Company Accountability

[Aegle]

I think that this is a seriously important issue... We have the power to choose what type of business we support each time we buy something we are personally endorsing where that product comes from and how it made its way to us. Its vitally important to do your own research and to only try and support local businesses or businesses that are going about things in the most ethical manner possible for their employees and the environment.

Here's a link to a perfect example of a company which i wont support due to their high levels of human rights violations:

Workers in Apple factory forced to sign suicide agreement.

I would love to hear what you guys think...


Much Peace and Compassion

 

[a1pha]

I'll probably get stoned for this, but the Nexus looks so good on my iPad.

But no, I can't fault a company for being innovative and designing products people want to use. I don't hear anyone complaining about that awesome new 32gig USB stick which is a direct result of the HUGE demand for SSD memory once the iPod took off (or the fact Apple pushed the USB in the first place).

Also, to the people in China - I don't think they are complaining about having a job. There are depressed suicidal people everywhere, we're just now focusing the light over in that part of the world as they westernize.

 

[endlessness]

I completely agree with you aegle

I have a bunch of bookmarks of things related to this. For those buying apple products, know that you are supporting a very very nasty company that cares nothing for its employees.. This is in spanish but goes about how apple IPAD makers in china are in inhumane conditions, working way over the 36 hours a week limit (some worked 98 hours a week!!), etc..

Denuncian trato 'inhumano' entre los trabajadores chinos que fabrican el iPad | Navegante | elmundo.es

Denuncian trato inhumano en fabricantes de iPads Los empleados han denunciado que llegan a trabajar hasta en una semana 98 horas para satisfacer la demanda.

www.elmundo.es

(I have no guarantees though that makers of other parts from for example Acer or HP or whatever are any better, it all comes from china and tracing products and their industries is very hard, but gotta try.. And anyways just avoiding buying electronic stuff all the time also, unless its really necessary, like for example not changing our cellphones every couple of months or what not, already is a great reduction of the problems)


Or buying clothes too, where do our clothes come from? For example, jeans that are made with sandblasting technique which gives them some special appearance, is giving silicosis to workers in india, bangladesh, pakistan, etc (also in spanish sorry):

Preparar vaqueros desgastados causa decenas de muertes en varios países | Solidaridad | elmundo.es

Los vaqueros desgastados matan SETEM denuncia que la técnica para darles esa apariencia provoca silicosis. Levis, Inditex y H&M quitarán ese método.

www.elmundo.es

Or even the food we buy, not even to get started with meat, but for example in europe most (non-organic) vegetables come from south spain where illegal immigrants are working in horrible conditions and getting really underpaid (this one in english:

Salad slaves: Who really provides our vegetables - video

The Costa del Sol is famous for its tourists and beaches but just behind them is a hidden world of industrial greenhouses where African migrants work in extreme conditions

www.guardian.co.uk

We could gather thousands of examples like this.

So yes, lets research what we buy. Personally I feel that when I buy a product I am co-responsible for all the process that the product took from the gathering of raw materials to production to packaging to transport. If I buy something that has been unsustainable, that has caused suffering to others, etc, its as if Im agreeing with it.

Its hard/impossible living in modern society without having any weight on others, on nature, but we can definitely diminish as much as possible, by refusing to buy from companies we know for a fact have unscrupulous tactics, and supporting those we know are (more) sustainable and fair.

 

[Aegle]

Endlessness

Thank you for your thoughtful and highly informative post. Indeed we are co-responsible, i also do my best to make sure that companies that i support don't harm or test their products on animals or have any animal by-products within the product. As animal rights are also of great importance and concern as not only humans are abused within the system but animals as well.

I feel that consumer research and awareness is key if we want to make the world a better more compassionate place. It starts with each individual and their own personal choices they make towards cultivating a greater concern and awareness as to what is going on in the world around them.


Much Peace and Compassion

 

[MalargueZiggy]

Here's a link to a perfect example of a company which i wont support due to their high levels of human rights violations:

Workers in Apple factory forced to sign suicide agreement.

I would love to hear what you guys think...


Much Peace and Compassion

Oh God, this makes me sick. Rather than actually address the underlying issues that force the workers into this, they just turn the screw even more, producing even more pressure and guilt. It makes me think of Tuol Sleng prison in Cambodia, where the Khmer Rouge put up nets to stop the prisoners committing suicide. Obviously I'm not saying it's the same, just that's what immediately came to mind.

Some good info there endlessness. It's a minefield though, particularly where child labour is concerned, which is socially acceptable in the sub-continent, and which there is no political will to combat. Child labour is seen as a good thing as it gives children a chance to work out of poverty.

 

[elru]

Another important thing is to call the companies you research and tell them either that you are satisfied with their ethics and are thus choosing them to buy from or that you are not happy with (whatever specific complaints) and that you will not purchase from them because of it. Giving companies this kind of feedback helps them to see that consumers do care and that acting ethically may also be in the best interest of the company too.

A group that does this and has had a lot of success is Compassion Over Killing Animal Outlook They contact mostly vegetarian food companies and ask them to remove the eggs and dairy from their products to make them more animal friendly.

 

[elru]

Also a positive thing to consider is the labor laws in the USA about 100 years ago. The working conditions then were really horrible and because it was so widespread it seemed like it would not ever get changed. It did take a while for laws to be passed to help fix the situation but it did get fixed eventually and so now we have laws regulating hours and wages and working conditions that are reasonably well-followed.

Another effect that is partially from the movement to factory labor in the early US was womens' rights. Women leaving their families to work in factories or textile mills had pretty rough lives but the work and wages allowed for women to have much more freedom than they had before. I am not saying that this means that it is okay for companies to be unethical, it's just an interesting thing that I learned and I wonder what positive effects might eventually come from these big businesses having factories overseas.

 

[polytrip]

In the netherlands i was involved in creating a busines network of companies that live up to fair-trade standards. Sort of a mix of interactive yellow-pages and linked-in for fair-trade company's. My idea at the time was that company's that had ambition to be 100 fair-trade and environment friendly could use eachothers services through this network and help eachother in this way. I must say that i don't know how that network is doing today since it's been a while that i was actively involved. But i think this principle could be aplied on an international scale as well and would probably more effective because the chance of finding a match would obviously increase when more companies are involved.
It would also help consumers because for instance when i buy clothes and i ask the shopowner where his merchandise comes from, most of the time he doesn't have an answer.
The economic ratrace forces company's to act like economic parasites, even when the CEO's realy wouldn't want this to happen.
Most people want to do good, that's just a fact. But the lack of international rules forces both producers as consumers to partake in a race to the bottom, towards increasingly lower ethical standards.

 

[SnozzleBerry]

The economic ratrace forces company's to act like economic parasites, even when the CEO's realy wouldn't want this to happen.

Imo, polytrip's hit the nail upon the head.

Remember, there is a distinction between corporations and companies. Corporations are legally obligated to their shareholders to make as much money as possible. There is no such thing as a "less-greedy" corporation, just as there is no such thing as a humanitarian fascist regime. As Noam Chomsky states, the goal is not to create kindly fascists or less-greedy corporations, but to abolish these institutions of oppression. In the case of companies, we need companies that are owned by the workers, that are localized and answer to stakeholders and shareholders (i.e. a papermill is not only responsible to the workers, but to the citizens of the town/city in which it operates, ensuring it doesn't pollute, etc), and that ultimately exploit neither workers nor resources.