© Reuters. An underage worker formerly employed at the SL manufacturing plant poses for a portrait in his bedroom in Savannah, Georgia, U.S., December 9, 2022. REUTERS/Cheney Orr
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NEW YORK (Reuters) – A team of Reuters reporters won a George Polk Award on Monday for reporting that revealed the widespread use of child labor among Hyundai Motor Co’s suppliers in the US state of Alabama.
The series of stories, “Undocumented and Minors,” has sparked at least 10 investigations by authorities in the US and Alabama into suppliers to Hyundai and sister brand Kia. The reporting was done for more than a year by journalists Joshua Schneyer, Mica Rosenberg, Kristina Cooke and colleagues.
The Polk jury, in awarding the prize in its “state reporting” category, said Reuters “provoked increased scrutiny from federal and state agencies and led Hyundai to demand more accountability from its suppliers.”
The award, one of the highest honors in American journalism, is administered by Long Island University and emphasizes investigative reporting in the public interest.
In a series of detailed and exclusive reports, reporters showed immigrant children as young as 12 working in dangerous Alabama factories to make parts for Korean automakers.
After a July 2022 Reuters story revealed the use of child laborers at a Hyundai-majority-owned parts maker, federal and state authorities found and rescued children from another Hyundai supplier and fined that company and one of their labor contractors.
The stories led a group of 33 members of Congress this month to urge the US Secretary of Labor to seek strong sanctions against those responsible for hiring underage workers. Also in February, Hyundai itself said it was in talks with the Labor Department to resolve child labor concerns.
To uncover the violations, Reuters reported on low-income immigrant communities in Alabama and knocked on doors at trailer parks, city halls and employment agencies. The reporters interviewed migrant families, pastors, social workers, police and school officials, and spoke with more than 100 factory workers.
After discovering that employment agencies were hiring child laborers to work at Alabama poultry plants, they learned that the immigrant children were also making parts for Hyundai and Kia. Both companies have said they do not tolerate child labor and are taking steps to ensure that underage workers do not find their way back into their supply chains.
Other recognized Polk Award winners Monday included The New York Times, honored for its coverage of the war in Ukraine, and Politico, for exclusive reporting on a draft US Supreme Court opinion that struck down decades of precedents on the right to abortion.
