stamps and what not so they were stocking up on groceries

SoldierHawk wrote:

User, I so hear you. I can never say no to someone like that either, and figure the trade off is worth the risk. (Actually, I'm just a sucker in general...I can't say no to anyone, especially kids. I dread this time of year--Girl Scout cookie time--because I always end up with an entire freezer full of cookies. Sigh.) I echo the comments about not really needing another reason to hate Apple, btw. My thoughts exactly as I was reading this.

lol me too on the GS cookies.

and its good to know im not the only bleeding heart.

on a lighter note, they broke into work this weekend. they stole a widescreen HDTV monitor we used to see how many calls were on hold. they tried to steal a second one, but they werent able to take it off the wall. so they stole some computer monitors and some towers.

i was probably the only one @ work who laughed at this situation.