TMCnet Feature

As the controversy currently swirls around Apple (News - Alert), as some are alleging that the company is abusing its workers employed in China supplier factories, Change.org and SumofUs.org are teaming up today to drop off a special gift to the company—250,000 petition signatures from concerned individuals about the reported abuse.

According to a press release, today at 10:00 a.m. PT, consumers will be hand delivering the signatures to an Apple store located on 1 Stockton Street in San Francisco, Calif.

Mark Shields, a devoted Apple user, originally initiated this campaign on Change.org after researching the less than adequate working conditions in the Chinese factories where a majority of Apple’s products including the beloved iPhone (News - Alert) are made.

 Already receiving press from the Boston Globe, CNN International, Guardian, BBC, and other national publications, Shields said in a statement, “I have been a lifelong Apple customer and was shocked to learn of the abusive working conditions in many of Apple’s supplier factories. Foxconn, one of Apple’s biggest manufacturers, there is a history of suicides, abusive working conditions, and almost no pay. These working conditions are appalling, especially for Apple.”

Over 55,000 SumOfUs members have already taken action, signing the organization’s petition with around 35,000 of the petition signers revealing that they buy Apple products. In addition, over 20,000 of these concerned citizens are currently iPhone users.

 "I use an iPhone myself,” said Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, executive director of SumOfUs. “I love it, but I don't love having to support sweatshops, and neither do millions of other Apple consumers.The hip, educated market that Apple aspires to corner is largely composed of responsible consumers who don’t want to be complicit in sweatshop labor.”

“Apple’s attention to detail is famous, and the only way they could fail to be aware of dozens of worker deaths, of child labor, of exposure to neurotoxins is through willful ignorance,” she added. “That’s why our members are asking Apple to clean up its supply chains in time to make the iPhone 5 its first ethically produced product.”

Besides San Francisco, the signatures will be arriving shortly in other metropolitan cities including Washington, DC, New York, London, Sydney, and Bangalore.

To see how many signatures Mark’s Change.org campaign has received up to this point, click here.