7 ms·

> was an honest mistake I appreciate there probably are U16s lying about their age to get a cool job building iPhones the same way kids lied about their age so

> was an honest mistake I appreciate there probably are U16s lying about their age to get a cool job building iPhones the same way kids lied about their age so they could fight in WW1 - but when that’s discovered and the contractor doesn’t immediately fire the underaged worker but instead keeps them on the payroll, how is that an “honest” mistake? I appreciate bad things generally happen due to cascading failures or a chain of errors, but some things, like this, don’t leave much room for excuses.

oh_sigh 6y ago
"Please don't fire me - this job is the only thing stopping my family from starving to death" is a fairly strong argument - even coming from a 15 year old.
- skedaddle 6y ago
  They should at the very minimum be forced to let consumers know. "This MacBook was made in a factory that uses child labor."
  - oh_sigh 6y ago
    "This iPhone was made in part by a 15 year old girl who would have sold herself into prostitution to support her family had this job not been available"
    - skedaddle 6y ago
      This is a dumb argument because Apple doesn't even defend the child labor used by their suppliers, let alone on the grounds that they're actually saving children from exploitation.
      - oh_sigh 6y ago
        Apple's incentives and the incentives of the child laborers are surely different. In this instance you have children who want to work, but aren't legally allowed.
        DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
        > In this instance you have children who want to work We don't know that.
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
        skedaddle 6y ago
        You can rationalize the sex trade too by saying without being able to sell sex the 14/15 year old would have to sell an organ, or starve. What do you think a 9 year old working as a human mule for $0.75/day at a cobalt mine in the Congo? There are labor conditions below which you cannot (humanly) talk about the "incentives" of the worker. But look, we are 50 years into the problem with consumer electronics at this point. It is complex and will be very hard to unwind, but I think at a minimum you should be forced to label products made with exploited labor. Apple is one of the only companies to even attempt to improve these conditions. It's a huge disservice to go back to trying to justify them instead.
bonestamp2 6y ago
> the contractor doesn’t immediately fire the underaged worker but instead keeps them on the payroll, how is that an “honest” mistake? I couldn't read the full article, does it say they kept the same underaged workers employed?

oh_sigh 6y ago

"Please don't fire me - this job is the only thing stopping my family from starving to death" is a fairly strong argument - even coming from a 15 year old.

skedaddle 6y ago
They should at the very minimum be forced to let consumers know. "This MacBook was made in a factory that uses child labor."
- oh_sigh 6y ago
  "This iPhone was made in part by a 15 year old girl who would have sold herself into prostitution to support her family had this job not been available"
  - skedaddle 6y ago
    This is a dumb argument because Apple doesn't even defend the child labor used by their suppliers, let alone on the grounds that they're actually saving children from exploitation.
    - oh_sigh 6y ago
      Apple's incentives and the incentives of the child laborers are surely different. In this instance you have children who want to work, but aren't legally allowed.
      - DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
        > In this instance you have children who want to work We don't know that.
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - skedaddle 6y ago
        You can rationalize the sex trade too by saying without being able to sell sex the 14/15 year old would have to sell an organ, or starve. What do you think a 9 year old working as a human mule for $0.75/day at a cobalt mine in the Congo? There are labor conditions below which you cannot (humanly) talk about the "incentives" of the worker. But look, we are 50 years into the problem with consumer electronics at this point. It is complex and will be very hard to unwind, but I think at a minimum you should be forced to label products made with exploited labor. Apple is one of the only companies to even attempt to improve these conditions. It's a huge disservice to go back to trying to justify them instead.

bonestamp2 6y ago

> the contractor doesn’t immediately fire the underaged worker but instead keeps them on the payroll, how is that an “honest” mistake? I couldn't read the full article, does it say they kept the same underaged workers employed?