A new petition is demanding Apple make its next smartphone "the first ethical iPhone," in light of revelations about deadly working conditions at overseas plants where the devices are manufactured.
Consumer watchdog group SumOfUs has posted a new online petition calling for Apple to "overhaul the way its suppliers treat their workers" before the launch of the iPhone 5, rumored to be coming this summer. More than 35,000 people signed the petition in its first 24 hours, SumOfUs said.
"I use an iPhone myself," Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, executive director of SumOfUs, said in a statement. "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."
SumOfUs' campaign follows two reports in The New York Times which shined the spotlight on deadly working conditions at Apple’s supplier facilities in China and questioned whether Cupertino was ignoring such issues in favor of profits. Foxconn, one of Apple's largest suppliers, has come under fire time and again in recent years for its unsafe, military-like conditions that have driven workers to despair and suicide.
At least 14 workers in Foxconn plants in the Chinese cities of Shenzen and Chengdu have committed suicide since early 2010. And this past May, a large explosion at a Foxconn plant in Chengdu where iPads were built killed three people and wounded more than a dozen.
Apple did not respond to the recent media reports, though its CEO Tim Cook reportedly sent out a letter to his staff refuting claims that Apple might be insensitive to worker mistreatment at its factories.
"We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain," reads his letter, which was obtained by 9to5Mac. "Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern. Any suggestion that we don't care is patently false and offensive to us."
In his letter, Cook said Apple has made progress to improve conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers but promised to "dig deeper" into the issue.
"If Tim Cook is really offended by these allegations, why isn't he doing anything to fix the problems?" SumOfUs' Stinebrickner-Kauffman questioned. "This is the supply chain he set up as COO — he needs to start taking responsibility."