Fair-labor organizers, Change.org and SumOfUs.org, delivered 250,000 signatures to Apple stores in six cities around the world on Thursday in protest of the company’s working conditions in China, according to a report in Mashable.
根据新闻博客Mashable的报道,周四,呼吁公平劳动的Sum of Us和Change.org等社会团体前往美国苹果专卖店,递交了一份25万人联名签字的请愿书。请愿签字的苹果粉丝来自全球6个城市。
Last month, an excellent New York Times exposé ripped at Apple’s core, building on previous concerns about abuses at firms that Apple uses to make its bestselling iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.
上月,美国《纽约时报》发表头条文章,披露苹果公司在iPhone, iPad和Mac电脑畅销的辉煌背后,是海外工厂剥削工人的事实真相。
The claims should be familiar by now as Foxconn in southern China, one of Apple’s primary suppliers, has repeatedly been the subject of accusations of worker mistreatment and unsafe working conditions.
这些呼吁也许听起来很熟悉。苹果公司在中国的主要的制造商富士康就曾经多次收到控告,指控虐待工人和工作条件不安全。
Foxconn has been accused of making laborers work long hours without breaks, use dangerous chemicals that have caused severe health problems and exposing workers to dangerous conditions. The repetitive work and spartan living conditions have also been to blame for suicides at the factory.
富士康工厂被指控强制工人长时间不间断工作、使用危险化学物质造成严重健康问题和使工人暴露在危险的工作环境中。长时间的重复性劳动和艰苦的生活环境也是造成富士康工厂连续自杀事件的罪魁祸首。
Charlotte Hill, communications manager at Change.org, pleaded with Apple to use its creativity to “think ethically” and create an iPhone without using factories that have harsh working conditions.
Change.org的联系负责人Charlotte Hill 呼吁苹果公司利用好自己的创意,从道德的角度切实思考,创造出不用在这些工作条件恶劣的海外工厂生产的iPhone手机。
“No iPhone is worth that cost,” she said.
“iPhone根本不值得这样的代价”。她表示。
At the same time, Apple has also generated billions of dollars in profits, in part due to the cheapness of Chinese labor. (Revenue last quarter surged 74 percent to a record US$46.3 billion and profit more than doubled to US$13.1 billion, blowing away Wall Street's expectations as Apple sold more stuff than in any quarter in its history.)
和海外血汗工厂形成鲜明对比的是,苹果公司已经创造了数十亿美元的巨额利润,其中部分也有中国劳动力廉价的原因在。(上季度苹果的收益激增74%创下463亿美元的记录;利润翻倍至131亿美元。苹果上季度销量超过历史上的季度销量记录,打破华尔街的预期。)
The Mashable report comes as rumors point to Siri, the much lauded iPhone 4S intelligent personal assistant, adding Mandarin Chinese support next month.
Mashable的调查报道正发表在Siri流言喧嚣尘下之际。业内流传iPhone 4S的智能人工助理Siri下月开始将增加普通话支持。