Auto Industry Giant Being Investigated For US Child Labor Violations
Hyundai found that a third-party vendor in Alabama had children—reportedly as young as 12—working in a factory that makes parts for the car company.
Hyundai, the Korean car giant, produces the extremely popular Hyundai suite of cars including the Elantra, the Sonata, the Santa Fe, and the Tucson, and owns less than half of Kia Motors, found that children were working in an Alabama-based plant. This is against child labor laws in the US and Hyundai is working to find out how it happened.
According to CNN, an investigative report by Reuters found children working in Alabama at a third-party vendor that makes parts for Hyundai. Hyundai immediately said it would sever ties with SMART Alabama, a company located in remote Luverne, Alabama as it is against child labor.
Child labor was found in the US supply chain as some areas of the country have an influx of migrants and refugees. Companies–or third-party vendors– then prey on children to get them to come to work. This was the case with Hyundai. A lot of times, companies will claim they didn’t know they were children since migrants will get forged IDs in order to work “legally” in the US.
It’s not just Hyundai, however, that has experienced child labor in the US supply chain. Rural areas are rife for having children working in warehouses while the main company may not be aware. Unfortunately, Alabama recently came under fire for having Guetamalan children working in a chicken processing plant.
It is unknown if the occurrences were related, but as more and more children come over the border from Guatemala to flee some of the world’s poorest areas, they are finding they end up in the wrong hands. Children may be handed over to a relative living in the US, however, the family owes a debt to those who brought the child over in the first place. This is why they are put to work in places that work for Hyundai.
It is unclear if some children are “trafficked” but many instances illustrate how fleeing unaccompanied minors are indeed taken advantage of and placed into unsafe environments. The Hyundai situation may be a bit different than what Burger King was recently facing, but it still shows how large corporations either knowingly or unknowingly take advantage of children.
It’s a stark contrast to how some kids in the US decide to steal Kias and Hyundais because of a social media challenge, while other kids are making them. Last year, it was reported that US Customs and Border Protection intercepted unaccompanied minors more than 169,000 times at the southern border, five times more than a year earlier.
Under President Joe Biden, unaccompanied minors can be turned over to sponsors in the US. However, big plants and companies are preying on them. Reportedly, authorities are struggling to keep this from happening as the bureaucracy that surrounds migrant children is a challenge to navigate. Did the Hyundai situation just show how easy it is for them to slip through the red tape?
Hyundai says that it will push to stop relying on third-party vendors and labor suppliers in the southern US. According to CNN, the brand will oversee hiring operations itself.
