Summary
Brazilian authorities discovered 163 Chinese workers allegedly living in “slavery-like conditions” at a BYD electric vehicle factory construction site in Camacari.
Prosecutors suspect human trafficking under contractor Jinjiang Group, citing poor living conditions such as mattress-less beds and inadequate cooking facilities.
BYD terminated its contract with the contractor but dismissed the allegations as a smear campaign against Chinese brands.
The workers have been moved to hotels, but their current whereabouts remain unclear as investigations continue. BYD’s factory is set to begin production next year.
I mean, they are undercutting everyone on price on their cars. How else are they going to reach those prices without exploiting their workers.
The Western car brands do this too, but instead of making things cheap they keep the price for ICE cars for even more profit.
Western car brands enslave people in their factories? Where?
Hyundai in Alabama.
Hyundai and Kia are not western brands.
They are also not employing children if you read the articleclol
Fair enough.
BMW and other luxury brands source paint material from mines in India with child labor too.
Most lithium and cobalt supplied for Tesla is from slave operated mines in the DRC, but if a particular mine isn’t full of slaves then the food and water is extremely restricted.
I can go on.
In the supply chain. OEM parts are not made by the car brands.
For example, Ford doesn’t make headlights. They buy them from a headlight company. If the headlights were made by kids, do you blame Ford or the headlight company?
Yeah. About time they were held accountable for due diligence on their supply chain. ‘i didn’t know’ wouldn’t fly as a defence for an individual, why should it for a corporation? Convenient deniability of accountability.
You know the conditions for workers who made every item you bought?
I blame both. Fuck Ford for sourcing parts made by child labor, and fuck the manufacturer for using child labor.
Both.