Top tech firms sued over child labour deaths

[Eldorado]

"Some of the biggest names in consumer technology have been accused of being complicit in the deaths of children from the Democratic Republic of Congo who were mining a metal integral to their devices.

"Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, Dell and Google‘s parent company Alphabet have been identified in a lawsuit as part of a system of forced labour that 14 families claim led to the death or serious injury of their children.

"The children cited in the landmark lawsuit had been put to work to mine cobalt – a metal vital to the production of technologies including smartphones and computers."

Full report at the Independent UK: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/cobalt-mining-apple-tesla-dell-microsoft-google-congo-lawsuit-a9249446.html

 

"Cobalt is key in the production of the lithium-ion batteries found in phones, laptops and tablets, as well as the batteries used in electric vehicles.

"About 60 percent of the world's cobalt supply comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and about 20 percent of it is mined by children, Amnesty International reported in 2016."

Full report at cNet: https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-tesla-among-tech-firms-sued-over-child-deaths-in-cobalt-mines/

[TrumanB]

What a wonderful world...

[+OverSword]

Saw this on the news this morning.   The question is how are they supposed to know?  Do they send a team out to see exactly how the operation is run or do they just purchase lithium from a company?  

[+Not A Rockstar]

Outstanding! 

As for how they should know, they need to go and find out. They sure work hard to make profits out of the country to make a buck and they know totally well the poor countries will let them do pretty much anything in trade for a few pennies, if they can even afford to control the corps at all.

Cheap clothes, cheap coffee and tea, all of that it is overdue for some equity here and forcing profits back to the whole chain, not just the corp at the top.

JMO.

[Piney]

1 hour ago, OverSword said:

  The question is how are they supposed to know? 

Oh, they know......

[TrumanB]

Those with resources know everything...and they don't care.

[freetoroam]

Will people stop.buying these companies products now?  I very much doubt it.

[TrumanB]

5 hours ago, freetoroam said:

Will people stop.buying these companies products now?  I very much doubt it.

Unfortunately, you're right. I even do freelance work for one of those companies. And I can't afford myself to lose a job.