Some of the biggest technology firms in the United States have been accused in a lawsuit of complicity in the death and maiming of hundreds, if not thousands of African children who mine cobalt, a mineral vital to the production of the lithium-ion batteries in everything from smartphones to electric cars. Apple & other tech giants seek dismissal of cobalt mine child labor Samsung supplier factory found to use child labor, watchdog says What camera sensor does iPhone use? Unionized hotel workers reach deal with biggest employer on eve of July 4 weekend and planned strike, Lakers free agency: Heres the latest about how their plans are shaping up, Opinion: My 12-year-old trans friend came to my drag pageant. The company knows this. The campaign was organized by the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) and included a petition to Converse demanding that Apple has used child labor in its supply chain in the past, but the company has recently announced plans to permanently eliminate such practices. Our children are dying like dogs.. The decision will ultimately be up to us, the buyers. Miners are risking their lives to provide you with a device that lets you read this while youre waiting in line for the bathroom. investigation claims Apple's battery She and her team saw first-hand how gruelling and dangerous it is to extract cobalt from the ground and they saw children doing it. "[The workers] are officially referred to as 'artisinal' miners to dress up the fact that this means they are working in a large informal sector of people, including young children, who go to the areas where cobalt is found and use primitive tools to dig and tunnel for cobalt without any safety equipment and without any structural support for the tunnels," the original filing claims. Apple, Google, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla have been named as defendants in a lawsuit filed in Washington DC by human rights firm International Rights Advocates on behalf of 14 parents and children from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Four centuries ago, it supplied the silver that bankrolled the Spanish empire. Temu also argued that its use of direct shipping meant that the U.S. consumer, not Temu, would bear the ultimate responsibility for adhering to the ban on Xinjiang goods. A Pando.com investigation published leaked emails showing that leading tech companies like Google, Apple, Dreamworks, Comcast, eBay, Lucasfilm, and others have been conspiring together to keep wages for tech engineers at a set rate, violating workers' rights to seek competitive compensation. Child Labor @AnaSwanson, Claire Fu covers news in mainland China for The New York Times in Seoul. "Until they are forced to do better, Apple and the other companies are relying on largely illiterate, desperately poor, and exceedingly vulnerable people to figure out Apple's complaint mechanism and report supply chain violations when they certainly cannot afford personal computers or iPhones and they do not have internet or cell phone access to connect to the outside world within the context of a violent regime that does not tolerate dissent and an unregulated industry that could retaliate with impunity against any whistleblowers," the court filing states. This is what you should consider buying depending on how much you have available to spend. The families and injured children are seeking damages for forced labour and further compensation for unjust enrichment, negligent supervision and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Carbon and oxygen found in the phones plastics and its battery ranked second and third in the elemental lineup, followed by iron. This article originally appeared on Reader Supported News. It is this part that seems a stretch. Child Labor REPORT: More Suppliers for Apple Discovered Using Slave Labor The government teamed up with local militias known as the "Mai Mai," who are known to occupy local villages, steal resources, and rape women. A quote about the metal gallium has been clarified in this piece. Amnesty International and Afrewatch. A customer compares a jet black iPhone 7, right, with her iPhone 6 Child The company denied it ever "knowingly sourced operations using any form of involuntary labor, fraudulent recruiting practices or child labor," and that it works with suppliers to manage sourcing programs responsibly. My project started with a rock crusher and the help of David Michaud, a mining consultant with 911 Metallurgist in British Columbia. WebAs part of this commitment, Apple uses image matching technology to help nd and report child exploitation. One of the central allegations in the lawsuit is that Apple, Google, Dell, Microsoft and Tesla were aware and had specific knowledge that the cobalt they use in their products is linked to child labour performed in hazardous conditions, and were complicit in the forced labour of the children. The initial findings of this report are concerning and reinforce the need for full transparency by companies potentially profiting from C.C.P. This is not unlike the triangular slave trade of the 18th century, in which African slaves were traded to America, American sugar and tobacco was traded to Europe, and European textiles, rum, and manufactured goods were traded to Africa. Sure, it's higher than the federal minimum wage, but that only amounts to $23,400 to $24,960 in pre-tax income for a full-time employee working 52 weeks in a year. The problem is that government will do nothing to protect its own citizens so this is why they're going after the names. The phone contained 31 grams of aluminum, nearly a quarter of its total weight. It is estimated that around 1.8 million children are working in hazardous conditions in coffee plantations across the world. CBS News wanted to see whether there was any attempt to check at the market whether the cobalt had been mined by children, so Patta's team went back later, with a hidden camera. WebChild labour is a particular issue for fashion because much of the supply chain requires low-skilled labour and some tasks are even better suited to children than adults. The wage conspiracy encompasses over 1,000,000 employees at over a dozen companies. Apple also has factories working for it in Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, the Czech Republic and the United States. For example, the mud pit mines on Indonesias Bangka Island, another source of tin for Apple, are arguably even deadlier than the Cerro Rico complex. Notably, the lawsuit claims that the tech giants were aware of the use of child labor in mining cobalt used in batteries purchased by the companies. Research by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimated that in 2012 there were about 40,000 children working in the DRC mines. ET. Today, miners who work in the same tunnels as 16th century conscripted Incan laborers are providing tin for Apple products like the iPhone. If Apple expects to live up to its code of conduct, it needs to spend more of its billions to aggressively map and proactively investigate where all its elements come from, getting past the smelters and into the mines at places like Cerro Rico. But some of those brands still use sweatshops. They investigated, then moved to a new supplier, this took time. Employers are responsible for ensuring a safe workplace that Multinational corporations like Apple, Samsung, Dell, and HP all depend on the Congolese mining operations for their raw materials, as 80 percent of the world's coltan supply comes from the region. The other defendants named in the case did not immediately respond to a request for comment. About 70% of these children 112 million work in agriculture, mostly farming and livestock herding. That means even though Apple is raking in massive, record profits by selling expensive technology, and even though Apple has twice more cash on hand than the U.S. Treasury, and even though Apple pays a far lower effective tax rate than the average American family, their workers make so little that they qualify for food stamps and Medicaid. Sweatshops Almost Killed Nike in "Glencore's production of cobalt in the DRC is a by-product of our industrial copper production. On that visit, the CBS News team met Ziki Swaze, an 11-year-old orphan who worked in the mines who dreamed of going to school. 3. The lawsuit was filed Sunday in the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. by the non-profit organization International Rights Advocates, on behalf of 13 anonymous plaintiffs from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. No, Nike does not use child labor. Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news: Breaking news from Cupertino. Nike sweatshops Tesla. "-Louis CK, Of Course, But Maybe. Ask Nike. Because the factory where they're making these, they jump off the fucking roof because it's a nightmare in there. The use of child labor is an insult to the standpoints of common humanity. What happens when Apple finds a child making your iPhone - Quartz The 113-page report WebChild Labor. The detrimental effects of fast-fashion After the raw materials for phones and computers are mined by underpaid and overworked Congolese teenagers, and those materials are assembled by underpaid and overworked Chinese teenagers, American teenagers and adults making poverty wages are then put to work in Apple stores hawking the new phones and computers. Cobalt is a primary ingredient in batteries. Temus code of conduct also says the company reserves the right to inspect factories and warehouses to ensure compliance.
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