“A watchdog group issued a renewed call for Apple to address what this group considers poor working conditions for factory workers in China, criticizing the company for not assigning any of its US$98 billion cash pile to address the issues,” Agam Shah reports for IDG News.
“The Hong Kong-based Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) said the factories in China continue to underpay and violate labor rights,” Shah reports. “In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, SACOM said that Apple’s failure to assign cash reserves to address the issues “demonstrates the enormous greed and desire for profit of Apple and its executive[s]. ‘Apple announced that it would finally share some of its $100 billion in cash reserves with shareholders. It is regrettable that Apple did not show any intention to share the revenue with its production workers whose labor helped the company become one of the most profitable corporations in the world,’ SACOM wrote in the letter.”
Shah reports, “It’s difficult to connect the $98 billion cash reserve to resolve the manufacturing issues in China, said James Post, professor in management markets, public policy and law at Boston University. Apple has a contract to buy finished products from contractors like Foxconn, and the suppliers are responsible for addressing concerns related to pay, working conditions and other issues, Post said. Apple is well aware of the issues, and as a big purchaser of products it can exert control on suppliers to comply the rules or lose manufacturing and assembly deals, which it is already doing, Post said… An argument can be made that Apple can use its cash reserve and giant profits to pay contractors like Foxconn extra to address the issues, Post said. But from a business perspective, it is naive to believe that Apple would voluntarily pay a higher price to contractors if it is possible to get products elsewhere at lower prices, Post said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: They need a more fitting name: Scatterbrained Twits United in Preposterousness and Idiotic Denseness.
If we had received that asinine letter, the speed with which it met a lit match would make neutrinos look slow.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “dab2” for the heads up.]
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