I recently read the March 2007 issue of Bloomberg Markets, a finance magazine, and learned that Toyota is buying a product that was made by slaves in Brazil. According to the Bloomberg Update, in the Mailbox section of the magazine, this product, called pig iron, is “a necessary ingredient in the steel that’s used in nearly all cars made in the U.S.”
The Brazilian government raided a camp that houses slaves in May. That camp supplies a Brazilian-based company called Usimar with charcoal made by slaves. Usimar uses the slave-made charcoal and sells pig iron to Toyota. Toyota uses this pig iron to make automobiles that we buy.
An article on the slave-labor used to make the charcoal that produces pig iron was first published in Bloomberg Markets on November 2nd. On December 4th Ford, DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, and Honda “announced plans to work together to train suppliers to avoid buying materials made by slaves.” Toyota joined this anti-slavery effort on December 21st. Though late to the dock, Toyota seemed to be onboard.
However, “U.S. Customs records show that Toyota Tsusho America in New York was named as the importer of 13,699 metric tons of pig iron from Usimar on Nov. 4 – two days after the article was published. Toyota Tsusho America imported another shipment, of 11,831 tons of pig iron, from Usimar on Dec. 26, records show. From March 29 to Dec. 26, Toyota Tsusho America received seven shipments totaling 80,378 tons of pig iron from Usimar, Customs records show. They were delivered to ports in Charleston, South Carolina, and Baton Rouge and Gramercy, Louisiana, the documents show.”
It should only add insult to this injury against every American, of every hue, to learn that Toyota imported products made with slave labor to two former slave-holding states in our country. And to think that American money – our hard-earned cash – supports slavery anywhere in the world is intolerable.
We have to let Toyota know that slave labor is unacceptable. Contact them via email:
http://toyota.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/toyota.cfg/php/enduser/ask_intercept.php
Or call the Toyota Customer Experience Center: 800 331 4331.
You can also fax Toyota’s Torrace, CA office: 310 468 7814.
Tell the company that you know it is using slave-made pig iron to manufacture Toyota automobiles. Tell them you will boycott all Toyota cars and trucks if necessary until you can be sure that when you ride in a Toyota, you won’t be riding on the backs of slaves.
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Let all US companies know that slave labor is unacceptable.
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there are 27 million slaves in the world today; 10,000 of them live in this country. for more info on these statistics and what you can do to help, contact “free the slaves,” which Bloomberg Markets calls the US arm of the oldest human rights organization in the world.
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Your website lists you as a Journalist, so either you are a biased journalist or not a very good journalist. The reason I say this is because in January of 2007 Bloomberg wrote a followup article regarding slave labor, pig iron and Toyota. The key word being followup. In November 2006 they wrote their main piece on slavery, pig iron, and GM, FORD, WHIRLPOOL, KOHLER, ALL of the steel manufacturers in the U.S. and many other U.S. manufacturers who purchased pig iron from producers accused of purchasing charcoal from companies that use slave labor.
So either you work for one of the American companies, do not like to see Toyota selling more cars in the U.S. than the American companies, or you like to write articles without really doing any research on the topic before hand making you a lousy journalist.
Before your 18 avid fans inundate Toyota with their 18 emails or phone calls, look at your own country, who did not buy 18,000 ton this year, but purchased over 4,000,000 ton from the same producers accused of buying charcoal from companies that have slaves.
While we are on the subject, I also read that the bananas that are sold at most major retail chains buy them from distributors who buy them from Central and South American farmers who have people on their farms that they also do not pay. Coco has cost hundreds of thousands of slaves their lives, not just being forced to work for room and board, but being whipped until they have no skin on their bodies, where are the phone calls to Hershey???
We should not forget about the hundreds of slaves producing charcoal, or the bananas in the market, but try to remember everything you purchase every day comes from Chinese slave labor. 8 year olds working 16 hours a day for pennies a week, at least the slaves in Brazil get room and board. The pennies a week the 8 year old gets does not pay for room and board, so his 5 year old sister must also work 16 hours a day too, just so America can buy cheap products, oh no I forgot, just so we can pay athletes millions of dollars to endorse products that we wind up paying 1000’s% markup because the athlete wears it. Dont worry about the MILLIONS of children in China.
But the 22 slaves they found that they somehow tied into Toyota is much more important that the other MILLIONS.
I am not a jornalist, so I did not check any of your other blogs to see if you touched on the hundreds of thousands of white slaves sold into prostitution, but I am sure if it was as important to you as the 22 slaves and Toyota, white slavery must be somewhere on your site.
A weak excuse for journalism if you ask me, and keep up the good work!!!