@ Hyundai subsidiary used child labor Alabama plant

[pixy0stix]

www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-hyundai-subsidiary-has-used-child-labor-alabama-factory-2022-07-22/

[Velar Fricative]

Fucking fuck.

So they outsource hiring to avoid needing to deal with actually ensuring they’re not hiring children, but there they are on the floor looking like children to everyone around them.

Close the borders except for child laborers, I guess.

[wawa]

Really hoping the lack of comment or info on prosecution here is because they're building a good case to really nail the big bosses to the wall rather than just take out the staffing agency....

Because COME THE FUCK ON.

[penguingrrl]

What the fuck?

[NewOrleans]

“Many of the minors at the plant were hired through recruitment agencies, according to current and former SMART workers and local labor recruiters.” So they target children. They specifically recruit them.

The dad “told Reuters he regrets that his children had gone to work. The family needed any income it could get at the time.” The American Dream. That is just so sad.

For clarity— is this Hyundai’s fault at large, or is this more that specific plant’s fault plus recruiters?

[Velar Fricative]

Aug 2, 2022 7:37:39 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

“Many of the minors at the plant were hired through recruitment agencies, according to current and former SMART workers and local labor recruiters.” So they target children. They specifically recruit them.

The dad “told Reuters he regrets that his children had gone to work. The family needed any income it could get at the time.” The American Dream. That is just so sad.

For clarity— is this Hyundai’s fault at large, or is this more that specific plant’s fault plus recruiters?

Hyundai was warned in Korea by the former OSHA higher-up that there were safety lapses. Even if executives had zero idea before, 1) the buck still stops with Hyundai, ultimately, and 2) they sure as hell should have intervened once informed.

To be clear though, I absolutely lay most of the blame on everyone involved at the ground level in recruiting children. Fuck them all. But Hyundai isn’t innocent here either.

[sent]

Auto manufacturers left the bad blue states with all those pesky laws and unions. They raced to set up in the welcoming red states and here we are.

It’s like the most un-American thing to do in my lifetime has become to not pay fair wages for Americans to make things that Americans need. Why is an auto plant relying on migrant workers to begin with?

[pixy0stix]

Aug 2, 2022 8:35:24 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Aug 2, 2022 7:37:39 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

“Many of the minors at the plant were hired through recruitment agencies, according to current and former SMART workers and local labor recruiters.” So they target children. They specifically recruit them.

The dad “told Reuters he regrets that his children had gone to work. The family needed any income it could get at the time.” The American Dream. That is just so sad.

For clarity— is this Hyundai’s fault at large, or is this more that specific plant’s fault plus recruiters?

Hyundai was warned in Korea by the former OSHA higher-up that there were safety lapses. Even if executives had zero idea before, 1) the buck still stops with Hyundai, ultimately, and 2) they sure as hell should have intervened once informed.

To be clear though, I absolutely lay most of the blame on everyone involved at the ground level in recruiting children. Fuck them all. But Hyundai isn’t innocent here either.

Yeah, divorced of the child labor allegations, the problems at this plant are significant and Hyundai corporate turned a blind eye to meet quotas.

[4speedy]

Please don’t quote and @

poof

[pixy0stix]

Interesting article about how the story broke - www.npr.org/2022/07/24/1113281637/behind-the-investigative-report-on-child-labor-allegations-at-hyundai-alabama-pl

As far as why this happened, child migrants have always been part of our labor force. Most often they're embedded in our agricultural institutions as it's easier to hide them there. I think we're going to see more of this in our industrial spaces because of labor shortages. I'm not the least surprised that it cropped up in the auto industry. That labor has to come from somewhere.

[gretchenindisguise]

But we should absolutely cut all regulations because companies will totally do the right thing. Isn’t that the argument?

[pixy0stix]

Aug 2, 2022 9:30:08 GMT -5 gretchenindisguise said:

But we should absolutely cut all regulations because companies will totally do the right thing. Isn’t that the argument?

TX is laying the roadmap to make sure that kids like these don't have to go to school, which will totally fatten up the labor pools. Just one more layer of protection they want to strip away to help big business.

[Deleted]

Aug 2, 2022 9:33:39 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Aug 2, 2022 9:30:08 GMT -5 gretchenindisguise said:

But we should absolutely cut all regulations because companies will totally do the right thing. Isn’t that the argument?

TX is laying the roadmap to make sure that kids like these don't have to go to school, which will totally fatten up the labor pools. Just one more layer of protection they want to strip away to help big business.

Not surprising. The same people would be shocked and horrified at young white kids going to work in an auto factory, but brown kids? They don’t bat an eyelash.

[Velar Fricative]

Aug 2, 2022 9:53:48 GMT -5 @villainv said:

Aug 2, 2022 9:33:39 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

TX is laying the roadmap to make sure that kids like these don't have to go to school, which will totally fatten up the labor pools. Just one more layer of protection they want to strip away to help big business.

Not surprising. The same people would be shocked and horrified at young white kids going to work in an auto factory, but brown kids? They don’t bat an eyelash.

Because people are terrible, I have no doubt that they're doing this not just because they have quotas to meet, but because they deem it appropriate punishment for brown families crossing the border (especially if they feel like the feds aren't doing enough on border control). Like, hey desperate parents, don't expect your kids to get an education here - they need to work grueling jobs just like you with the constant threat of deportation if they don't. 

[AJL]

Aug 2, 2022 9:33:39 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Aug 2, 2022 9:30:08 GMT -5 gretchenindisguise said:

But we should absolutely cut all regulations because companies will totally do the right thing. Isn’t that the argument?

TX is laying the roadmap to make sure that kids like these don't have to go to school, which will totally fatten up the labor pools. Just one more layer of protection they want to strip away to help big business.

It’s worse than that (per the bold text). Abbott wants to challenge the SCOTUS Plyler decision to make it so that school districts can out right refuse to educate undocumented children. It’s not about making education optional. It’s about barring access to public education all together. But to accomplish that, Texas would also have to change its compulsory education laws and it’s actually not easy to change laws in Texas. Right now the language does not specify legal status of students and the current law prohibits districts of even collecting that information. I don’t think something like this would pass without totally challenging anti-discrimination laws.

[BlondeSpiders]

4speedy, that is just crazy! Thanks for sharing your experience.

[sparty04]

4speedy- I feel like the company your H works for always gets the bad publicity even though other companies are the same or worse (my H works there too).

[4speedy]

Aug 2, 2022 14:41:34 GMT -5 sparty04 said:

4speedy - I feel like the company your H works for always gets the bad publicity even though other companies are the same or worse (my H works there too).

While I agree that the company does seem to get hit harder, that wasn’t the point I was trying to make above.  I was trying to make the point that in Korea, the general sentiment is that someone must ALWAYS take responsibility no matter what, no exceptions.  I was trying to show the hypocrisy of Hyundai passing the buck when they did the same exact thing that people went ballistic about in Korea.

[sparty04]

Aug 2, 2022 15:15:21 GMT -5 4speedy said:

Aug 2, 2022 14:41:34 GMT -5 sparty04 said:

4speedy - I feel like the company your H works for always gets the bad publicity even though other companies are the same or worse (my H works there too).

While I agree that the company does seem to get hit harder, that wasn’t the point I was trying to make above.  I was trying to make the point that in Korea, the general sentiment is that someone must ALWAYS take responsibility no matter what, no exceptions.  I was trying to show the hypocrisy of Hyundai passing the buck when they did the same exact thing that people went ballistic about in Korea.

Oh, I know. Sorry, I should have specified that. Your comment just reminded me of how much it pisses me off

[SusanBAnthony]

I read an interesting article years ago about manufacturing safety in the auto industry in the US.

There were 3 factors. Proximity to Detroit, your tier (directly with the car company, down to 3rd tier suppliers), and union or not.

The data was shocking (or not if you think about it, but it was just surprising that it was so consistent) that the higher tier, closer to Detroit, union plants had very good safety records, and they got worse and worse as you moved away from that. You are screwed if you work for a non unionized 3rd tier supplier in Alabama. And as a bonus pay drops too. There are multiple documented safety issues at some plants but idk nothing ever seems to get shut down, so I imagine the fines are less than the cost of making meaningful change.

I know that's not directly applicable and I don't have a link to the article, but I think it speaks to the general culture.