The forced laborers in Brazil's rainforests never see the shiny new cars that their labor helps to produce. Since the 1970s, various multinational corporations including Volkswagen and Nestle have used the Amazon's lumber and labor to feed the demand for charcoal, which in turn becomes steel for cars and trucks.
These companies employ subcontractors to recruit laborers and run the charcoal plantations. With promises of high pay and free meals, these "gatos" ("cats") lure poor Brazilians to the Amazon. But once there, the gatos demand repayment for transportation and food in the form of backbreaking labor. Guards surround the camps as men, women and children load lumber into scorching ovens. In such treacherous working conditions, black lung, burns and extreme exhaustion are commonplace.
In 1992, labor inspectors discovered 5,000 to 8,000 people in Mato Grosso do Sul working in the charcoal ovens. The forced laborers (a four-year-old girl among them) were malnourished, having been charged exorbitant amounts of money for rotting food. Because of the system of subcontractors, companies do not often take the blame for such instances of slavery.
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