










Source: Samsung

Comments     Threshold


RE: too cozy
By spaced_ on 11/27/2012 3:50:42 AM , Rating: 2
It's a shame. Because your retort has merit.

Apple and Samsung are in the exact same situations. They both have Chinese suppliers. Both with problems with working conditions. I'd be surprised if any large company with suppliers in a developing country doesn't have these same problems.

I would hope that both companies are doing what they can to get their suppliers in line. But both companies have vested interests. They both make bigger margins because of cheap labour in China. They don't want to have to shift suppliers, it costs money, unless it makes good monetary sense. It is in their interests to fix the problem for a variety of reasons, one is to appear more ethical to promote their brand image.

Whether the big wigs in either of the companies actually care, or are motivated to do this from a purely ethical point of view is always a big question mark. Whether what's fed to any of us is just purely lip service, we can't determine without some hard evidence. I haven't seen any. Reports always give me a laugh. I see reports every week at work that just contain made up statements with nothing to back it up.

If you're trying to point out bias, that's fine. But don't lump your own along with it. You lose credibility.

It's particularly annoying, because in this instance, one does have to ask, why is the CLW finding child labour in their supplier's factories, yet Samsung's audits aren't?

RE: too cozy
By TSS on 11/27/2012 8:37:38 AM , Rating: 2
There's a very simple awnser to all of this. Economic Development.

Sure, there's bound to be a few kids below the age of 16 working in factories in china, both on samsung's and apple's side. Is anybody really going to claim they are better off not working and their family starving to death?

Those suppliers are in a no different boat then the suppliers in the west not even 100 years ago. Much more labor then there is demand for goods, in a country with no social backstop. So people are willing to take alot to get a little. The higher the standard of living gets, the higher the minimum that people will accept. To be honest, i'm actually suprised a biased group (a campaign group against child labor in china will do their darnest to find child labor in china) only managed to find 6 kids, in all of those factories. 30 years ago they would've atleast found 60 if not 600.

It's us that need to get off our high horse. After all, this article is about child labor being taken care of or exposed. Here's another article from the NYtimes:

Just the first hit when you google "new york deficit", there's tons and tons more. How much child labor do you think that'll cause within the next 30 years?

