General Motors shareholders voted down a proposal that sought to provide more insight into the use of child labor across the company's electric vehicle battery supply chain.

The proposal would have commissioned a yearly report starting in 2025 to determine how much GM's supply chain relies on child labor outside the U.S., citing data that ties the mining of cobalt used in electric vehicle batteries to Chinese-financed operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). According to the U.S. Department of Labor, at least 25,000 children are working in cobalt mines in the DRC, which supplies about 70% of the world's mined cobalt. Around 80% of the DRC's cobalt output is owned by Chinese companies, who refine the mineral in China and then sell it to battery makers. 

Shareholders voted against the proposal as part of their annual meeting on June 4, asserting in a proxy statement that GM's existing policies already reflect a "zero-tolerance" approach to child labor. The company's board of directors says that it uses third-party audits to evaluate "high-risk" suppliers when concerns are raised over labor practices, and that GM conducts a yearly survey with all of its suppliers to ensure they're complying with its code of conduct.

GM was one of several automakers named in a report from nonprofit Human Rights Watch in February 2024, which claimed that numerous car companies have failed to ensure they're not using forced labor in their Chinese supply chains. The group alleged that GM, Tesla, Volkswagen and Toyota among others have been sourcing aluminum produced by forced labor from ethnic minorities in China's controversial Xinjiang region.

GM shareholders also voted down a pair of other supply chain visibility proposals. One would have required a report on the company's use of deep-sea mined minerals for batteries, while the other sought to evaluate the company's sustainable sourcing practices. The first was rejected because "GM does not currently utilize deep-sea extraction in its supply chain," the board said. The other was struck down "because GM already follows robust and transparent reporting practices."