Major Car Corporations Use Brazilian Slave Labor, Says Greenpeace

Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism
May 20, 2012

 

 

 

 

Some of the most popular car corporations are involved in illegal logging and slave labor.

Multi-national car companies like Ford, General Motors (which is owned by the US government) and BMW are sourcing materials from Brazil that are fueling slave labor camps and deforestation, according to Greenpeace .
In 2006, BMW and General Motors were exposed as having business relationships with slave labor camps to mine charcoal. Even with the exposure, these corporations continue their illicit dealings either directly or indirectly.

For more than a decade, the Brazilian government, in collaboration with the International Labor Organization and the US Department of Labor have recorded the use of charcoal in pig iron that originated from suppliers in Para in the Amazon.

Brazil is known as a definitive exporter of pig iron. This ingredient is integral to the production of steel and cast iron. To manufacture pig iron requires a plethora of charcoal.

Greenpeace has analyzed data from Brazilian customs reports to several international corporations that deal in pig iron. Greenpeace stated that the histories of the suppliers to the charcoal shows usage of slave labor camps and intent to conceal their business relationships.

Car manufacturers such as Ford, General Motors, BMW, Mercedes, and Nissan have had business dealings with Severstal steel mill located in Columbus, Mississippi.

John Deere and ThyssonKrupp purchase from National Material Trading.

The link between all these corporations and steel mills are Viena.
Viena and another supplier called Sidepar are the middlemen between the steel mill suppliers and the slave labor camps. These camps are known for the physical abuse and lack of concern for the endangered forests they destroy to produce their pig iron.

“By buying this steel, these well-known brands are helping to destroy the Amazon,” said Greenpeace Brazil Amazon campaign director Paulo Adario in a statement. “President Dilma [Rousseff] must protect the Amazon and the people who depend on it by ending deforestation, slavery and the invasion of indigenous lands.”

As of 2008 the International Labor Organization recorded an estimated 40,000 slave laborers within Brazil.

More than 1,200 were “employed” by the pig iron industry, while an alarming 5,600 were involved in deforestation efforts.

While Greenpeace will be bringing their findings to the Earth Summit in Rio next month, they have a dedicated agenda of shining light on these atrocities for the world’s leaders to see.

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