Apple 'broke law' by pushing out labor-organizing dev

[worik]

Not a surprise that another Evil Corp. LLC is organising against their workers.

We should not let them get so big, and still be for profit.

When firms get past a certain small size they should be reorginised into non-profit trusts

[bmitc]

And maybe they shouldn't be actively given tax breaks.

[devilkin]

I do find it hilarious how little traction this story gets, but if it would be the identical story about Google, meta, x, ... it'd probably blow up.

[cmonreally123]

Why would it, not like the government has the balls to make it hurt Apple's business.

Company pays bribe for cost of doing business world shocked.

[bmitc]

Apple is probably the world's best marketing and logistics company. They're a consumer electronics company second. I don't even like the taste of their marketing, but there is no doubt that they have been able to create this cloud around them that makes their proponents completely engrossed in everything Apple does.

In my experience, it is quite striking when you realize the lack of knowledge people in the Apple ecosystem have of other computing environments. And the idea that Apple is probably the most draconian company when it comes to product design, behind the scenes logistics and business dealings, customer feedback and interaction, open source squashing, etc. but yet still maintains this ora of the "just works" (spoiler: it doesn't) and cool vibes company is beyond me. They effectively fleeced their consumer base for hundreds if not thousands selling them overpriced dongles that were intentionally designed in, and not only did people just go with it, they seemed to lap it up.

[oysterville]

Government findings and/or fines do not affect the bottom line enough to change behaviors. Only sufficient numbers of consumers willing to change buying decisions will ever stop corporations from doing things that they shouldn't.

[Etheryte]

I don't know, look at the EU and you see government mandates and fines doing plenty of work. We only got USB-C in iPhones pretty much because the EU mandated it. Similarly on many other fronts, it may take time as the first waves of court cases get worked out, but any company that overlooks the rules there does so at its own peril. There is no reason that the US can't have the same, aside from lack of political will.

[bryanlarsen]

That's what companies want you to believe because they don't want government oversight. The only thing that will truly change behavior for companies the size of Apple are actions with billion dollar significance. Consumers can't do that, only governments can.

[Forbo]

Change the fines to be based on percentages of revenue and they'll change their tune real quick.

[Two4]

sure, when I pay illegal immigrants less than minimum wage for dangerous work I've broken the law, but when Apple does unfair labour practices they've "broken the law" with "quote marks" around it.

[bryanlarsen]

> when I pay illegal immigrants less than minimum wage for dangerous work I've broken the law

Yes, but you can do it with impunity without getting prosecuted, the same as Apple. If you would, it would fix the illegal immigration problem but nobody actually wants to solve the problem. When white farmers start going to jail is when we'll find out somebody is actually serious about fixing the illegal immigration problem.

[floppiplopp]

Apple is just executing good capitalist praxis against its workers.

[jkaplowitz]

This isn't a substantive response to the article. This article isn't reporting on the complainant's allegations, which are a few years old at this point.

Instead, the article is reporting on a five-day-old decision by the US National Labor Relations Board finding her allegations sufficiently justified that the NLRB itself is asking Apple to give her specified remedies in a settlement, and is scheduling an administrative hearing as part of an official enforcement proceeding by the government against Apple.

While you're right that much journalism is just ghost writing for the wealthy, there's no evidence of that in this article. I think The Register would eagerly write about an NLRB decision against Apple regardless of whether anyone wealthy is pushing the story.

[vlovich123]

I always find this kind of sentiment weird. Do you think less of yourself for living in the country you’re living in because there are people who do illegal or immoral things? Apple is an organization of 160k employees. Even from a numbers game someone is going to be doing something problematic.

Additionally it’s important to remember that the news report is a one-sided interview basically. It’s hard to know what’s going to be established as fact here until it hits the courts.

[xyst]

I have yet to find a F50 company that has been completely “moral” from the start to now. They have all at some point stepped on the backs of numerous people (slave labor, toxic/unsafe working conditions), governments (tax dodging), and entities (ie, other companies) to get to this point. C-level executives are the worst offenders.