Milwaukee Tool lawsuit tests whether U.S. companies can be held liable for forced labor abroad

by Natalie Yahr / Wisconsin Watch Can U.S. companies be held liable for benefiting from forced labor abroad? That’s the question before a federal appeals court in a case that alleges Brookfield-based Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp. relied on a supplier that produced its work gloves in a Chinese prison. A 2023 Wisconsin Watch investigation detailed the account of Taiwanese human rights activist and college administrator Lee Ming-che, who spent nearly five years at Chishan Prison in China’s central Hunan Province following a 2017 conviction for “subverting state power.” Lee, who was released in 2022, told Wisconsin Watch that he and hundreds of other prisoners were forced to work about 13 hours a day, seven days a week for the equivalent of about 48 cents a day. Milwaukee Tool denied the allegations, telling Wisconsin Watch it has “found no evidence to support the claims being made” about its link to forced labor.

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