The Brazilian Amazon is home to slave labor camps where workers make charcoal that helps produce pig iron used in cars, trucks and appliances—some manufactured and sold in the United States.
“These are people who have absolutely no economic value except as cheap labor under the most inhumane conditions imaginable,” Marcelo Campos, who runs the Brazilian labor ministry’s Grupo Especial de Fiscalizacao Movel, or Special Mobile Enforcement Group. “And none of it would exist without multinational companies demanding the products they produce. They are a key part of the globalized, export-oriented economy Brazil thrives upon.”
Campos’ group has freed more than 20,000 slaves. Some of the multinational companies that he is talking about include: Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., Nissan Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp., Whirpool Corp., and Kohler Co.
Bloomberg Newswire also reported that "Cia. Vale do Rio Doce, the world’s largest iron ore producer, said it would stop selling ore to pig iron companies suspected of using materials made by slaves in Brazil."
The Brazilian government believes that the decision by CVRD could be a turning point in the fight against slavery.