Apple
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- Published on Monday, 12 January 2015 02:44
- Written by editor
Apple's iPhones and iPads are soldered using tin sourced from deadly Indonesian mud pit mines that often employ children. And Apple knows all about it.
Tell Apple to enforce safe and ethical labour practices along its entire supply chain -- and ban child labour.
Paov,
Apple is up to its old tricks. This time, the tin ore it uses to solder its iPhones and iPads is dredged up from the bottom of dangerous mud pit mines in Indonesia with effectively no safety standards -- by children.
Mud pit mining for tin ore is extremely hazardous. Middle-men suppliers erect illegal man-made islands just offshore and workers, many of them children, rake up particles of tin from the bottom of the seabed using whatever means at their disposal: plastic tubes with pumps, bamboo sticks or their bare hands.
Miners sometimes work at the bottom of 70-foot cliffs. Mudslides are common. A recent BBC exposé shows a mass grave of dead miners excavated using mechanical diggers. The muddy waters in which miners spend their 12-hour day waist deep are rife with heavy metals and other toxins. The worst part? Apple knows all about these practices and has done virtually nothing to stop them.
We know about the dubious labour practices far up Apple’s supply chain -- from the suicides at FoxConn to the dangerous chemicals and long, gruelling shifts commonplace in their massive Chinese factories. We know this because SumOfUs has been fighting Apple with you every step of the way.
Apple responds to public criticism, but only enough to get the people off its back. That’s why we here at SumOfUs need to keep the pressure up -- especially when confronted with new, shocking revelations like its tin sourcing. Apple says it has been trying to make labour practices safer in Indonesia but so far its made only empty gestures. We need real action, and we need it now.
Thanks for all that you do,
Katherine, Michael and the rest of the SumOfUs team
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More information:
The BBC Got Undercover Video Footage From Inside Apple's Asian Suppliers -- And It Doesn't Look Good, Business Insider, Dec 19, 2014
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