News of child labor being used for the creation of APPLE products hit the waves hard recently, spurred by news of a mass suicide threat coming from Foxconn factory in Chin earlier this month.

Workers at the Foxconn factory in Wuhan, China, one of the factories used to produce electronics for American behemoths Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, threatened mass suicide as their way of fighting the injustices they see within their factory work environment.

Fearing the backlash from consumers, the news caused Apple to publish all 156 companies on its 2011 supplier list. The company also dedicated an entire section, front and center, on its Apple.com website on Supplier Responsibility in order to assure its consumers and cult-like evangelists that it does not tolerate involuntary labor, underage labor or discrimination. 

As an Apple consumer and heavy user myself, I am at a loss. Devices we use in our daily lives are now connected to child labor? How do we reconcile this? We want/need to use our devices but knowingly purchasing these devices that are created in these conditions makes our hearts ache and stomachs turn.

We shouldn’t have to force companies to post their social responsibilities pages on their websites and then they continue to work as if nothing happened. WHAT is happening? How is this going to be resolved? Why is it even happening in the workplace? Why can’t companies COMMIT to making sure the factories they hire do not put these practices into place? You’re telling me that there is no overesight in these factories to ensure child labor isn’t used, that people are getting paid a fair wage, work in safe working conditions?

What are you doing with this news? How can we be responsible citizen and send a message to corporations that this type of abuse will not be tolerated?

~Megy