Sixteen hour workdays in China—
The stories regarding horrendous working conditions at Apple’s assembly plants in China continue to appear and have prompted conscientious Apple customers to band together to protest at Apple headquarters and targeted Apple Stores located in San Francisco, New York, Washington D.C., London, Sydney, and Bangalore-India.
A recent show aired by Public International last month, which rekindled attention to the plight of Chinese workers at Apple assembly plants, shows children working 16-hour days assembling iPhones for only 70 cents an hour.
Customers with a conscious
The Apple faithful love their iDevices but loyalty only goes so far apparently and customers are gathering en masse to voice their concerns over the ongoing controversy regarding poor working conditions at overseas Apple factories.
Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, executive director of SumOfUs expressed her concerns to Business Insider and said:
"I use an iPhone myself. I love it, but I don't love having to support sweatshops, and neither do millions of other Apple consumers.
"The hip, educated market that Apple aspires to corner is largely composed of responsible consumers who don’t want to be complicit in sweatshop labor.”
250,000 signatures
The protesters will deliver petitions with 250,000 signatures from individuals who want Apple to take a stronger stance in haulting worker abuse and improving worker conditions.
Protests in the U.S. will begin at 10AM, local time, at the various cities targeted for the protest.
Cook says “we care”
In a company memo sent out to Apple employees in January, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, wrote in length about Apple’s dedication in making sure working conditions were monitored and how Apple was actively involved in educating workers and imploring them to stand up for their rights.
However, the heartfelt advice was seen by some as cynical because Cook’s remarks are only valid in working environments where freedom of speech and the absence of retribution exists—something, apparently, lacking at Apple’s assembly plants in China.
Via SFGate
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Written by: Frank Ling on Wednesday, February 08, 2012 - 12:20 PM
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