From Krysta Bisnauth, Freedom United

We wrote to Volkswagen, Toyota, Stellantis (which owns several popular brands including Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat and Peugeot), Mercedes-Benz, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Tesla, Nissan and BYD (a Chinese brand) to ask how they have responded in the three months since the report ‘Driving Force: Automotive Supply Chains and Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region’[1] was released.

Only one company responded – and it was more of the same boilerplate answer given to the researchers.[2] We have no indication that any car brand has launched urgent investigations towards divesting from this forced labor system.

"If you have bought a car in the last five years, some of its parts were likely made by Uyghurs and others forced to work in China...The auto industry cannot wait another day to trace their supply chains back to the raw materials. To do anything short of full tracing would be an enormous legal, ethical, and reputational risk.” - Driving Force: Automotive Supply Chains and Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region

We know that other car companies are benefiting from exploitation and forced labor, but companies like Volkswagen represent a massive share of the global car market that has not taken the necessary steps to be more transparent about its supply chain.
 

Take action today and urge them to cut ties with the Uyghur forced labor system.

In solidarity, 

Krysta and the team supporting the Freedom United community

[1] https://www.shuforcedlabour.org/drivingforce/

[2] Corporate Responses