Tag: KIA

Hyundai and Kia Suppliers Found to Be Using Child Labor in the U.S.

| December 19, 2022

This is another reason why something needs to be done about illegal immigration, to stop the exploitation of children:

Vehicles are loaded onto train cars at the Kia assembly plant in West Point, Georgia, U.S., Dec. 12. Reuters-Yonhap

At least four major suppliers of Hyundai Motor and sister Kia have employed child labor at Alabama factories in recent years, a Reuters investigation found, and state and federal agencies are probing whether kids have worked at as many as a half dozen additional manufacturers throughout the automakers’ supply chain in the southern U.S. state.

At a plant owned by Hwashin America, a supplier to the two car brands in the south Alabama town of Greenville, a 14-year-old Guatemalan girl worked this May assembling auto body components, according to interviews with her father and law enforcement officials. (……)

Earlier this year, Reuters showed how staffing agencies in rural Alabama recruited undocumented workers from Central America, including minors who had entered the U.S. without parents or guardians, and supplied them to chicken processing plants.

As with those minors, at least some of the children who worked at Hyundai suppliers used false identities and documentation obtained through black-market brokers, sometimes with the help of staffing firms themselves.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

City of Milwaukee Planning to Sue Hyundai Because Prosecutors Will Not Jail Car Thieves

| December 23, 2021

This is just another example of why there is a crime wave in America, the city government spends more time going after Hyundai to add more security to their cars instead of catching the criminals and putting them in jail:

Milwaukee, Wisconsin is grappling with an unprecedented spate of car thefts. Since last year, stolen vehicle reports in the city have more than doubled, according to WISN 12 ABC, and nearly tripled since 2019. At a rate of nearly 30 thefts per day, Milwaukee is on track to surpass 10,000 this year. By sheer volume, it outpaces Chicago—a city with six times Milwaukee’s population. Worryingly, at least half of the suspected thieves are minors, and they have an unusual penchant for easy-to-steal Hyundais and Kias. This has led the city to seriously consider suing the automakers under its public nuisance laws.

Vehicles from these two Korean makes account for two-thirds of thefts in the city, police say. WISN reports Kia and Hyundai thefts have exploded to 2,500 percent year-over-year as of June. Citing “car experts,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel identifies Kias (to which Hyundais are often mechanically similar) as popular targets as they can reportedly be broken into via the rear window without activating the car’s alarm. From there, thieves can enter the vehicle and peel open the steering column with a screwdriver, allowing them to start the car without a key. So many cars have been stolen in this way that parts to repair the steering column are reportedly back-ordered.

The Drive

You can read more at the link, but according to the article the city has only prosecuted 2% of the criminals that stole these cars. Additionally the article said this is leading to vigilanteism with people shooting at the cars that are stolen from them. If the prosecutors would put these people in jail that would be a deterrent to the thefts, but not prosecuting them just gives more crooks the green light to steal cars.