Documents revealed by a “truth commission” show that Volkswagen monitored employees and top union officials in Brazil during the 1980s, including a man who would become the country’s president.
Reuters reported Friday VW “passed sensitive information about wage demands” and other information learned through the surveillance to Brazil’s dictatorship at the time. One of the people targeted by VW then was Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president from 2003 until 2010.
Twenty pages of documents that showed what VW spied in 1983 and 1984 were revealed by a special commission set up by current Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. The documents showed that VW employees attended union events, and even which workers were caught smoking marijuana. It also revealed when workers were planning strikes or going to ask for increased wages.
VW also monitored screenings of a “socialist-themed film” at the union headquarters, down to the wine and popcorn served at the event. It’s reported all of this information was used to hold union leaders in custody as a way to prevent labor issues.
Volkswagen told Reuters it will investigate the findings, and “acknowledged to be a model for coming to terms with its corporate history.” It’s just one of 20 companies that has been shown to meet with Brazilian police and military officials in 1983 to disclose possible labor unrest.
By Zac Estrada