From our friends at the United Steelworkers union.
Contact: Jess Kamm Broomell, 412-562-2444, jkamm@usw.org
United Steelworkers (USW) International President Tom Conway released the following statement today in response to a Sheffield Hallam University report detailing the Chinese government’s systematic abuse of Uyghurs and other minorities and the widespread impact this forced labor has on automotive supply chains:
“Today’s report documents not only the human rights violations workers in the Uyghur Region are suffering at the hands of the Chinese government, but the way in which this oppression permeates the supply chains of nearly every major car maker.
“This horrifying abuse, including mass detention and forced labor, is an affront to basic human dignity and cannot be allowed to continue.
“U.S. companies must institute more thorough monitoring of their supply chains and terminate their relationships with companies using forced Uyghur labor.
“We further call on the Biden administration to ensure stricter enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act and prevail upon our trading partners to be similarly diligent in enacting and implementing bans on compromised products.
“Finally, this report lends even greater urgency to the longstanding need to attend to our domestic supply chains. We must build out our own sources for needed materials so that we can strip the Chinese government of its stranglehold on the global economy and its own people.”
The USW represents 850,000 workers employed in metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in health care, public sector, higher education, tech and service occupations.