Apple's joins the Fair Labor Association, power of U.S. Universities

14 Jan in Technology

As Apple's iPad is poised to become a future mainstay and fixture at colleges and universities, the one monkey on Apple's back has been its own labor policies and practices.

United States colleges and universities have long been a driving force for fair labor around the world.

Apparel and merchandise licensed for sale by universities are almost all required to be a member of the Fair Labor Association (FLA) or otherwise commit to and insure certain labor conditions for workers.

As many schools are readying to provide or make iPad and ebook type devices part of the learning experience, Apple's labor practices and its historic reluctance to conform to any set of labor standards and/or explicit manufacturing location disclosures, would have been an ultimate deal breaker for colleges and universities to make deals with Apple.

So it is not some higher plain of enlightenment that has helped Apple see the light, but the decades of fighting for fair labor at U.S. colleges and universities that aligned profit motive with moral motive.

Image Credit: http://www.softwarenewsdaily.com/2010/03/apple-admits-to-using-child-labor