The report was produced by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), an organization that fights lobbying by big tech companies. Their favorite subject in recent months is of course the situation of the Uyghur minority in China. The latter is persecuted and forced to work in conditions closer to slavery than in Chinese factories, which are already not masters in respecting the labor code.
Thus according to the TTP report, the iPhone glass supplier, Lens Technology, is directly accused of having used this free labor by giving it the sad choice between forced labor within its factory, or detention centers of the Chinese regime.
Lens Technology accused
The Washington Post published the organization's report this week. The article tells us that "one of Apple's oldest and largest suppliers has been accused of using Uyghur labor, according to documents discovered by the TTP organization." This evidence shows how thousands of Uyghur Muslims primarily in Xinjiang province were used by Lens Technology. THEPostexplains that this supplier is special to Apple, because it has worked with Apple since the debut of the iPhone in 2007 and today representsone of Apple's largest partners in China.
According to the documents recovered, the company Lens Technology is based in Xinjiang, a region where a million Muslims from the Uighur minority have been locked up in detention camps in order to “instill in them the values of the regime” according to the official speech from Beijing. But to avoid the regime's detention centers, some Uyghurs could have worked in factories like those of Lens Technology. They then lived in hell, in what looked more like a prison than a factory.
China and Apple deny the facts
Beijing, for its part, asserts that part of the Uyghur minority is certainly present in these factories. But she is there by choice. She would work there in decent conditions and no labor law rules would be violated according to the Chinese government.
For its part, Apple denied the facts and said it had never observed anything irregular on site. Apple spokesman Josh Rosenstock said Apple assured earlier this year that none of its other suppliers used Uighur labor transferred from Xinjiang. Before adding that Apple had “zero tolerance for forced labor. »
If this speech is contested, it has never yet been contradicted. In the Tech Transparency Project report, there is nothing to suggest that Apple is or was aware that Uyghur minorities were being used by Lens Technology, as the rest of the report claims.
Apple has always made decisions in favor of respecting the rules of the labor code. The firm has one of the strictest internal charters in the entire industry and its subcontractors are obliged to follow it to the letter if they do not want to lose their precious contract with Apple.
This was particularly the case with Pegatron, or more recently with Wistron. The Taiwanese subcontractor was the target of numerous international investigations after riots by its employees at its factory in southern India.If the claims of Wistron employees are proven, the contract with Apple could disappear for good.
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By : Keleops AG
