“Apple has issued a statement in response to the Mail On Sunday’s claims regarding working conditions within the facilities of some of its Chinese iPod manufacturing partners. ‘Apple is committed to ensuring that working conditions in our supply chain are safe, workers are treated with respect and dignity, and manufacturing processes are environmentally responsible,’ the statement explains,” Jonny Evans reports for Macworld UK.
“The company also explains that it is, ‘currently investigating the allegations regarding working conditions in the iPod manufacturing plant in China.’ Apple stresses that: ‘It does not tolerate any violations of its supplier code of conduct which are posted online,'” Evans reports.
Full article with link to the “Apple Supplier Code of Conduct” here.
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Related article:
iPods made in Chinese sweatshops? – June 13, 2006
Thorin called Bullshit…I seconded the motion…We win.
And watch the stock plummit….
I would disagree….I found some condensation inside my display. Thought it was this Southern humidity, but it was during the winter when I bought it!
C’mon Apple! Do whatever it takes to make things the cheapest you can!
If they are investigating, they are probably not as vigilant as you might wish. Wal-Mart and others claim to have legal standards for their suppliers. The facts have shown that they either have not been vigilant or just posted them with a knowing wink.
“Wal-Mart and others claim to have legal standards for their suppliers.”
I wouldn’t buy that for a second considering you don’t even have to leave THIS country to see that Walmart doesn’t respect workers.
If they are investigating, they are probably not as vigilant as you might wish.
If they are investigating they aren’t going to find much. The Chinese were being paid more than that 20 years ago.
My firm had offices in Priest River, Idaho (corporate main); Memphis, TN; Guadalajara, MEX and Chengdu, China.
I can unequivocably state that workers (electronics manufacturing) in China are paid more than 4 times the amount quoted.
Anyone who knows this paper and its daily stablemate the Daily Mail will recognise that they exist by peddling lies, half-truths and distortions to bolster their narrow right-wing conservative agenda. They have, however a disproportionate influence on British political life, since it is perceived by politicians that their views represent those of ‘middle England’, a demographic group which can sway election results. It’s all crap.
If Apple is really trying to raise the bar in this manner, then it makes me proud to own and use their products.
currently investigating the allegations
does not tolerate any violations
Hmm… that sounds very familiar to what several other companies have said about purposed allegations. I’ve provided a brief list of companies who’ve used those lines below:
1. Reebok
2. Microsoft
3. Nike
4. Walmart
5. Kathy Lee Gifford
You get the picture. If they are (or are not) being abused, then we’ll never know about it. This is the standard press-fueled response to ease the controversial fire.
Some of you Apple bashers are the same lot who think we’re worse than the Islamic terrorists.
How is this promoting right wing conservative politics? Conservatives would say that the market has determined how they are compensated and that the job should go to the lowest bidder, whoever that may be. As far as I know the article didn’t ask for any governmental action on the part of Britain, the US or China and therefore it’s not a leftist position either.
Read the pdf here
click me or stick me, but don’t lick me please
Watch out, bashers. Your cynical, envious, beggar-thy neighbor, hang-the-rich attitudes are surfacing much too quickly.
Your kind of rush-to-judgment attitudes are puerile and pathetically transparent, methinks: “Anyone more successful than we MUST be evil, because our failures and shortcomings could not possibly be of our own design. They (whoever ‘they’ are) have deprived us of our rightful places in life, and we deserve more. Apple, Wal-Mart, Microsoft, General Electric, Haliburton, Exxon . . . they’re monsters! They MUST be, because only the poor, uneducated, unskilled, unmotivated, uninspired, and irresponsible masses are worthy of heaven and God’s love. Damn them. Damn them all.”
Workers of the world, unite! The only thing you have to lose is your disillusionment.
I could pretty much nail any company for the same claims here in Shanghai if you start comparing with US. Rural factories are generally clean but the living conditions even in the best apartments are not that great. Salary, if it’s $50, seems right for simple assembly work. Dinner in a restaurant cost $2-3 and if you cook at home less than $1.
A bit of a weak denail from Apple…
Get a grip, people! How much do you expect Apple or any other big company to pay workers, whether it’s China or other third-world country? $30 an hour? What, are you so shallow and socialist? The reason labor is cheap in these countries is not what the US is doing, it’s what the nation is doing itself. $30-$50 a month can be a great pay for someone who otherwise may have NO JOB at all.
I’m so tired of the brain-washed liberal, socialist propaganda in this country. I was born amd grew up in a Communist nation and know first hand what this is all about.
http://www.georgebakalov.net
Apple in the same sentence as Wa…. etc. FULL STOP. You could be held for libel.
It’s tiring reading of the no foreign corporation-no job equation. There is no single Market, the world is made of millions of them. The crux of the problem is mostly inbred corporate laws/rules which give them too much power. U.S. Multi-Nationals have the same ‘rights’ as individuals. There is a cabal of bankers/industrialists/lap-dogs who control the flow of resources/money and blood. I believe/hope that Apple subscribes to ‘higher’ laws/rules.
Send in Al Gore!!!!
The chinese commie dictators fill their coffers with western cash using slave labor and disregard to the environment in order to build their military larger and make themselves personally rich.
Down with commie chinese dictators!!!!
Move the plants to Mexico so Mexicans can enjoy work in their own country.
I am just disappointed in the fact that people were so eager to believe it.
Anything anti-corporate and negative gets put out and people start shaking
thier fists. As far as China is concerned, thier industrial revolution is far
from waning. Things are surely changing for them. I they can keep from
poisoning themselves, they are to become a formidable superpower. This
probably still doesn’t bode well for the commoners though.
Uh-oh! Apple’s policy forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation. Wait until the Religious Right finds out about that. Apple will be accused of spreading the “homosexual agenda” to foreign countries!
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Just a grammatical note MDN. To “rebut” is a verb meaning to mount a “rebuttal” and generally recognized to mean assert the opposite of what is claimed.
Apple has not done so here. They have merely reiterated a commitment to ensuring their existing standards of worker safety, respect, and dignity throughout its supply chains. They have also promised to investigate the allegations.
Nowhere do they say the claims made by the paper are untrue, and nowhere do they argue that their standards are superior or will be enhanced.
This statement is not a rebuttal, it’s standard corporate lip service.
MikeP is exactly right, except the last phrase, “it’s standard corporate lip service,” (while true) implies that Apple is insincere, which is not necessarily true.
Hey everybody, our plastic crap is made in China! And in other news, the sky is blue!
Cool it bashers…in N. America, last time I looked people and companies were innocent before proven guilty. Stop with the right wing-Left wind crap.
Apple hopefully pays them a fair wage and reasonably decent conditions. That will be much less than here which is why they go there….duh!
However, for average wages over there I would imagine it would be relatively good. Don’t judge by your own standards here.
Relax….breathe deep….now don’t you feel better?