“If you see somebody dressed as an iPod Thursday during your morning commute to Grand Central, you’ve stumbled upon a protest,” Emily Laermer reports for Crain’s New York.
“Protestors are planning to deliver 250,000 signed letters to Apple stores in six cities around the world to petition the company to fix poor working conditions in Chinese factories,” Laermer reports. “The protest has been organized by Change.org and SumOfUs.org, two websites that have collected signatures online. New York protestors will visit the new Apple store in Grand Central Terminal. Other cities include Washington, San Francisco, London, Sydney and Bangalore.”
“‘We are asking Apple to clean up its supply chains and practices in time for the iPhone 5 to be the first ethically produced product,’ said Taren Stinebrickner Kauffman, the executive director of SumOfUs.org,” Laermer reports. “Around a dozen organizers from Change.org are leading the protest in New York and will be joined by local protestors.”
Laermer reports, “‘Every year we inspect more factories, raising the bar for our partners and going deeper into the supply chain,’ CEO Tim Cook wrote in an internal note to Apple employees, published by 9to5mac.com on Jan. 26… ‘We’ve made a great deal of progress and improved conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Gee, here’s a great idea: Let’s protest the very company that has done the most to improve worker conditions at their supplier companies’ factories in China while ignoring and buying products from other companies’ that do absolutely nothing at all. Ah, the “logic” of vapid pawns.
Hey, as long as you don’t impede our visits to buy many Apple products in counter-protest, feel free to waste your time however you like.
We assume, of course, that these will be a totally nude “protests” since your clothes and shoes were made by workers enduring far worse conditions than any of those assembling iPhones, iPods, Macs, or iPads.
(BTW: Shhh, don’t tell ’em, but Apple doesn’t even have a retail store in Bangalore, or anywhere in India for that matter. No matter, that particular “protest” will be at least as effective as all of the others combined.)
What we wrote last week:
Overheard at FUD, Inc.:
Well, boys, those were some $%&@!# earnings. WTF are we going to do now? Apple’s isn’t just taking a bigger slice, they’re taking the whole $%&@!# pie!
There’s no new iPhone yet, so we can’t take something like attenuation and blow it all the $%&@!# out of proportion. There’s no new iPad, yet, so we can’t say that it’s so thin it cut off a little old lady’s arm in Sheboygan. We need something to give the public a least a little pause or we’re $%&@!# dead.
Hey, what about the old “Chinese slave labor” angle? Make those $%&@!# Jobsian perfectionists look like greedy $%&@!# evil overlords. Use their money and success against them. Ooh, I like it. I really like it.
Yeah, yeah, dummy, I know we all use the same Chinese company for assembly. And, yes, my little $%&@!#, I know they’re the best paid factory workers in China, because of Apple, no less. Don’t ever say that aloud again, you $%&@!#. Nobody cares about the facts. This is $%&@!# FUD, Inc.! All of our $%&@!# phones attenuate, too, you $%&@!# moron!
Perception is everything. Repeat it enough times and the $%&@!# suckers of the world lap it up like candy and start repeating it like parrots.
Quick, call up our friends at the paper!
Yup, the $%&@!# suckers of the world have lapped it up like candy and will be repeating it like parrots at a handful of big city Apple Retail Stores – and some poor reseller’s store in Bangalore – this Thursday.
Much more information about Apple Supplier Responsibility here
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Citymark” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple in China: Should we applaud instead of condemn? – February 3, 2012
Rush Limbaugh: The New York Times has turned on Apple; they wouldn’t do this if Steve Jobs was alive – February 1, 2012
Most of your Apple iPhone and iPad was Made in the U.S.A. – February 1, 2012
Trump to Tim Cook: Make Apple products in the United States – February 1, 2012
Most of your Apple iPhone and iPad was Made in the U.S.A. – February 1, 2012
BSR: New York Times’ Apple-Foxconn article contains untruths, inaccuracies, and misleading info – January 29, 2012
Your iPhone has to be made In China, and Apple can’t absolve your guilt (if you have any) – January 28, 2012
Apple CEO Tim Cook calls New York Times supplier report ‘patently false and offensive’ – January 27, 2012
In China, human costs are built into iPads and tens of thousands of other non-Apple products – January 26, 2012