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Mars, Nestle, and Hershey face child slavery lawsuit in US

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Mars, Nestlé and Hershey to face child slavery lawsuit in US

Eight children who claim they were used as slave labour on cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast have launched legal action against the world’s biggest chocolate companies. They accuse the corporations of aiding and abetting the illegal enslavement of “thousands” of children on cocoa farms in their supply chains.

Nestlé, Cargill, Barry Callebaut, Mars, Olam, Hershey and Mondelēz have been named as defendants in a lawsuit filed in Washington DC by the human rights firm International Rights Advocates (IRA), on behalf of eight former child slaves who say they were forced to work without pay on cocoa plantations in the west African country.

The plaintiffs, all of whom are originally from Mali and are now young adults, are seeking damages for forced labour and further compensation for unjust enrichment, negligent supervision and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

It is the first time that a class action of this kind has been filed against the cocoa industry in a US court. Citing research by the US state department, the International Labour Organization and Unicef, among others, the court documents allege that the plaintiffs’ experience of child slavery is mirrored by that of thousands of other minors.

Ivory Coast produces about 45% of the global supply of cocoa, a core ingredient in chocolate. The production of cocoa in west Africa has long been linked to human rights abuses, structural poverty, low pay and child labour.

A central allegation of the lawsuit is that the defendants, despite not owning the cocoa farms in question, “knowingly profited” from the illegal work of children. According to the submissions, the defendants’ contracted suppliers were able to provide lower prices than if they had employed adult workers with proper protective equipment.

The court documents describe grisly conditions and how children are recruited and promised a certain wage, but then are never paid at all.

The lawsuit also accuses the companies of actively misleading the public in their 2001 promise to “phase out” child labour. The original deadline for achieving the commitment, made as part of the voluntary Harkin-Engel Protocol, was 2005. The World Cocoa Foundation, an industry body to which all the defendants belong, now aims to achieve the target by 2025.

In the claim, all eight plaintiffs describe being recruited in Mali through trickery and deception, before being trafficked across the border to cocoa farms in Ivory Coast. There, they were forced to work – often for several years or more – with no pay, no travel documents and no clear idea of where they were or how to get back to their families.

The court papers allege that the plaintiffs, all of whom were under 16 years old at the time of their recruitment, worked on farms in major cocoa-producing areas of the country. The defendants’ apparent influence in these markets is described as “dominant” by the plaintiffs’ counsel.

The lawsuit claims one plaintiff was only 11 years old when a local man in his home town of Kouroussandougou, Mali, promised him work in Ivory Coast for 25,000 CFA francs (£34) a month. The legal documents allege that the boy worked for two years without ever being paid, often applying pesticides and herbicides without protective clothing.

The documents claim another child named as a plaintiff in the suit had visible cuts on his hands and arms from machete accidents. Speaking of his experience of forced labour between 2009 and 2011, he recalls being constantly bitten by insects. As with most of the plaintiffs, he claims in the lawsuit that he was promised payment after the harvest, but it never came.

Many of the plaintiffs quoted in the court documents report being fed little and working long hours. Often, they claim they were kept alone or isolated from other child workers, who spoke different dialects.

As well as being morally repugnant, such abuses against children represent a “humanitarian disaster” as they contribute to Ivory Coast’s ongoing poverty, the court papers state. The widespread use of child slavery is also credited by the plaintiffs for causing “long-term mental and physical trauma”.

The case documentation maintains that the defendants are responsible for developing the entire cocoa production system of Ivory Coast. As key participants in this “venture”, it is claimed that they either knew or should have known about the “systematic” use of child labour.

The case is being brought under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2017. IRA is currently involved in a separate complaint filed under the Alien Tort Statute against Nestlé and Cargill.

In a statement Cargill said: “We are aware of the filing and while we cannot comment on specifics of this case right now, [the company wants] to reinforce we have no tolerance for child labor in cocoa production. Children belong in school. They deserve safe living conditions and access to good nutrition.”

Nestlé said that the lawsuit “does not advance the shared goal of ending child labor in the cocoa industry” and added, “child labor is unacceptable and goes against everything we stand for. Nestlé has explicit policies against it and is unwavering in our dedication to ending it. We remain committed to combatting child labor within the cocoa supply chain and addressing its root causes as part of the Nestlé Cocoa Plan and through collaborative efforts.”

I hope they win their lawsuit. Maybe it will encourage others in similar situations to do the same and end these kinds of horrors worldwide.
 

SomeRandom

Still learning to be wise
Staff member
Premium Member
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danieldemol

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
@Stevicus I have to wonder why Nestlé thinks the lawsuit is counter-productive to ending child slavery, I would have thought financially hurting the companies that profit off it would be the most productive way of ending child slavery.

Raising chocolate prices will be beneficial to public health anyway I reckon
 

Stevicus

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
@Stevicus I have to wonder why Nestlé thinks the lawsuit is counter-productive to ending child slavery, I would have thought financially hurting the companies that profit off it would be the most productive way of ending child slavery.

Raising chocolate prices will be beneficial to public health anyway I reckon

I agree. I also wonder why they think it's counterproductive to ending child slavery. They apparently agreed 20 years ago to end child slavery by 2005, but they still haven't done it yet. What's the delay? It's inexcusable that they know about this problem, have pledged to stop, yet they're dragging their feet.

I'm thinking of giving up chocolate for a while.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Let's dig up Ayn Rand's corpse and ask it how this news could be true! 'Makers' enslaving 'takers'? Inconceivable for serious people! Can't be logically true. QED: Can't be empirical fact.

Meh, I'm off to the creationist threads to enjoy the relatively more fair-minded opponents of evolution do their thing.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
@Stevicus I have to wonder why Nestlé thinks the lawsuit is counter-productive to ending child slavery, I would have thought financially hurting the companies that profit off it would be the most productive way of ending child slavery.
Brabeck-Letmathe, former CEO of Nestle, did state that water as a basic human right is an extreme position.
They also have the blood of babies on their hands, something they caused, the deaths of many babies, all so they could push their infant formula.
I don't wonder why they said it. Nestle is an evil company with a vile and heinous history.
 

Riders

Well-Known Member
Mars, Nestlé and Hershey to face child slavery lawsuit in US





The court documents describe grisly conditions and how children are recruited and promised a certain wage, but then are never paid at all.





I hope they win their lawsuit. Maybe it will encourage others in similar situations to do the same and end these kinds of horrors worldwide.
If they win will Hershey's Nestle and the others be forced to buy from non slavery? There is a website maybe a couple of them where you can order chocolate without using slaves. I personally can live without chocolate haha! Everyone thinks I live off of chocolate because I am obese all we obese people are chocolate fanatics who live off chocolate! Ha here are non choclates that I like

Banana flavored twinkies
TWinkies'
apple snack pies, lemon snack pies, pecan snack pies
carmel ice cream, any kind of carmel candies
pecan prailines and crea ice crea, vanilla ice cream with carmel sauce on it, banana ice cream

banana shakes or malts
banana pie blizzards
banana moon pies
cinnamon anything, candy, cinnamon and sugar on pancakes, coffee cake, any of the deserts from the pizza places that are cinnamon the list goes on and on whoops this list wont complete without fruity pebbles and cinnamon toast crunch!
 

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
I agree. I also wonder why they think it's counterproductive to ending child slavery. They apparently agreed 20 years ago to end child slavery by 2005, but they still haven't done it yet. What's the delay? It's inexcusable that they know about this problem, have pledged to stop, yet they're dragging their feet.

I'm thinking of giving up chocolate for a while.
Yea, this is one instance where I wish I hadn't already given up chocolate, just so I could give it up again.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Yea, this is one instance where I wish I hadn't already given up chocolate, just so I could give it up again.
Good. More chocolate for me.
Although I prefer El Rey chocolate, which is from Venezuela.
Yes, it's an awful place too. But Denying them my business
won't improve their lot. So I buy their Carenero Superior 73.5%.
(Availability is severely limited these days.)
 

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
Good. More chocolate for me.
Although I prefer El Rey chocolate, which is from Venezuela.
Yes, it's an awful place too. But Denying them my business
won't improve their lot. So I buy their Carenero Superior 73.5%.
(Availability is severely limited these days.)
You don't need to tell me that consumers have effectively no power under a capitalist market economy.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Wanderer From Afar
Premium Member
Good. More chocolate for me.
Although I prefer El Rey chocolate, which is from Venezuela.
Yes, it's an awful place too. But Denying them my business
won't improve their lot. So I buy their Carenero Superior 73.5%.
(Availability is severely limited these days.)
Iceland is known for their chocolate, too. I have some Noi Sirius in my cupboard.
 
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