China brick-slavery scandal isn’t over

By Tom Stundza -- Purchasing, 8/14/2007 5:50:00 AM

China is still freeing people—including children—forced to work as slaves in illegal brick factories, two months after the scandal was exposed, officials told the Associated Press on Monday. In a related blog this morning, Charles Dominick, president of Next Level Purchasing, says that “hopefully, all of this bad news is a wakeup call to ensure a satisfactory supplier qualification process, not just in sourcing from China but sourcing period.”

The brick-slavery scandal erupted in early June when Li Fulin, vice director of public security in Shanxi province, reported that separate police raids there had rescued almost 600 people. The scandal has caused alarm among the highest ranks of China's ruling Communist Party, with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao issuing orders to deal with the situation, the China News Service reported in June, noting that state television aired disturbing images of abused and emaciated workers living in squalid conditions at a brick factory in the city of Hongtong in Shanxi province.

This week, Xue Yanzhong, executive vice governor of Shanxi province, tells the media that “another 359 slave migrant workers have been rescued in Shanxi since late June, including 15 child workers and 121 mentally handicapped ones.”  

Late last year, Bloomberg reporters uncovered the use of slave labor at pig iron camps in Brazil. In a follow-up survey, Purchasing.com found that the majority of buyers polled (78%) do not have a risk-management strategy in place for suppliers beyond tier one, while 12% said they do have risk management strategies in place for downstream suppliers.

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