This isn't the first time Apple has been under fire for its supply chain. Huayou, a Chinese mining company used children as young as 4 to mine for Cobalt for Apple products. Yeah, that's not good. Apparently the company isn't even sorry about using that labor, but only cares about the products. Oh boy, so much for big companies am I right.
This isn't the first time a big corporation has been accused of such practices. I mean look at Nike, Adidas, all of those companies that use either illegal or extremely cheap labor in places like China or Bangladesh, or Vietnam. They hired workers on these low wages and then market their shoes as quality and over-priced products. So much for large corporations being that helpful right? Outsourcing may or may not be a bad thing for economies but one thing for certain is that since they are using cheaper labor, why not provide better environments for them? Give them more benefits instead of hogging the money to yourselves?
Illegal labor occurs in Africa and other poor places as well. Conditions are terrible for these people who work in dangerous jobs like mining, all without proper equipment and safety. Imagine America about 150 years ago when there were no such labor laws. These workers have no better options so surprise, surprise they find themselves trudging to work everyday in these inhumane conditions. Most of the time the countries and governments can't do anything about it because they are either corrupt or just don't have the money and resources to target it.
Countries like China are taking action like enacting more stringent regulations, but for a country with such a huge population and so many factories, it will take a while for sure. Sure, illegal labor or cheap labor is cheap but is it right? What should we doing instead? Sure, it may cost more, but think of the economic benefits it may have. The workers who have more money can then buy more goods and then bring up the GDP. Now, I'm not talking about increasing the wages so much, like Bernie Sanders wants it, to cause massive inflation. That is already a problem in these countries, and we all know how that turns out. Check out post-WWI/ Nazi Germany. Yeah, we start blaming people.
Now, the problem is with these high costs of production hurting companies. Well? Perhaps be more efficient. Obviously, laying off workers also receives backlash, like with Walmart recently. So it's fair for some people, but not fair for others? Well, one solution is to slowly start increasing wages so that they are more efficient. Therefore, you can rely less on new labor constantly.
In America, there is also illegal labor with the illegal immigrants. They are paid less, and subject to worse conditions, but how do we stop it? It extends to a deeper issue of immigration that I touched on in an earlier article, but I may talk about America specifically next time.
http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-supplier-foxconn-to-stop-using-illegal-intern-labour-on-iphone-x-2017-11
https://news.sky.com/story/child-miners-firm-refuses-to-apologise-over-cobalt-sourcing-10785313
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