Why would a Galactic Organization, during the time of the Empire, divest itself of Slave trade. Note they are not against owning slaves themselves... They are just removing the slave trade from their organization as a means of profit.

I am looking for something to be a Hidden Motive/Agenda that they are going to use to make a larger profit than they could by just being part of the slave trade itself.

Indentured servitude

Indentured servitude

That makes sense. Laborers can be put into a similar situation, being exploited for their work, with a lot less security as far as transportation is concerned. In theory they agree to it, only to find out too late that the situation does not allow them to pay off their debts.

-Nate

A list of reasons from best to worst...

Public Relations Gold. Divesting of slaves, freeing them and giving them a pouch of credits, all in front of the media. Make sure a few mothers are reunited with children so you really squeeze every drop of pathos you can for the cameras.

It's immoral to profit from slavery. Perhaps the corp has a new CEO or Board of Directors. Maybe they are disgusted by the sale of sapients.

Cost cutting measures. They wound up with a batch of slaves that have some incurable illness and it would be cheaper to cut ALL the slaves loose than pay for the care of these diseased slaves.

Technological Innovation. Whatever work their slaves did can now be done with a single machine that is cheaper to run than the upkeep of the slaves.

Fear of Rebellion. A group of terrorists has developed a gadget that can detect and disarm the bomb implants. This group is freeing and arming slaves so they can kill their overseers. The corp figures it's cheaper to dump their slaves than risk rebellion.

Good old fashioned butt kissing. Since it is known that Darth Vader hates slavery so much they are hoping to earn his favor since they got caught overcharging the Empire on a major shipment of whatever they manufacture.

A sudden realization of what they are doing by way of the company president's force sensitivity being unlocked. A horrible feeling of the suffering through empathy and telepathy.

PR and profit.

The Corporation has signed a lucrative deal with a Sector that outlaws slavery. Unbeknownst to the Sector officials the Corporation is actually just 1 arm of a much larger corporation who is absolutely not stopping using slaves. In fact many of the parts or raw materials used by the smaller corporation is produced by sister companies using slaves, it's just the final assembly that's no longer performed by slaves. Lots of potential for PC's to be involved in the cover up or finding the evidence!

For a hypothetical example it's like Apple not using slaves and making a big fuss about it, but Samsung making the processors for the new iPhone using slavery.

One idea that came to mind is criminal organizations divvying up the crime: one get slaves, the other gets spice. Maybe they even still work together.

Maybe the organization appears to be going legit (a la The Godfather), but really never does (or simply diverts into spice trade).

Or, maybe, as in Imperial territory, only "some" races are okay to enslave, so they've given up the 'human' slave trafficking.

There's a galactic organization that gives grants to former slaves to help them rebuild their lives. The corporation sets the slaves free, then recaptures them and steals the grant money.

There's an obscure tax law that allows the corporation to write off liberated slaves.

Perhaps they sell off their slave trade to another company, then go on a PR campaign saying how slavery is bad to hurt the competition. (No slaves were used in the manufacture of this product).

One or more companies they were going to do business with is against slavery. So the company gets rid of its slaves and goes anti-slavery to get the advantage during negotiations. If talks go south, the company goes back to their old ways, if it works out, they no longer use slaves. PCs may discover the Company got rid of their slaves in most horrific way.

There could be some kind of internal struggle for control of the company. By removing the slave trade, it makes the ceo who made the decision look bad once profits take a dip, so that the next guy can swing in and get the company back on track.

The company acquired a droid manufacturing company and needs to create more demand for their robots. These are cheap droids that cost less to produce than a slave (and owners can't just breed their own) but last only a little longer than a living slave or will require hefty service agreements and replacement parts that will balance out to make the company more money in the long run. Couple this with them pushing for legislation limiting who can breed slaves (and stiff penalties against the slaves for illegally breeding) and you can get a nice little profit while looking like a good guy in the media.

Remember, slavery exists in any society for two main reasons. The first is economic. Look at slavery on our own world, as Europe developed technologically to where they had machinery in place that took one skilled worker instead of many slaves to produce the same amount of product it was cheaper to pay one workers salary than the cost of feeding and housing the slaves. So they sold the slaves to the New World where the business owners didn't have the wealth to purchase machinery. As the northern states turned their economies toward manufacturing they too divested themselves of slaves by selling them to the southern states where the plantation system was still in place and they used the slaves for agriculture. Following that model a corporation would find a way to divest itself of slaves because of cheaper droids available to the rim worlds.

The other reason slavery persists is social. People like to feel superior to someone and as long as there are slaves even the poorest rim denizen can say "well at least I'm not a slave." This reason is the hardest of the two to crack. Well after machinery replaces slaves in the factories and fields there will be slaves in the homes of the wealthy and powerful. They may not be as cost effective as buying modern appliances and hiring maids, butlers and other domestics but keeping them makes the wealthy feel even more powerful. They only divest themselves of those slaves for moral reasons, morals being in short supply for the wealthy no matter the world...