Political activist Ralph Nader, in an open letter sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook, on Thursday, has urged the Cupertino to reduce its spending on corporate buybacks and spend the same to raise wages.
According to the Wall Street Journal report, Mr. Nader, who has been a presidential candidate for over five times, said Apple should consider spending its profit on improving working conditions and living wages of its employees, rather than using its surplus to buyback company’s stocks.
“‘Designed by Apple in California’ has a nicer ring to it than ‘assembled by workers paid about a dollar per hour, working 11-hour shifts, and sleeping eight to a room in the Jabil Circuit corporate dormitories in Wuxi, China’,” read Nader’s letter dated October 23.
Nader wrote that “if instead of buying back stock, Apple had used its excess $130 billion to endow a foundation to achieve these reforms, it would have paid out — at a conservative five percent interest — $6.5 billion annually, enough to double wages and ensure a 40-hour workweek for hundreds of thousands of iPhone workers, while leaving a $1.1 billion surplus as an annual budget for ensuring top-notch health, safety and environmental standards at Apple factories.”
Mr. Nader’s letter opposes billionaire investor Carl Icahn’s demand pressuring the Cupertino of extracting more value for shareholders by buying back more of its stock using its $133 billion cash pile.
Apple declined to comment on Nader’s letter.
