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Apple Publishes 2021 Supplier Progress Report

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Apple has published its annual supplier responsibility report, which outlines the progress it and its suppliers are making towards improving the rights of workers, furthering environmental protection goals, the response to the global health crisis, and more.

applesupplierreport.jpg

The report contains detailed information ranging from how Apple addresses reports of violations within its supply chain to how the company has assisted its suppliers in handling the challenges throughout the past year. The company's senior vice president of operations, Sabih Khan, opens the report by extending a special thanks to Apple employees, partners, and suppliers worldwide for their resilience throughout the past year.
I want to start with a message of gratitude to our teams and to the global network of Apple suppliers. You set an example of care for one another's health, innovating through every challenge, and helping bring technology to our users at a time when we've never relied on it more.
Click to expand...
Regarding labor and human rights, Apple says that since 2008, more than 21.5 million workers have been taught their rights from suppliers and that more than 55,000 supplier employees have been interviewed as part of regular supplier assessments. Apple also says that it has found no evidence of forced labor within its supply chain.

Focusing on environmental goals, Apple says that it's working hard and in close cooperation with suppliers to ensure that they meet the goal of being fully carbon neutral by 2030. Apple provides a few environmental statistics, including the fact that it's saved more than 41 billion gallons of water since 2013 thanks to its Clean Water Program. In addition, in 2020, the company diverted more than 400,000 metric tons of waste from landfills and more than 1.65 million metrics tons of waste from landfills since 2015.

The full report can be found on Apple's website.

Article Link: Apple Publishes 2021 Supplier Progress Report
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/05/31/apple-shares-2021-supplier-progress-report/
Whenever I see these types of "reports", I always think about this classic Dilbert strip
before I read the report.
Excerpt:
"As a result of these surveys, suppliers took 3,173 actions to address their employees’ feedback, including adding shuttle buses, reducing turnaround time for addressing worker grievances, increasing bonuses, and improving dorm maintenance."
Observe the last bit: "improving dorm maintenance". If everything was so great in the supply chain, workers shouldn't be complaining about their dorms, they should earn enough to actually afford their own living.
 
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Apple: We need a gazillion iPhone 12s fast!

Supplier: OK.

Apple: We need them cheaper and faster, or you're out!

Supplier OK.

Apple: No forced or child labor right?

Supplier: Uhh . . . no.

Apple: Oh, good, because our stock would kind of have tanked if we didn't come out with an iPhone this year, and we're kind of reliant on a few key suppliers. Thank God you can do the impossible at such ethically high standards. If you had told us any differently, our business model would have flopped.
 
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Yep, just one day after I watched this:


The main problem is that excellent working conditions have not been ensured from day one.

Tesla is struggling with production automation and the workers are still hard pushed, but I feel it is the better approach for addressing the production of millions of devices.
 
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Apple is destroying the environment faster than ever. They cut down a forest to power iCloud. They make the iPad just a little thicker so you need a new case. They change the design of the iPhone only to sell more. They are worse than car manufacturers and big oil. It’s time Apple pays for their waste!
 
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GigabitEthernet said:
Frankly I don't believe it. These suppliers lie and lie.
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That part is true. But a private company can only do so much. They did interview 55000 employees over the years. It is very difficult to go into a foreign country, especially a closed system like china, and get to the truth, especially when the government itself may be involved in covering it up. I'm not trying to be political, but when the big new thing in the conservative caucus was outsourcing for cheaper foreign labor, my position was and still is, only if you level the playing field on environment, human rights, and even things like Social Security. There is no benefit to your country to export jobs to a country the pollutes, keeps its workers in poverty (or chains) and has no long term social welfare. That is impoverishing your own country solely for the gain of the wealthy
 
monster620ie said:
bring jobs back to USA. stop using cap and India!!!!
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Who were the folks demanding we outsource jobs back in the 90's in the first place? We took an entire industry and exported it, now it would be a slow process to bring back the jobs. all the support infrastructure went with the jobs.
 
Kuckuckstein said:
Yep, just one day after I watched this:


The main problem is that excellent working conditions have not been ensured from day one.

Tesla is struggling with production automation and the workers are still hard pushed, but I feel it is the better approach for addressing the production of millions of devices.
Click to expand...
so machines have jobs and people starve? And everything on Youtube is accurate. LOL
 
The PDF reads like a Facebook privacy self-assessment. This would carry so much more value if Apple invited co-authorship by industry watchdog groups.
 
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MauiPa said:
so machines have jobs and people starve? And everything on Youtube is accurate. LOL
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Oh I don’t need YouTube to know how things are in these countries. I grew up in a socialist country and have traveled the world. I have friends in these countries and know the conditions. If Tim and Co really valued the well being of these people, they would not pocket the sick amounts of money they receive every year. They could live a formidable life for a fraction of their wealth and give these workers much better conditions.

You cannot tell me that a corporation, that knows how to avoid every little tax penny, doesn’t have the resources to monitor and improve the well being of these workers. They know and they accept.

I pay my fair share to support fair incomes for those that grow food that I enjoy but would never grow in my wealthy country. I gladly pay a good amount of money for equipment to support good working conditions, and have it repaired as often as possible. I have a 15 year old simple car that gets serviced and repaired, still have an 11 year old iMac that I improved with an SSD and memory upgrade. I appreciate the technical progress Apple brings, but there is no need to have armies of low payed humans serve our need for gadgets.

Yes, automation takes away work places, but it also removes tedious, unhealthy work routines. My professional area includes noise and vibration at work, and even in our western countries, workers suffer from bad working environments (yet those will not come close to the mining and assembly lines). Many would have a better retirement, if they could remote control machines or just need to watch them crunch ahead.
But there are many areas where we can’t automate and need more humans: COVID has shown how stretched resources in hospitals, elderly homes etc are. We could need much more personal in these areas, could shift the work force. But countries just don’t have the money. Why? Because greed makes money flow into a few pockets.

And yes I know ... Apple is a profit organization. That just does not excuse these conditions.
 
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Kuckuckstein said:
Yep, just one day after I watched this:


The main problem is that excellent working conditions have not been ensured from day one.

Tesla is struggling with production automation and the workers are still hard pushed, but I feel it is the better approach for addressing the production of millions of devices.
Click to expand...
I watched that video in full and it is terribly narrated, with an absolute agenda and the very few 'facts' he presents, show Apple actually acted, although not in his timeframe or the way he wanted. You cannot expect a company who relies on a supplier to cut all ties immediately there is an infraction of the use of a temporary workforce. The U.S. do it in spades with migrant workers, Australia does it systematically with backpackers and young people. China do it too, and that’s the primary responsibility of China, not a tech company, yet they still do what they can to reduce it.
 
If Apple was confident they were doing a good job they would let and independent agency do this research without any incentives to produce a good report. This is PR BS.
 
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