SumOfUs, the organization behind the Ethical iPhone campaign, plans to deliver new petitions to Apple during its annual shareholder meeting on Thursday. Along with the petitions, the group plans to hand over a copy of a letter it distributed on Wednesday written by two factory workers who were allegedly poisoned while assembling iPhone displays. “Apple has a moral obligation to fully compensate workers like Guo Rui-Qiang and Jia Jing-Chuan and to take the hard steps required make sure that tragedies like this never happen again,” SumOfUs Executive Director Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman said in a statement. “Ethical consumers won’t be fooled by whitewashing by organizations like the Fair Labor Association. We insist that Apple grant truly independent NGOs full access to its factories to truly independent NGOs, not groups funded and controlled by the corporations they’re supposed to monitor.” SumOfUs’s press release follows below.
Letter from Poisoned Chinese Apple Workers, Petitions from Concerned Consumers to be Delivered to Apple Annual General Meeting
SumOfUs.org Members to Protest Labor Concerns in Apple’s Chinese Supply Factories
Concerned Consumers to Apple CEO Tim Cook: “Stop the iSweatshop, Make an Ethical iPhone”
Cupertino, CA—Global consumer watchdog group SumOfUs.org will lead a delegation of Apple consumers to Apple’s annual shareholder meeting on Thursday, Feb 23 in Cupertino, California. Outside the event, protestors will rally for ethical labor practices in Apple’s Asian factories following previous reports of abysmal work place conditions and a personal appeal from former factory workers Guo Rui-Qiang and Jia Jing-Chuan suffering from permanent nerve damage due to prolonged exposure to toxins.
Inside, consumers and advocates will deliver petitions signed by more than 300,000 people demanding an ethical iPhone. During the question and answer period, they will directly ask CEO Tim Cook to commit to ending labor abuses in Apple’s supply chain.
SumOfUs.org has already collected more than 90,000 petition signatures, along with an additional 200,000 from Change.org and 30,000 from GetUp.org.au.
“Apple has a moral obligation to fully compensate workers like Guo Rui-Qiang and Jia Jing-Chuan and to take the hard steps required make sure that tragedies like this never happen again,” said SumOfUs.org Executive Director Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman. “Ethical consumers won’t be fooled by whitewashing by organizations like the Fair Labor Association. We insist that Apple grant truly independent NGOs full access to its factories to truly independent NGOs, not groups funded and controlled by the corporations they’re supposed to monitor.”
Who: SumOfUs.org and Apple customers from the Bay area
What: Petition delivery and rally at Apple Annual General Meeting
When: Thursday, February 23, 2012; 9-10:30 am
Where: Apple Campus entrance, N. De Anza Blvd & Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA
Visuals: Apple consumers dressed as iPhones, with Apple products and posters echoing Apple’s taglines (e.g., “iWant An Ethical iPhone”)
SumOfUs.org petition link: http://sumofus.org/campaigns/ethical-iphone/
Full letter from Chinese workers: http://sumofus.org/campaigns/apple-message/
