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.
…
*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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
More angry nonsense.
I’ve engaged in good-faith discussion, but you have proven yourself incapable of comprehending what you read.
You don’t, you are just trolling around. You are just hating on Chinese people while propping big corp like the Donald Bowman-stan you are.
But this is not the community for it.
Lol, starts shit then runs.
No you are using a whataboutism and not acknowledging other people’s statements.