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Chinese Automakers in Brazil

“With the influx of Chinese automakers comes concerns that they don't respect Brazilian laws or unions. In China, there are no independent trade unions, they are all under the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, which is led by the ruling Communist Party of China. Independent trade unions in China are banned by the state and often face severe repression.

​“‘The majority of Chinese companies have not had contact with the Brazilian trade union movement,’”says Torres.

“​In December of 2024, while plant expansion was underway, the Brazilian Ministry of Labor and Employment conducted a surprise inspection of the facility housing 163 Chinese workers who had been shipped to work at BYD. They found that workers lived in slave-like conditions on BYD’s factory grounds.”

“The Brazilian Ministry of Labor and Employment charged BYD with 'slavery' and human trafficking, and concluded that living conditions were ‘a manifest affront to the principles of the dignity of human beings.’

“After the strike, BYD began to negotiate with Brazilian unions.

“‘What is happening in Brasil today is an absurdly unrestricted freedom of importation—one that, in the medium term, will bring major consequences for domestic industry and for the government as well,'” says Márcio Ferreira, president of Sintrabor. “‘Yet the government, thus far, has failed to take the kind of action that other countries have already taken’.”

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