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Article

3 Nov 2006

Author:
Michael Smith & David Voreacos, Bloomberg

Slaves in Amazon Forced to Make Materials Used by GM

...[N]early 1 million men and women work for little or no wages as forced laborers in Latin America, according to the...International Labor Organization...The charcoal [slave]...laborers produce by burning scraps of hardwood [in Brazil are]...used to make pig iron, a basic ingredient of steel. That pig iron [is]...purchased by brokers, sold to steelmakers and foundries and then purchased by some of the world's largest companies for use in cars, tractors, sinks and refrigerators made for U.S. consumers. In Peru, slaves mine gold that ends up at the world's biggest banks. Other Peruvian slaves log mahogany...The products of slave labor enter the U.S. economy because corporations don't ask their suppliers enough questions and haven't worked to root out slavery, says Seungjin Whang...of the Stanford Graduate School of Business's Global Supply Chain Management Forum...[Links the following companies to slave labour & includes statements/responses by them: Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Toyota, Whirlpool, Kohler, Nucor, Andersen Corp, C.F. Martin, National Material, Cosipar (Cia. Siderurgica do Para SA), Intermet, DaimlerChrysler, Simasa (Siderurgica do Maranhao SA, part of Queiroz Galvão), Intat Precision (part of Aisin Seiki), Honda, ThyssenKrupp, John Deere, Volvo, TBM Hardwoods/T. Baird McIlvain International. Also refers to forced labour involving Usina Siderurgica de Maraba (Usimar), Maderera Bozovich. Refers to better conditions at Ferro Gusa Carajas (joint venture Nucor & Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, or CVRD).]