Modern Slavery Report

2010 – Nucor Corporation

 

 

WHEREAS:

 

* Bloomberg Markets Magazine reported in a cover story that “Nucor Corp., the second-largest U.S. steel company, buys pig iron made with charcoal produced by slaves.” The article reported that certain entities in Nucor’s supply chain were identified by Brazilian labor officials as using slaves and also discussed illegal logging in charcoal camps. (The Secret World of Modern Slavery, Smith and Voreacos, Bloomberg Markets, December 2006)

 

* The US State Department reports: Brazil is “a source country for men and boys trafficked internally for forced labor” and noted that “some boys have been identified as slave laborers in … the production of charcoal for pig iron.” (U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons Report, 2009)

 

* The State Department reports: “Internal trafficking of rural workers into forced labor schemes was a serious problem” that “typically occurred when employers recruited laborers from poor, rural towns and transported them to remote areas where escape was difficult. Workers then were obliged to toil in brutal conditions until they were able to repay inflated debts.” (US State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, 2008)

 

* Nucor’s General Counsel stated: “Any amount [of pig iron] that is sold with the use of slave labor is too much.” (Bloomberg Markets)

 

* Slavery is a crime, actionable in the United States under the Alien Tort Claims Act. The Act has increasingly been used against corporate defendants, including Chevron, Shell, Coca-Cola and Yahoo.

 

* Nucor’s pig iron purchases may be contributing to Amazon deforestation, with implications for indigenous peoples, biodiversity and climate change.

 

* We believe Nucor faces significant reputational, operational and legal risks from these human rights and environmental issues. 

 

RESOLVED: Shareholders request the Board of Directors produce an annual report to shareholders, omitting proprietary information and at reasonable expense, assessing Nucor’s efforts to ensure the protection of fundamental human rights in its global operations and supply chain. The report should assess whether the company should adopt and implement additional policies and procedures to reduce potential human rights abuses and reduce risk to the company’s operations and finances, by October 2010.

 

Supporting Statement: We recommend the report include:

 

1. The results of a risk assessment to determine the potential for human rights and environmental abuses at the company’s operations or at the operations of its direct and indirect suppliers, in each country where Nucor operates or purchases raw materials, with a focus on child labor and forced or trafficked labor, as defined by the International Labor Organization.

2. A report on Nucor’s efforts to ensure the implementation of strong human rights and environmental policies in company and supplier operations, including monitoring, training, stakeholder engagement and addressing issues of non-compliance.

3. Information regarding the scale, likelihood and/or impacts of potential material risks, short or long term, to the company’s finances or operations, due to human rights and environmental concerns in its supply chain.