I read this story about slave labor in Brazil:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a4j1VKZq34TM&refer=news
The article about slave labor in the Amazon area of Brazil. People work in horrible conditions with no pay. The conditions he lives in are horrible, and he cannot get out of his situation, because he has no means or funds to leave. There are about 1 millions slaves in the area - and there labor goes to produce goods used in the United States. One of the companies that found out about the slave labor, Ford Motor Company, decided to stop buying those products and find other means when it found out. Another company, Nucor Corp, continues to buy. Kohler and Whirlpool make statements about how slavery is wrong, but they do not take any action. GM does. They hault trading with Interment when the company didn't answer questions fast enough. That is the ethical thing to do. Taking action is what changes the world for the better. Some companies claim they didn't know about the slave labor -- or that it was hard to find out about. That is a cop-out. Companies need to find out about this kind of thing, and when it is brought to light, they need to not make cheap excuses. PR professionals need to be ethical in their decision making by making sure companies do this. There should be zero tolerance as far as things like slave labor is concerned. Just because it isn't happening in our own backyard does not mean it is ok. Companies should definitely seek out manufacturers that have ethical backgrounds. Making ethical decisions - despite the consequences financially is the hard, but right thing to do.
posted by ginamari9 @ 8:22 AM
1 Comments:
Gina,
I read the original story in the Bloomberg Markets and think you may have a few things mixed up.
While the situation is appalling and the conditions unspeakable, I don't think corporate America is necessarily to blame. Their supplier's supplier withheld this information from them and now the U.S. Congress is looking into it. Any corporation or company, that continued to buy from the suppliers in question after learning of the slave labor, should certainly feel shame or at least suffer any kind of negative publicity repercussions. But, as I recall, Bloomberg reported that Ford and Kohler were the only two companies that acted responsibly by discontinuing business relations with National Material Trading (a U.S.-based supplier... Illinois, I think) who buys from Cosipar, the Brazilian supplier who buys directly from the slave labor charcoal camps (charcoal being primary ingredient in pig iron.) Toyota is "looking into it" and GM actually reinstated Intermet (who is supplied by Cosipar) after National Material Trading and Cosipar provided "enough evidence" to disprove the slave labor claims. It seemed to me that only Ford and Kohler responded correctly. Even with all the evidence in the world, these two companies realized that the facts have been skewed in the past and that the definition of slavery is apparently subjective in Brazil and still will not bend to support any supplier or vendor remotely connected with such allegations.
I agree on the zero tolerance of slave labor but we need to start at the root of the problem instead of at the leaves.
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