Geek LifeStyle: February 2011

Child slave labor is mostly considered being used for the production of clothes, toys, and athletic equipment. Apple, one of the largest brands of electronics today, produces the popular iPhone, iPod, and numerous types of computers. In its production however, Apple admits to using child slave labor to support the popular demands of the company’s products.

In today’s society, most children and adults try to keep up with the ever evolving electronic evolution taking place. Apple began its company on April 1, 1976 with its two co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. They effectively created the Apple Computer that was released on January 3, 1977, in Cupertino, California. For more than two decades, Apple Computer was predominantly a manufacturer of personal computers, including the Apple II, Macintosh, and Power Mac lines. With the introduction of the wildly successful iPod music player in 2001, Apple established itself as a leader in the consumer electronics industry. It went on to release the iPhone and iPad. Today, Apple is the largest technology firm in the world.
Apple is mainly known for two of its famous products. In October 2001, Apple introduced its first iPod portable digital audio player. The iPod started as a 5 gigabyte player capable of storing around 1000 songs. Since then it has evolved into many products including the Mini (now discontinued), the iPod Touch, the Shuffle, the iPod Classic, the Nano, and the iPod Video. As of March 2010, the largest storage capacity for an iPod was 160 gigabytes. The company grew immensly as the iPods themselves grew. When new iPods came out, comertials with bright colors and music captured eyes of its viewers. The iPod touch began iPods with internet accesss. With this uprising ability in electronics, Apple has no where to go but up.
The second widely known product by Apple is the iPhone. In the fall of 2006 Steve Jobs had tasked about 200 of Apple's top engineers with creating the iPhone. The phone became a disaster. After a year and a half of secret meetings, Jobs had finally negotiated terms with the wireless division to be the iPhone's carrier. In return for five years, AT&T would receive roughly 10 percent of iPhone sales. He showed off the iPhone's brilliant screen, its powerful Web browser, and its engaging user interface. Sigman, a taciturn Texan steeped in the conservative engineering traditions that permeate America's big phone companies, called the iPhone "the best device I have ever seen." Six months later, on June 29, 2007, the iPhone went on sale. At press time, analysts were speculating that customers would purchase up to about 3 million units by the end of 2007, making it the fastest-selling smartphone of all time.
With the heavy demand of products Apple faced, Apple opened many more factories. They are located in Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, the U.S., the Czech Republic, Malaysia and the Philippines, but most of its products are assembled in China. It has been admitted by Apple that child slave labor is used mostly in China to keep up with the ever growing demand of Apple products.

Many problems are facing the sweatshop workers and Apple. Not only is Apple supporting this slave labor, suicide rates and deadly chemicals are hurting those working in the factories as well. An audit for the company found that at least eleven 15-year-old children were found to be working in three factories that supply Apple in the last year.It was said: “When Apple investigated further, we uncovered additional records and conducted worker interviews that revealed excessive working hours and seven days of continuous work.” The audit then began to report that at least 55 of factories which produced Apple products were ignoring rules that staff must not work more than 60 hours a week.
The audit also found one facility had attempted to conceal evidence of employing underage labor, while two others had falsified records relating to the number of working hours and days of rest employees were receiving. One of these plants had falsified records for two years in a row in order to conceal that it was using child labor and overworking staff. Based on the repeat core violation and inadequate actions, Apple is terminating all business with this facility.
Apple has been repeatedly criticised for using factories which abuse workers and impose harsh conditions on workers. 62 workers at a factory which makes parts for Apple and Nokia were hospitalised after being poisoned by n-hexane, a toxic chemical commonly used in technology. This can cause muscular degeneration and blurred eyesight. Apple has not commented on the problems at the plant, which is in Suzhou, China. A spokesman for Wintek, which runs the factory, said that almost all of affected staff were back at work.
Reports have now been emerging about a high number of worker suicides at the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China. The first suicide was during the summer when Sun Danyong, a 25 year old worker, lost a prototype of the fourth-generation iPhone, jumped to his death. Now, a shocking 12 Foxconn workers have now ended their lives this year, mostly by jumping from the massive multi-story dormitories they live in. All those who have committed suicide have been between the ages of 18 and 24. They only know their role as producing the high quality products Apple produces.
Apple began as a high grossing company in the electronic fields. Little did the co-owners of the company expect the demand that was on their products. Once reaching a high demand for popular iPhones and iPods, the company turned to child slave labor to support the company. The Apple company claims to be shutting down many of the places that are using such labor, but the real testimony of Apple relies on the other thousands of factories that commit this crime daily.

Article link. http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=313

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