Activists delivered a quarter of a million signatures to the Apple store in Grand Central on Thursday, asking the company to improve labor conditions for its suppliers’ workers in overseas factories.

Sarah Ryan, human rights organizer from Change.org, was among a handful of activists who delivered signatures collected on the site to the Apple’s store manager Thursday morning.

“It’s my delight to carry all these signatures from around the world,” she said.

Last month, Mark Shields, an Apple user from Washington, D.C., posted a petition on Change.org asking Apple to release a worker production strategy for new product releases and to publish the results of the Fair Labor Association monitoring of its suppliers in China.

“We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain,” Amy Bessette, Apple’s spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We insist that our suppliers provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect, and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes wherever Apple products are made.”

Bessette, Apple's spokeswoman, said the Fair Labor Association's auditing team will have access to the company’s supply chain and that they will report their findings independently on their website.

An investigation by The New York Times last month and This American Life portrayed conditions workers in Chinese factories that Apple uses face, leading to increased pressure on the company.

Consumer watchdog group SumOfUs.org, also posted a petition, asking Apple to “overhaul the way its suppliers treat their workers in time for the launch of the iPhone 5,” which is expected later this year.

SumOfUs.org and Change.org joined their efforts and, next to New York, delivered the 250,000 signatures to Apple stores in Washington, DC, San Francisco, London, Sydney and Bangalore.

Shelby Knox, director of organizing with Change.org, who was outfitted in a sandwich board emblazoned with an image of what she called “an ethical iPhone," said she expected Apple will listen to the demands and “treat the people who work for them as they treat their customers.”

Ryan said most of the now nearly 200,000 people who signed the petition asked for more ethical standards from Apple, rather than for a boycott of their ubiquitous products.

Though labor conditions in China might be a problem for other companies as well, she added, Apple’s customers expect of the company to step-up its efforts and be the leader that sets the standards.