[HN Gopher] Apple knew a supplier was using child labor but took... ___________________________________________________________________ Apple knew a supplier was using child labor but took 3 years to fully cut ties Author : nailer Score : 63 points Date : 2021-01-19 21:46 UTC (1 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.businessinsider.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.businessinsider.com) | judge2020 wrote: | Supply chains at Apple's scale take at least 3 years to set up | and scale up. I'm surprised it didn't take longer for them to | fully disintegrate that supplier. | LatteLazy wrote: | You'd think they call that supplier and the supplier would | (within a few hours) stop using child labour... | jibcage wrote: | They have leverage if they're the only gig in town, though. | keehun wrote: | While still meeting delivery targets? Even if budget weren't | a concern, how do you scale up new employees that quickly? | | I'm NOT condoning the behavior. This is disgusting. Still, | "the supplier would (within a few hours) stop using child | labour" is completely unrealistic. | | Apple should have cut ties immediately even if it meant a | breach of contract or shortage of inventory. | herodoturtle wrote: | You'd think within a few hours and not right away? | haltingproblem wrote: | Can you explain this more. If it takes them 3 years to scale | up, does it now mean all the vendors are locked in for that | period. If a vendor starts failing quality checks will they | still take 3 years to disintegrate them? If not then why would | violation of their own labor standards take 3 years to remove | them? | | FWIW, except forced labor, I am against child labor standards | since it usurps the wisdom of the parents without providing for | that child. No parent no matter how poor wants their child to | work unless they cannot afford to feed them. The alternative to | working in a apple supplier factory might be working in a more | hazardous factory or construction site. | rmsaksida wrote: | A supplier using child labor shouldn't be a "ok, let's | gradually work this out" kind of issue. It should be a | "immediately cut all ties to them" kind of issue. If it will | disrupt a supply chain and hurt profits, so be it. Seems like a | small price to pay compared to _using child labor_. | edoceo wrote: | With all these eyes on Apple, what do we know about Asus or Acer | or even further down the alphabet? For some components we may | only have a very few suppliers ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-01-19 23:00 UTC)