Workers' rights petitions delivered to Apple's Grand Central store

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014


As promised, activists on Thursday hand-delivered signed petitions to Apple's store in Grand Central Terminal, which were politely accepted by retail employees.



Activists first began to drum up attention for their event on Wednesday with a press release announcing they would deliver more than a quarter of a million signatures to the store at Apple's Grand Central Terminal in an effort to highlight claims of worker abuse at Foxconn, the overseas manufacturer of Apple's devices. In reality, little more than a dozen supporters arrived on Thursday, according to CNet, a number that was "far outstripped" by the number of media representatives on hand to cover the event.



The event was organized by SumofUs and Change.org, and organizer Sarah Ryan told author Roger Cheng that the purpose of the event was not meant to have a large crowd, but instead to hand-deliver the petitions and bring attention to working conditions at Chinese factories that assemble products like the iPhone.



"Apple was definitely ready for us," she said. "They were very polite. Hopefully, they understand the magnitude of the signatures."



The activists have not called for a boycott of Apple products, but hope that the company will do more to address employee working conditions overseas.



The petitions come soon after a pair of media reports highlighted Foxconn and its relationship with Apple. A pair of stories from The New York Times late last month examined the "human costs" that go into the iPhone and other devices, while this week a separate report from news network CNN featured an interview with an anonymous Foxconn worker who said she has never seen an iPad in person, even though she assembles them at a mega-factory in Chengdu, China.





Workers rights petitions handed to Apple employees at Grand Central Terminal on Thursday. Photo via CNet.







Media characterizations of Foxconn have portrayed the company as one that does not provide adequate benefits to workers, and often requires them to work long overtime hours. Employees have also staged demonstrations, with including a number who threatened suicide earlier this year at a plant that manufactures Xbox 360 consoles for Microsoft.



For its part, Apple has fired back at accusations that it does not do enough to counter substandard working conditions overseas. Apple CEO Tim Cook last month issued an e-mail to employees, stating that Apple will continue to scrutinize its supply chain and will inevitably find more issues, but that the company will never turn a blind eye to worker-related problems.



[ View article on AppleInsider ]

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 137
    She's yummy...
  • Reply 2 of 137
    Get a job, Hippies!



    Kidding... I support whatever it takes to fight for worker's rights all around the world, but I hope they will be delivering these petitions to Google, Amazon, Samsung, Dell, HP, Microsoft and the hundreds of other well known tech companies who utilize these same workers.



    Only Apple is acknowledging that there's even a problem.
  • Reply 3 of 137
    Wow. What happened to the hundreds or thousands of people that were supposed to show up in protest? I listened to WCBS 880 am most of the late night / early morning on Thursday. They repeated this story over and over, saying that Apple would be swarmed by people in protest. What happened to everyone else, outside of this dozen or so number of people that showed up? Where was everyone else?
  • Reply 4 of 137
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by island hermit View Post


    She's yummy...



    She's wearing a cardigan just like one my wife has. Made in China!
  • Reply 5 of 137
    Just so we're clear... people are upset at how Foxconn's employees are treated, right?



    I only ask because Foxconn makes products for a ton of different companies... and not all of Foxconn's 1 million employees build Apple products...
  • Reply 6 of 137
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleZilla View Post


    Only Apple is acknowledging that there's even a problem.



    Because they were forced to.
  • Reply 7 of 137
    I like the impact of this on Apple's stock price. More petitions, please!
  • Reply 8 of 137
    eideardeideard Posts: 428member
    Yup. There she is.



    Whether she catches private capital or not, I imagine a shot at an IPO is the target.



    Sorry, sophistry is not what I have considered sufficient motivation for political activism in my life.
  • Reply 9 of 137
    wardcwardc Posts: 150member
    And did you see the huge crowd and mile-long line last week when Foxconn was hiring?



    http://www.macrumors.com/2012/01/31/...ties-in-china/
  • Reply 10 of 137
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Michael Scrip View Post


    Just so we're clear... people are upset at how Foxconn's employees are treated, right?



    Who does Foxconn work for?



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by WardC View Post


    And did you see the huge crowd and mile-long line last week when Foxconn was hiring?



    So this is good enough reason not to further improve conditions when Apple is making a huge profit? We can do better than this and Apple is the company to start a movement. This notion that things aren't super bad so lets do nothing is turning a blind eye to the problem.
  • Reply 11 of 137
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by redbarchetta View Post


    Because they were forced to.



    You might really want to inform yourself a bit more, and look at the history of Apple's Supplier Responsibility reports: http://www.apple.com/supplierrespons....html#moreinfo. Go to the section that says 'Historical Reports.'



    Apple's been doing this at least since 2007. Way before nonsensical, poorly-informed, biased, hypocritical hit pieces of the recent NYT variety, and from a time when Apple was still only a fraction of its current size, current market cap, current coolness factor, current clickbaitability levels,... you name it.



    You may not think it's enough - and perhaps Apple could do more - but you should at least know that Apple is about as responsible as shareholder value-maximizing companies have bothered to get in the real world.
  • Reply 12 of 137
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    You may not think it's enough - and perhaps Apple could do more - but you should at least know that Apple is about as responsible as shareholder value-maximizing companies have bothered to get in the real world.



    And that should be the standard? I thought Apple did everything better
  • Reply 13 of 137
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by redbarchetta View Post


    I thought Apple did everything better



    What do you think I said?



    (And, I should add, given the time between my post and your reply, you clearly did not even bother to glance at what the reports had to say, the methodologies used, etc. That says a lot about the substantiveness of the viewpoints that you folks espouse).
  • Reply 14 of 137
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by astrubhar View Post


    Who does Foxconn work for?

    So this is good enough reason not to further improve conditions when Apple is making a huge profit? We can do better than this and Apple is the company to start a movement. This notion that things aren't super bad so lets do nothing is turning a blind eye to the problem.



    First of all, we can't compare workers in USA with China. As long as no human rights are violated, we can continue. Wages at foxconn are probably above average compared to the rest of china's workforce.



    Canada gets a year off for maternity leave. USA, it's 12 weeks, unpaid. So are we in violation of workers rights? It's illegal in France to work more than 35 hours a week. Compared to France, we are slaves if work 40 hours a week.
  • Reply 15 of 137
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    If you own products by Acer, Amazon, Asus, Barnes & Noble, Cisco, Dell, HP, Intel, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, Motorola, Netgear, Nintendo, Nokia, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Vizio…. and are protesting Apple, then you are a hypocrite. They all use the same factories. Oh, and don't forget all your clothes that are made in China, in what I would assume to be worse conditions. I just looked at my box of toothpicks..yup, made in China. As much as Apple fans must admit to being Apple fans, some others must admit that they care more about hating Apple than giving anything remotely close to a shit about Foxconn workers. The fact that Apple is doing more than all these companies combined on this issue makes you not only a hypocrite, but an idiotic and ignorant one at that.
  • Reply 16 of 137
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    What do you think I said?



    (And, I should add, given the time between my post and your reply, you clearly did not even bother to glance at what the reports had to say, the methodologies used, etc. That says a lot about the substantiveness of the viewpoints that you folks espouse).



    He was too busy inserting lol faces in his posts and patting himself on the back for his imagined wit than to bother doing anything mundane like reading something that would actually enlighten him.
  • Reply 17 of 137
    cash907cash907 Posts: 893member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Digital_Guy View Post


    Wow. What happened to the hundreds or thousands of people that were supposed to show up in protest? I listened to WCBS 880 am most of the late night / early morning on Thursday. They repeated this story over and over, saying that Apple would be swarmed by people in protest. What happened to everyone else, outside of this dozen or so number of people that showed up? Where was everyone else?



    Playing Angry Birds on their iPhones/iPads?
  • Reply 18 of 137
    AND NOT sitting on moldy. Porch couch waiting for a government handout check.
  • Reply 19 of 137
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    (And, I should add, given the time between my post and your reply, you clearly did not even bother to glance at what the reports had to say, the methodologies used, etc. That says a lot about the substantiveness of the viewpoints that you folks espouse).



    Actually, no. What it "clearly demonstrates" is that I've read the reports before.



    Fact of the matter is that, contrary to your stance, there have been complaints regarding Apple's second-hand exploitation of workers well before their first published response:



    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...factories.html
  • Reply 20 of 137
    mytdavemytdave Posts: 447member
    As much as this may sound callous, worker conditions in China are not our problem. Deliver your petitions to Foxconn & the Chinese Govt.



    You want to effect real change? Stop trying to social engineer everything under the sun, and let America get back to work building things in America, where Americans can work, instead of running companies out of the country with political correctness, frivolous lawsuits, onerous regulation and excessive taxation.



    It's crystal clear by now that the European style socialist ideals are a complete failure, and we need to get back to the way things were in the '50s and grow this country again. Let the Chinese worry about China. Their future and working conditions are up to them, not us.
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