Shareholders challenging Apple on unions & alleged slave labor

AppleInsider

Well in advance of the annual shareholders' meeting, Apple investors have filed challenges that the board must address, such as the company's stance on unions and human rights in China.

Apple investors are concerned

Trillium Asset Management filed a union proposal, asking Apple's board to improve its oversight of how the company's management has handled recent unionizing. Trillium also mentioned how employees had allegedly accused Apple of intimidation tactics to deter employees from organizing.

Advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services also plans to consider recommending against board members at companies that fail to act on shareholder proposals that have won majority support.

Another proposal, by activist group SumOfUs, calls for Apple to create a "phaseout transition plan" to stop the company's supply chain from using labor from Uyghur forced labor programs. Apple had also been challenged on that topic in 2021.

Apple faces two other proposals that call on the board of directors to examine the company's remote work policies on employee retention and competitiveness, according to the Financial Times.

In August, the UN published a report that accused China of "serious human rights violations" regarding Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. Apple told the SEC that there was "no evidence that any of its suppliers were located" in the Xinjiang region, home to the Uyghurs.

Apple isn't fighting the union proposal but does plan to challenge the others because they involve internal business decisions that don't pertain to outsiders.

Read on AppleInsider

cfilipponi

Hmmmm  Not so democratic after all!

luisfrocha

So unions in US good, unions in other countries bad, right? Gotcha  /s

geekmee

I’ll go back to sleep now.

lkrupp

So Apple has told the SEC they aren’t using Uyghur supply chain labor but nobody believes them. Apple can’t be believed? Is that the argument?

waveparticle

lkrupp said:

So Apple has told the SEC they aren’t using Uyghur supply chain labor but nobody believes them. Apple can’t be believed? Is that the argument?

Exactly! As a shareholder he does not trust Apple. Why did he invest in Apple? 

sunman42

As both a (really minor) Apple shareholder and longtime purchaser and user of their hardware, I would very much like Apple to repudiate the practice of hiring piratical law firms to visit Stores and attempt to coerce employees into dropping support for union organizing efforts. I hope a mega-investor like CALPERS gets involved in this effort.

JFC_PA

Hiring expert people to make your argument against unionization is a freedom any business enjoys. Hearing the details both pro and con isn’t “coercion” it’s freedom of speech and the route to making an informed decision. Something in rare supply at times; like Starbucks pro union demonstrators outside a Chelsea Starbucks prominently displaying a competitors products, Dunkin, when lol, Dunkin’ ISN’T a union shop! 

And in the case of a union Apple Store? How will a “ machinists and aerospace workers” Union (Towson) have any clue how to represent a retail sales clerk?

marc g

I’ve supported Macs since 1988 professionally, and then for family. In 2008, I rolled over my 401k from a former employer into an IRA, setting aside just enough money to purchase 12 shares of apple stock at something like $84 a share and am pretty sure I did just in the nick of time as I now have something approaching 400 shares. It’s the most valuable part of my IRA by a wide margin. I’ve seen Apple run into legal challenges and questions around the labor force and I’ve seen them show proof that everything is above board. While certainly not perfect, I continue to have faith in them. 

waveparticle

JP234 said:

marc g said:

I’ve supported Macs since 1988 professionally, and then for family. In 2008, I rolled over my 401k from a former employer into an IRA, setting aside just enough money to purchase 12 shares of apple stock at something like $84 a share and am pretty sure I did just in the nick of time as I now have something approaching 400 shares. It’s the most valuable part of my IRA by a wide margin. I’ve seen Apple run into legal challenges and questions around the labor force and I’ve seen them show proof that everything is above board. While certainly not perfect, I continue to have faith in them. 

Good move!

You youngsters out there, pay attention to Marc G: leave the Robinhood meme stocks, the Teslas, and the  cryptos to Wall Street quants. Buy great companies with a history of growing earnings and increasing dividends. Observe where the people of all demographics shop, like Ulta Cosmetics or Lululemon. Learn to research their fundamentals. Buy in through dollar cost averaging (look it up). Reminvest all dividends. Retire with more than you can spend.

The utmost important thing for the success of an American company is the CEO. CEO should have passion, integrity, and innovation. The last criteria is hard to find. 

jdw

I've been an AAPL shareholder since 1999, and I've never sold a single share during the last 23 years.  I trust Apple, not shareholders, which is why I almost always vote against shareholder proposals when it's voting time. If shareholders were in charge, Apple probably wouldn't even exist today.

I strongly recommend everyone read and ponder the excellent post by JP234 earlier in this thread.  That's pretty much all you need to know.

bloggerblog

The fact that China has a disgusting forced slave labor should be enough reason for Apple and any other company with ethical and moral standards to begin bringing manufacturing home or at least to other countries. 

DAalseth

Apple has a long history of trying to do the right thing.
That said though, I don’t see any issue with shareholders and others raising the question. Raising it if for no other reason to keep the issues in mind for the public at large, outside of Apple. 

As long as they are honest about it.
 Because you can’t prove a negative. Apple can show the efforts they go through to prevent these abuses, and the severe penalties they met out when they are found. But if these groups keep coming back with, “but it COULD be happening” that just shows their true colours. 

waveparticle

bloggerblog said:

The fact that China has a disgusting forced slave labor should be enough reason for Apple and any other company with ethical and moral standards to begin bringing manufacturing home or at least to other countries. 

China suffered a series of wars since the British inspired Opium War. After CCP sized power in 1949, there is no war inside China. China was able to slowly rebuild. US led western power imposed severe sanctions on China. There are great discriminations on China from the Western nations especially, There is no other way for China to rebuild and abiding the ridiculous western human rights standard originated from absolute personal freedom. If Chinese government must not violate any personal freedom, there is no way Chinese government can rebuild so rapidly. China does not have forced slave labor. The impression of forced slave labor is because a lot of Chinese still earn very little and they have to word harder to make a better living. In US, the economy is so strong, even the minimum wage workers have a lot of freedom seeking better pay. 

If you don't buy this argument, look at India. India has never suffered internal wars and escaped the severe destruction of the Western World War I and II. India has been in contact with western world through the history, But today India GDP is far behind China. The only reason is Indian government lacks the power to rebuild India. 

DAalseth

waveparticle said:

 China does not have forced slave labor. 

Tell that to the Uyghurs
Your whole statement is nothing more than Chinese propaganda and lies. 

You are an apologist for genocide. 

That makes you utterly contemptible. 

waveparticle

DAalseth said:

waveparticle said:

 China does not have forced slave labor. 

Tell that to the Uyghurs
Your whole statement is nothing more than Chinese propaganda and lies. 

You are an apologist for genocide. 

That makes you utterly contemptible. 

CCP does not treat races separately. If there is forced slave labor, it must also happen to other races. There is no need to listen to foreign exiled Uyghurs. They left Xinjiang because they hate China. Genocide? LOL If you cannot give me a number of deaths, you are a liar. All you words are rhetoric with no logic. If your source is UN Human Rights report, just show me where in the report that it says how many were killed. I do not want to waste my time read that meaningless report. US Congress Forced Labor Act is also ridiculous. It said an American company can import goods from Xinjiang but it must prove that it is not made by forced labor. If you cannot see the foolishness of the Act, I wonder how you are educated. 

DAalseth

waveparticle said:

DAalseth said:

waveparticle said:

 China does not have forced slave labor. 

Tell that to the Uyghurs
Your whole statement is nothing more than Chinese propaganda and lies. 

You are an apologist for genocide. 

That makes you utterly contemptible. 

CCP does not treat races separately. 

Listen Mouth of Sauron, you want numbers? Check Amnesty International or other international Human Rights groups. They will give you numbers, horrifying numbers. And even they say the numbers are very low.
No the CCP does not treat different groups differently. They make it clear that you will be Han Chinese or else. Ask the Tibetans how their culture is thriving under CCP control. Ask the Ethnic Vietnamese along the southern border. Ask the Mongolians along the northern border. Their language, culture, history is all erased, and replaced with Han Chinese, at the point of a gun.

I’m old enough to have seen lies. University educated enough to recognize propaganda. Read and travelled the world enough, to know when someone has drunk to Kool-Aid. Seventy five years ago the world sat in judgement of another brutal, genocidal regime, and declared ‘never again’. But yet here we are with the same excuses, the same tactics, the same evasions, the same lies. China is a wonderful country, with a rich and beautiful history. That is all being eclipsed by the brutality and hegemony of the CCP. China will wear the shame of the Mao-Xi years forever. 

And yet you sit there and try to put a nice face on true evil.
Try to excuse the inexcusable, and insist that the blood is not red and the tears are not salty.
That is what is truly despicable.

waveparticle

DAalseth said:

waveparticle said:

DAalseth said:

waveparticle said:

 China does not have forced slave labor. 

Tell that to the Uyghurs
Your whole statement is nothing more than Chinese propaganda and lies. 

You are an apologist for genocide. 

That makes you utterly contemptible. 

CCP does not treat races separately. 

Listen Mouth of Sauron, you want numbers? Check Amnesty International or other international Human Rights groups. They will give you numbers, horrifying numbers. And even they say the numbers are very low.
No the CCP does not treat different groups differently. They make it clear that you will be Han Chinese or else. Ask the Tibetans how their culture is thriving under CCP control. Ask the Ethnic Vietnamese along the southern border. Ask the Mongolians along the northern border. Their language, culture, history is all erased, and replaced with Han Chinese, at the point of a gun.

I’m old enough to have seen lies. University educated enough to recognize propaganda. Read and travelled the world enough, to know when someone has drunk to Kool-Aid. Seventy five years ago the world sat in judgement of another brutal, genocidal regime, and declared ‘never again’. But yet here we are with the same excuses, the same tactics, the same evasions, the same lies. China is a wonderful country, with a rich and beautiful history. That is all being eclipsed by the brutality and hegemony of the CCP. China will wear the shame of the Mao-Xi years forever. 

And yet you sit there and try to put a nice face on true evil.
Try to excuse the inexcusable, and insist that the blood is not red and the tears are not salty.
That is what is truly despicable.

Wow! Full of lies! I don't think you read Amnesty International or other international Human Rights groups reports. You just read the summary given by the biased west media. You said you are well educated, This is laughable. You don't know facts. You don't have logic. Your rhetoric is the same as Hitler. 

You are not deserved to be an APPL investor. Look at Apple product introductions or specs. They are full of numbers. You don't seem to learn from Apple.