As Canada lowers its tariffs and imports more electric vehicles from China, an upcoming report from New York-based labour rights researchers is making new allegations of forced labour practices at the world’s bestselling EV manufacturer, BYD.

China Labor Watch (CLW) received a complaint last fall from one of the thousands of migrant workers brought to Hungary from China to help build BYD’s first European plant in the city of Szeged — a $6-billion investment intended to supply the European market with around 300,000 vehicles per year.

The non-profit organization launched an investigation and provided CBC News with an advance copy of its findings, set for publication later this month.

“It’s important that consumers know what’s really behind some of these electric vehicles, and the labour conditions that are behind the production of these cars,” said project officer Elaine Lu.

“Chinese workers who are being brought in to work on these sites are being employed in quite horrible conditions.”

…

The report describes potential violations of Hungarian labour and migration laws, including:

  • Seven-day workweeks with no days off to rest, with workers telling CLW they were instructed to lie to inspectors about their working hours if asked.
  • Shifts of up to 12 or 14 hours, with only a short meal break and no paid overtime.
  • Delayed wage payments of up to three months, with final payments withheld until workers returned to China.
  • Steep recruitment fees used as a form of debt bondage, with low-income workers saying they were forced to stay despite poor conditions because they can’t afford to default on their contract.
  • Workers entering on business visas instead of authorized work permits, leaving them vulnerable to abuse and unable to access services like health care for workplace injuries.

…

  • Otter@lemmy.caM
    1·
    10 minutes ago

    Thread is locked pending cleanup and further mod actions. Please send me a DM if you have further information to share, or wish for us to reinstate specific comments.

  • Scotty@scribe.disroot.orgOP
    18·
    20 hours ago

    In related news today:

    Brazil blacklists BYD for slave labour conditions at its biggest plant outside China - (Archived link)

    Brazil’s labour ministry on Tuesday added Chinese electric vehicle (EV) giant BYD … to a registry of employers found to have subjected workers to conditions analogous to slavery, limiting access to state financing and increasing reputational risks in its most important market outside China.

    There is even a Wikipedia article on the BYD Brazil working conditions controversy for those interested.

    It’s apparently a case Brazil has been investigating since 2024. Australian outlet ABC published an article including a short video that gives a glimpse of the conditions under which Chinese workers lived.

    • Nils@lemmy.ca
      5·
      19 hours ago

      Sorry for double dip.

      The “dirty list” they mention on the article is interesting, they even have a musician there (who uses slave labour in his farms).

      The BYD case in Brazil is not that different from the Hungary one, not respecting local labour laws, human traffic, etc…

      Brazil has tougher labour laws than in Canada, but what I found interesting from reading the sources is that they are not respecting Chinese labour laws too, causing an outrage in Chinese social media.

      You can watch a bunch of videos and photos by searching “brasil trabalho escravo BYD”, just be careful with sources as there is a bunch of right-wing nuts trying to use it to promote racism.

      • kent_eh@lemmy.caEnglish
        5·
        19 hours ago

        I would hope that any company (especially ones with BYD’s documented history of violations) that sets up production in Canada is subject to a significant amount of scrutiny from the relevant enforcement agencies.

    • Nils@lemmy.ca
      48·
      20 hours ago

      I guess the 2 days account troll that is haunting this thread, who told me Brazil is not western, is about to change their mind - because how dare a country go against a big corp bottom line.

    • Nils@lemmy.ca
      9·
      19 hours ago

      China is not bad.

      They have labour laws and people there are just as upset. Don’t make this a nation thing. This is big corp vs workers.

  • sicilian@lemmychan.org
    117·
    23 hours ago

    Why do Westerners care about working conditions for cars but not, say, the production of cocoa? Cocoa producers face way more exploitation, including child labor.

    A: It’s so they can drive up labor costs for their competitors and convince people to buy Western products.

    They don’t actually care about the well-being of workers. This is why you’ll see them bitch about working conditions in factories, but not in the mines that produce materials for those factories.

    • T (they/she)@beehaw.org
      92·
      20 hours ago

      Why do Westerners care about working conditions for cars but not, say, the production of cocoa? Cocoa producers face way more exploitation, including child labor.

      Just conveniently ignoring all the reporting and lawsuits about it in an attempt to bait people?

    • Nils@lemmy.ca
      114·
      20 hours ago

      Why do Westerners care about working conditions for cars but not, say, the production of cocoa?

      *Edit: the quote was the original comment from the poster before me, they changed to make them look less unhinged so they could continue trolling around. I fell for it, because it was not an honest discourse, they are here just for the lolz and trolls.

      As far as I am aware, cocoa trees do not grow in Hungary (they place in the news from this thread).

      Also, you are replying to news about auto industry, there are other news about fair trade and slave labour across the globe. There were way more news earlier this year about child/slave labour in cocoa plantations in Brazil associated to a Swiss company.

      But if you are interested in western cocoa production:

      The largest producers and exporters are Ecuador and Brazil, if you know Spanish or Portuguese you can find a lot more recent news about it. It is not perfect, but they are tackling hard slave labour there.

      About chocolate production, it is quite difficult to find a bar that does not come with some sort of fair trade seal on them.

      • sicilian@lemmychan.org
        56·
        23 hours ago

        I’m replying to news about working conditions that create competition for Western companies and contrasted it with working conditions that don’t create competition for Western companies.

        You don’t see Western politicians arguing to outlaw chocolate based on working conditions, but you do see it for cars. I explained why this is the case.

        • Nils@lemmy.ca
          105·
          22 hours ago

          Not sure where you saw anything being “outlawed” besides poor labour conditions.
          No one is outlawing cars or chocolate, but I do see politicians discussion labour conditions all the time. It is even more apparent all around by having a job protected by union.

          That news is about tackling labour issues, not about competition.
          If you are serious about it, you would see that there are news about labour issue with “western” car companies all the time. There were plenty of strikes last year, and we will probably see more this year.

          The problem is that you are too busy bundling up 80-ish nations in your xenophobic rant.

          • sicilian@lemmychan.org
            37·
            22 hours ago

            You might want to do a bit more research, you’ve been wrong multiple times here.

            First off, the largest producers and exporters of cocoa are the Ivory Coast and Ghana. ~1.5 million children are involved in cocoa farming in West Africa.

            Second, the importation of Chinese EVs is heavily restricted or outright banned in many Western nations. The news article isn’t going to mention the real motives behind the concern over working conditions because that’s how propaganda works.

            The problem is that you are woefully misinformed.

            • Nils@lemmy.ca
              76·
              21 hours ago

              No, you mentioned “westerns”. Don’t move the goal post. Do you consider Ivory Coast and Ghana “westerns” ? If so, you should have put that in your definition before editing your posts.

              Europe does not grow cocoa, on the top exporter list Ecuador and Brazil are the “western” nations you complain about.

              Second, please list the nations where Chinese EV are banned that are not USA ?

              Third, you seem to be ok with slavery as long as they are Chinese nationals and help the bottom line of some big corp.

              You are malicious and xenophobic.

              • sicilian@lemmychan.org
                36·
                21 hours ago

                Wow, you really need to work on your reading comprehension.

                I don’t have the time nor the patience to continue explaining myself to someone like you. You need more education to understand what’s going on.

                • Nils@lemmy.ca
                  55·
                  21 hours ago

                  If you are not engaging in honest discourse, I am good. You are just a trump-stan LARPing around anyways.

                  Please keep your xenophobia and malicious behaviour to your instance.

        • HikingVet@lemmy.ca
          118·
          22 hours ago

          No you are using a whataboutism and not acknowledging other people’s statements.

    • HikingVet@lemmy.ca
      139·
      23 hours ago

      We do. Why do people who use the term westerners not understand that people aren’t a monolith?

      • sicilian@lemmychan.org
        78·
        23 hours ago

        It’s nice that you do, but hopefully you can understand that most Westerners don’t. They will use this as an excuse to buy Western products at inflated prices that most people can only afford by screwing others over.

        “So what if these factory workers have better working conditions than the people who farm cocoa for my chocolate? They’re creating competition for my rulers, and I can’t have that!”

        • Scotty@scribe.disroot.orgOP
          116·
          23 hours ago

          @sicilian@lemmychan.org

          It’s nice that you do, but hopefully you can understand that most Westerners don’t.

          This is rubbish.

          In a nutshell, it’s part of anti-Western, anti-democratic propaganda that makes you believe that the Western world is a mega-monolithic self-interested superstate that lives at the expense of others. Stylized as ‘the enemy’, it is then used by dictatorships to justify the suppression and exploitation of their own peoples.

          • sicilian@lemmychan.org
            57·
            23 hours ago

            No, it’s part of Western consumerism that makes it true.

            If they didn’t do what I’m accusing them of, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

            • HikingVet@lemmy.ca
              107·
              23 hours ago

              Flase. Over generalization.

              You really don’t have an argument other than “west bad”

    • betanumerus@lemmy.caEnglish
      52·
      22 hours ago

      The O&G industry is trying to maintain revenue streams. They’ll only smear who they see as a problem.