Korean auto giant Hyundai investigating child labor in its U.S. supply chain:
Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS), Korea's top automaker, is investigating child labor violations in its U.S. supply chain and plans to "sever ties" with Hyundai suppliers in Alabama found to have relied on underage workers, the company's global chief operating officer Jose Munoz told Reuters on Wednesday.
A Reuters investigative report in July documented children, including a 12-year-old, working at a Hyundai-controlled metal stamping plant in rural Luverne, Alabama, called SMART Alabama, LLC.
Following the Reuters report, Alabama's state Department of Labor, in coordination with federal agencies, began investigating SMART Alabama. Authorities subsequently launched a child labor probe at another of Hyundai's regional supplier plants, Korean-operated SL Alabama, finding children as young as age 13.
In an interview before a Reuters event in Detroit on Wednesday, Munoz said Hyundai intends to "sever relations" with the two Alabama supplier plants under scrutiny for deploying underage labor "as soon as possible."
In addition, Munoz told Reuters he had ordered a broader investigation into Hyundai's entire network of U.S. auto parts suppliers for potential labor law violations and "to ensure compliance."
Munoz's comments represent the Korean automotive giant's most substantive public acknowledgment to date that child labor violations may have occurred in its U.S. supply chain, a network of dozens of mostly Korean-owned auto-parts plants that supply Hyundai's massive vehicle assembly plant in Montgomery, Alabama.
Hyundai's $1.8 billion flagship U.S. assembly plant in Montgomery produced nearly half of the 738,000 vehicles the automaker sold in the United States last year, according to company figures.
(Score: -1, Troll) by VLM on Saturday October 22 2022, @05:13PM (15 children)
Inevitable result of "no humans are illegal" and "you have to treat me as I identify myself" is going to be child labor.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2022, @05:21PM (1 child)
Now I only want to buy products made by the hands of poor Alabamanian children.
(Score: 1, Troll) by VLM on Saturday October 22 2022, @05:41PM
That's kind of my comment's point, they're not Alabamanian kids, they're illegal aliens from another country.
If you allow "no humans are illegal" then you'll end up with latino kids self identifying as "I am legal to work in the USA" even if they're like 12 and from El Salvador.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Michael on Saturday October 22 2022, @06:35PM (3 children)
Is that how you think the hr contractor ended up hiring illegals? I get that it's just a flippant way to divert attention away from a race to the bottom driven by market forces and enabled by an uncivilised lack of corporate regulation, but what are the mental gymnastics you use to superficially justify the dogwhistles?
Paint me a picture. Kid walks into a recruiter (or gets dropped off by the coyotes the recruiter retains), what did the kid say to trick the recruiter into doing _what_they'd_already_been_doing_for_decades_ (before the rwnj's "identify as" trope) ?
Was their historical motivation something different to the current round of moral panic over trannies supposedly coming to get you with their oppressive pronouns ? (I presume that's what you're alluding to with the trumped up identity politics reference?)
Is it turtles all the way down? Before identity politics, was is "something something, blame the blacks" and before that "blah blah the irish" ?
Is there any point at which, scrolling back through the long list of scapegoats, you start to wonder what all of those situations have in common? If feeding A into a system produces X, and feeding B into it also produces X, and C more X, and D, E, F = X, X and X again, at what point do you start wondering if the system is just inherently biased towards X ? Or is that just a prompt for the bootlickers to start scrabbling around for something to slot into G ?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2022, @06:55PM (2 children)
1) "identity politics": being scolded, punished, ostracized, cancelled, etc., for not properly anticipating and reading someone's triggered mind, well, you wrote it: "race to the bottom".
2) Scenario: Country into which it's okay to cross border illegally, wherein company A whose HR dept. is okay with employing illegals. Illegal adult worker brings (also illegal) kid to work. Another day for whatever reason illegal adult doesn't go in to work, rather sends child in to do the job. Who is company A going to report it to? US Dept. Labor? ICE?
The Woke Dept.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Michael on Saturday October 22 2022, @08:08PM (1 child)
So if that's the reason it's happening, how do you explain it happening before that was a thing?
There's just no way to make that make sense in the context of the direction of causality. Seems like any sensible person would be bothered by that.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday October 23 2022, @12:48AM
Because they hired child laborers and nobody cared?
(Score: 2) by Tork on Saturday October 22 2022, @07:34PM (8 children)
You know... I don't think we're too far away from serious pitching of negative wages to solve certain economic problems. 🤷♂️
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2022, @10:45PM (7 children)
I've seen kids where you could put a 12 year old next to an 18 year old and be unsure which was which. Removing the need to provide identity paperwork is what lets companies employ cheap kids with impunity. Even if someone catches them, it is just "we didn't know".
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Tork on Saturday October 22 2022, @10:54PM (6 children)
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2022, @11:02PM (5 children)
requiring ID is racist...
(Score: 2) by Tork on Saturday October 22 2022, @11:11PM
Slashdolt Logic: "25 year old jokes about sharks and lasers are +5, Funny." 💩
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday October 23 2022, @03:27AM (3 children)
No, no it isn't. Can you quote me a law that states that? People of all colours, races, and religious beliefs are asked for their ID everyday. Have you flown internationally recently? Have you even crossed any borders with another country?
There are numerous agencies, organisations and businesses that ask for ID every day. It is often required before financial transactions, to ascertain that somebody is eligible to purchase something or receive some kind of service, or simply to prove to someone who you are.
It is certainly not illegal. I am assuming therefore that your comment was supposed to be sarcastic?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 24 2022, @03:56AM (2 children)
You really disappoint me. Do you even know what sarcasm and mockery are?
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday October 24 2022, @06:23AM (1 child)
Yes, I do. But as sarcasm depends on so many verbal cues and is a very individual thing we often use the '/s' digraph to let the reader know that it is intended.
Oh, I shall now lie awake at night disappointed and heartbroken that I have let you down. I've let you down, I've let my teachers down, I've let my school down, and most of all I have let myself down. /s
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 24 2022, @09:11PM
I was obviously mocking people that believe IDs are racist because "people of color are more likely to be disenfranchised since they are less likely to have photo ID than the general population."
Apparently a Whoosh is in order
Apologies in advanced for my extravagant expectations
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2022, @05:33PM
Is the problem in Alabama similar to the problem in China?
https://clb.org.hk/content/china-sees-progress-tackling-child-labour-problems-remain [clb.org.hk]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RamiK on Saturday October 22 2022, @05:44PM (3 children)
I'm just guessing here but something tells me juveniles sentenced as adults are being put to work by the US prisons.
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2022, @06:00PM (2 children)
From what I gather lots of US people are really keen on the punish the criminals thing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2022, @06:58PM (1 child)
> From what I gather lots of US people are really keen on the punish the criminals thing.
Okay, I'm open-minded, what do you suggest instead?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by RamiK on Saturday October 22 2022, @08:30PM
The simple answer is to look at countries that have low recidivism rates for what works and do what they do.
The more involved answer begins with using google scholar to look up "recidivism" and "correctional programs" to see the how and the why punish-the-criminal is a recipe for career criminals, gangs and more and worse violent crimes.
compiling...
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 22 2022, @05:48PM
That isn't good enough, by a long shot. The plants are owned by South Koreans, who presumably have ownership, or part ownership, in other plants around the world. If Hyundai is serious, they well sever relations with every single plant owned, or partly owned, by any of these owners, in the US, S. Korea, or elsewhere. It is, ultimately, the owners who are responsible for these violations. Hyundai should outlaw the participation of outside temporary services in their plants as well.
At the same time, US officials should be pursuing all the temp services involved. People need to be imprisoned, and made examples of. If no one suffers, others will take the same risks because the penalties are meaningless.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: -1, Troll) by VLM on Saturday October 22 2022, @07:45PM (2 children)
If you google the story gets weirder and weirder.
Apparently, despite the guy investigating it being named "Rosenberg" (the usual coincidence generator) the interview at NPR quotes him as: "ROSENBERG: Well, we were not able to confirm if there are currently children working there."
The whole situation seems to be a PR blackmail type situation where there's multiple simultaneous hit pieces very carefully phrased along the lines of "allegations" and so forth and any detailed reports beyond the headlines indicate that nobody has any evidence any child labor ever occurred at any time.
So, why cancel the contract if nothing ever happened? What I think, is the contract Hyundai used to have with them, probably along with some illegal contract kickback payments, is likely to go to a competitor that pays Hyundai better under the table cash kickbacks.
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Saturday October 22 2022, @10:58PM
I bet they aren't any currently.
Reuters story [reuters.com] from July
I reckon it would be rather DUMB to continue breaking the law with investigations in progress and when Hyundai said that should never happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2022, @11:12PM
Who said "nothing ever"?
[Citation or GTFO]