FORD MOTOR COMPANY | Child labour audit at FORD MOTOR COMPANY

Status
6.50% votes in favour
AGM date
Previous AGM date
Proposal number
7
Resolution details
Company ticker
F
Lead filer
National Center for Public Policy
Resolution ask
Report on or disclose
ESG theme
  • Social
ESG sub-theme
  • Modern slavery inc. forced labour
Type of vote
Shareholder proposal
Filer type
Shareholder
Company sector
Consumer Discretionary
Company HQ country
United States
Resolved clause
Shareholders request that, beginning in 2024, Ford report to shareholders on the extent to which its business plans with respect to electric vehicles and their charging stations may involve, rely or depend on child labor outside the United States.
Supporting statement
Supporting Statement:

Ford’s business plans involve the promotion of electric vehicles. Ford hopes to profit from the charging of such vehicles.

But according to Amnesty International and media reports:

◾ Cobalt is an expensive metal used in electric car batteries.
◾ 59% of the global cobalt supply comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Cobalt mining in the Congo is often done by children — as many as 40,000 — working in brutal and unsafe conditions. A euphemism for these children is “informal” workers.

Many of these children are injured and killed in these conditions.

Such child labor is a gross violation of human rights.

More information on these human rights violations may be found at https://junkscience.com/ 2020/10/mean-and-unclean-electric-cars-powered-by-child-labor-inafrica/

Shareholders have the right to know the extent to which, if any and intentionally or not, Ford’s business plans rely on or involve the direct or indirect exploitation of child labor and/or the violation of the human rights of child workers outside the United States.

How other organisations have declared their voting intentions

Organisation name Declared voting intentions Rationale
KBI Global Investors For

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