Tesla's New Factory Project Imported Foreign Laborers (mercurynews.com) 208
An anonymous reader writes: "Overseas contractors are shipping workers from impoverished countries to American factories, where they work long hours for low wages, in apparent violation of visa and labor laws," reports the Bay Area Newsgroup. For example, "About 140 workers from Eastern Europe, mostly from Croatia and Slovenia, built a new paint shop at Tesla's Fremont plant, a project vital to the flagship Silicon Valley automaker's plans to ramp up production of its highly anticipated Model 3 sedan..."
This "hidden workforce" arrives on B1/B2 visas, which federal authorities acknowledge are subject to "widespread abuse" in Silicon Valley. The newspaper reviewed visa, court, and payroll documents, and conducted dozens of interviews, identifying Tesla's small third-party Slovenian subcontractor ISM Vuzem as the company who ultimately recruited many of the workers.
While most of the imported workers were happy with their wages, one worker was earning the equivalent of $5 an hour while his American counterpart was earning as much as $52, and they worked 10-hour days -- without overtime -- up to seven days a week.
This "hidden workforce" arrives on B1/B2 visas, which federal authorities acknowledge are subject to "widespread abuse" in Silicon Valley. The newspaper reviewed visa, court, and payroll documents, and conducted dozens of interviews, identifying Tesla's small third-party Slovenian subcontractor ISM Vuzem as the company who ultimately recruited many of the workers.
While most of the imported workers were happy with their wages, one worker was earning the equivalent of $5 an hour while his American counterpart was earning as much as $52, and they worked 10-hour days -- without overtime -- up to seven days a week.
Global economy (Score:2, Insightful)
It's more of a shock that anyone is still paid well considering hype literal billions of cheap labor outside America.
Sure, we could fix the visa problem, but if companies are forced to use expensive (globally speaking) labor, they'll just leave the country.
I suggest everyone start saving their money, because the gravy train is ending.
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and when they leave for other countries, employment and wages in this one will stabilize and find equilibrium again.
Re:Global economy (Score:5, Informative)
Hell, even their CEO is a foreign worker!
Re:Global economy (Score:5, Interesting)
Well America is much better at efficiency than other countries. So one person and do a job of 10. So you hire one person at 5 times the foreign counterpart if they can do 10 times the work they are worth it.
While there is a lot of complaining about the US education system, most countries cheat on their statistics. Where say the average high school graduate in the foreign country will have A/B Grades on skills test while the US has C Grades on skill tests. Is often because these countries will kick out the underperforming students and put them in trade schools.
So the factory worker in the US with a High School degree, often has better Reading Writing and Critical Thinking skills than a cheaper worker who had been placed in Labor training after elementary school. Allowing them to work with less management, and oversight, as well being able to understand more complex instructions.
Do not count the US out just because of higher wages. Americans work hard, and they work smart as well. The trick is to show that to the businesses who make the decisions, because otherwise they just pick the Penny Wise and Pound foolish solution.
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I have a few foreign colleges with Bachelors Degrees but still have trouble with the basics of computer sciences {all at the same college} it's like they got a two year degree from a technical college and some from a other countries who really know their stuff. I came to the conclusion a long time ago that not all degrees are created equal.
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Actually, the Chinese are better at efficient manufacture. A *lot* better. Expensive Made-in-USA manufacture cannot compete on quality with much-less-expensive Made-in-China manufacture; and the MiC stuff can go down to low-cost, low-quality-requirements (low acceptance criteria) manufacture to a ridiculous degree. When the Chinese make something light-duty, it's light-duty; when the Americans make something approaching light-duty, it's possibly not even fucking functional, at random, so buy six and hop
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Actually, the Chinese are better at efficient manufacture. A *lot* better. Expensive Made-in-USA manufacture cannot compete on quality with much-less-expensive Made-in-China manufacture...
The company I work for does manufacture in China, as well as in Europe and N. America. Machine costs are about the same in China, i.e. a CNC machine and electricity cost the same in China as they do in Switzerland. If your process is highly automated, making it in China won't save any money once you factor in the additional overhead to coordinate manufacturing and to ensure quality standards are met. China is only less expensive for high-volume, manual-labor intensive manufacturing, i.e. making shoes or mil
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Machine costs are about the same in China, i.e. a CNC machine and electricity cost the same in China as they do in Switzerland.
This will only differ if the machines aren't already present: installing a new machine is going to cost more than using what's available.
If your process is highly automated, making it in China won't save any money once you factor in the additional overhead to coordinate manufacturing and to ensure quality standards are met.
The Chinese manufacturing base has a *lot* more experience hitting consistent quality standards. If you want it made cheap, you want it made in China. Americans can't shave off 15% of the cost by shaving 15% of the quality; they'll get some ham-fisted attempt at cutting corners with an axe, while the Chinese will file those corners off with precision and skill.
As for "quality" it starts with quality technical documentation, choosing the correct manufacturing processes, process stability, and the quality-control mechanisms.
All
US workforce is highly efficient (Score:5, Informative)
Americans today are horrendous at efficiency because their government made them absolutely inefficient.
Don't let a little thing like actual facts [wikipedia.org] contradict your ideological rant. Sadly for your argument the US is among the most efficient and productive workforces in the world. (#3 in GDP per capita behind only Norway and Luxembourg) The notion that the US government has made the US hugely inefficient is not supported by any actual evidence.
As to what makes a person efficient - capital savings and investment into labour saving devices.
Which as it turns out the US economy is impressively good at. What do you think the computer you are typing this on is but a labor saving device? The US leads the world in utilization of many forms of automation.
Re: US workforce is highly efficient (Score:5, Informative)
Productivity has increased 72% in last 15 years but real wages only 8%.
Guests who benefited?
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Productivity has increased 72% in last 15 years but real wages only 8%.
Guests who benefited?
Hosts benefited for sure.
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Who/what is "hosts"?
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Once we figure out who "guests" is, finding out who "hosts" is will be easy.
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I'm guessing they meant Hostess? Which went bankrupt a few years ago do to Union shenanigans.
I'm not sure a relatively ancient snack-food company that specializes in food that's nearly pure fat & sugar in a time when people are looking for healthier, or at least fancier, snacks is a good comparison. We don't know if they kept up on the automation trend.
Hostess and backruptcy (Score:2)
I'm guessing they meant Hostess? Which went bankrupt a few years ago do to Union shenanigans.
Read this and get back to me on that http://www.theatlantic.com/bus... [theatlantic.com]
A multitude of problems took down Hostess, bad union contracts, management not adapting to the changing American diet, VC team that took Hostess private saddled it with debt during Chapter 11 resulting in the Chapter 7 liquidation. Plenty of blame to go around.
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I'm guessing they meant Hostess? Which went bankrupt a few years ago do to Union shenanigans.
I'm guessing they meant Hostess? Which went bankrupt a few years ago do to Management and Investor shenanigans.
FTFY
Wage growth poorly correlated with productivity (Score:3)
Productivity has increased 72% in last 15 years but real wages only 8%.
Guests who benefited?
I can't be bothered to verify your numbers but taking them as a given the answer is we all benefited. Maybe not equitably but that huge increase in productivity is a big part of the reason why many people in the US still have a job at all. We've had among the highest labor costs in the world for well over 40 years now. With countries like China growing fast ANY growth in real wages is good news. Maybe not as good as we'd like but when you already are at the top of the wages per capita chart it's kind of
Re:Wage growth poorly correlated with productivity (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree with you about the US being most productive.
However, the inequality issue is not a separate discussion. It is the core issue.
The problem is that all of the benefits of productivity go to the owners, not the workers and the owners continually try to drive down worker wages with scams such as the H1 visas. The US should not be in a "race to the bottom" with the rest of the world.
Here's an interesting take on the issue (and the source of my numbers):
https://www.theguardian.com/te... [theguardian.com]
citation needed, but possibly only wage earners (Score:3)
When real wages increase, wage earners benefit. That part is simple.
Now let's look at productivity.
Assume one worker with a basket can harvest $150 of berries per day.
One worker with a $400,000 harvester machine can harvest $1,500 of berries per day.
Productivity (berries per worker) increased 1000%!!!
Who benefits from the increased productivity? Quite possibly nobody, because there's the little matter of the mortgage payments on the $400,000 piece of equipment that's only used during harvest season.
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Who benefits from the increased productivity? Quite possibly nobody, because there's the little matter of the mortgage payments on the $400,000 piece of equipment that's only used during harvest season.
Assuming that the harvester machine only takes a few thousand in maintenance a year and lasts a decade, you've given a highly profitable example. Let's say that we're down south and the machine is used 100 days a year. That's $135k/year. $40k goes to interest/maintenance/cost of capital. You're looking at paying off that harvester in only 4 years.
So, who profits? The owner of the harvester!
That's actually the problem many people see - It's the people with the capital to OWN the nation's means of produc
A proposal for community ownership of capital (Score:2)
> Let's say that we're down south and the machine is used 100 days a year.
That would be a best case scenario, but anyway the exact numbers aren't the point. The point is that when comparing productivity with and without expensive new machinery, you have to take the cost of the machinery into account. Higher productivity doesn't NECESSARILY mean higher efficiency or profit.
> That's actually the problem many people see - It's the people with the capital to OWN the nation's means of production(factories
ps you forgot 90% of the costs (Score:2)
> Assuming that the harvester machine only takes a few thousand in maintenance a year and lasts a decade, you've given a highly profitable example. Let's say that we're down south and the machine is used 100 days a year. That's $135k/year. $40k goes to interest/maintenance/cost of capital. You're looking at paying off that harvester in only 4 years.
You've forgotten about 90% of the costs of producing those $135k of berries and bringing them to market - the land, water, everything involved in planting and
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If nobody benefits then it was a malinvestment. But the vast majority of investments aren't like that. One guy using a $600 PC does the work of a roomfull of guys with adding machines, but that guy doesn't get paid more than one of those adding machine guys once you adjust for inflation.
Some berrys ARE hand-picked for that reason (Score:2)
> Except your example is terrible because a harvester is way more than a 10x improvement over manual picking.
Not always. There's a reason some crops are still picked by hand. You can probably imagine why berries can be an example where putting them through heavy machinery isn't necesarily better. Saffron harvest may never be mechanized.
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Oops, I read your sig!
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As to what makes a person efficient - capital savings and investment into labour saving devices.
It's amazing how many people can understand this, but can't understand layoffs.
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The problem here is the way US / state labor laws are written. Minimum wage should apply to everyone working in the state/country, regardless of the person's origin or citizenship status.
And everyone with rights to work in the states should have the right to seek any job, not just one they were brought in to do.
And minimum wage should be a living wage in the jurisdiction.
And everyone who has the right to work in the states should have a path to citizenship.
With laws like that, incentives to ship in workers
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bullshit, no $5 an hour immigrant is going to have my skills and experience.
maybe the gravy train is ending for useless people.
Re:Global economy (Score:5, Insightful)
I see this argument a lot around Slashdot, and while I would agree that this is typically correct for the top end of the labor pool it fails to take into account that an influx of cheap labor impacts people who are still gaining experience. Even if you are completely amazing at your chosen profession I would wager that your abilities, like everyone else's, where built up through time and experience. Time granted by a manager who had faith in your ability to grow.
If an influx of cheap labor prevents the more inexperienced people from gaining their expertise then the country will eventually be left barren of skills as the imported labor takes their skills and experience home with them at the end of their tenure.
This doesn't just apply to people coming straight out of college either. Even people who have some experience will be affected if they are replaced with a foreign visa holder before they can make the move from technical expert to leadership role.
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I see this argument a lot around Slashdot, and while I would agree that this is typically correct for the top end of the labor pool it fails to take into account that an influx of cheap labor impacts people who are still gaining experience.
It also fails to take into account people dumb enough to fall for liars who inflate their resume, as well as people dumb enough to think they can get away with the new shiny shiny instead of hiring experience and using something proven. The presence of that available cheap labor is tempting, and some people will succumb to temptation.
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To be fair, ITT is *really* good at churning out IT professionals. Most project managers are bad at communicating with outside culture laborers, so they have a hard time operating with the Chinese or, especially, the Indians.
Chinese (and asians in general) have strong hierarchical cultures: when someone asks you if you can get something done in a week, you say *yes*. Arguing the point is burned out of these people, and they have as hard a hard time adjusting to it as you would if you went to e.g. Japan
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I'm living at a higher standard of living than my parents. My parents own three houses; I am more effective with my finances.
Even normalizing that out, the cars available to me cost the same as they did in the 70s (the median new car purchase was 56% of the median income; that number is surprisingly rigid), and their cars didn't have standard air conditioning (available in 1/3 of all new cars!), standard radio (60%!), four-wheel anti-lock disc brakes, independent suspension on all four wheels, high gas
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Too many grasshoppers amongst the youth today.
Said about pretty every generation ever. Spend some time with the younger generation, I have, Air Force Airmen and let me tell you they are good at what they do, it is different from what we did but that doesn't make it useless.
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that only works for a time until the company bleeds out
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Well you'll have to train them up then!!
Effects of high labor costs (Score:5, Insightful)
It's more of a shock that anyone is still paid well considering hype literal billions of cheap labor outside America.
Try trillions of cheap labor. We have this deluded notion that we can have both the highest labor costs in the world AND keep labor intensive [wikipedia.org] work. That does not and cannot work over the long term. China has 4 people for every 1 in the US. That means all other things being equal, labor costs in China will be 1/4 that in the US on average. There is no reason China cannot have productivity equal to that of the US. Therefore it is illogical to continue to believe that the US can continue to have exceptionally high wages in the face of competition with a clear labor cost advantage.
Sure, we could fix the visa problem, but if companies are forced to use expensive (globally speaking) labor, they'll just leave the country.
Some will, some won't. If they get good value for money they'll stay. If the work can be done comparably well for less elsewhere then they'll leave. Honestly we should expect US wages to experience some form of reversion to the mean. If you want to have the highest wages in the world you should expect labor intensive work to go elsewhere. That's just Economics 101.
I suggest everyone start saving their money, because the gravy train is ending.
If the US wants to stay ahead then we will need to stop spending money on stupid things (wars, oversized military, interest on national debt) and start spending money on R&D, education, infrastructure and an efficient health care system. You know, things that will actually improve quality of life and incomes and productivity. Failure to do this will eventually result in the US experiencing a reversion to the mean in GDP per capita.
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The US has nowhere near the highest labor costs in the world. We're not even in the top 10.
The US has high labor costs (Score:4, Informative)
The US has nowhere near the highest labor costs in the world. We're not even in the top 10.
If you actually believe that labor costs in the US aren't among the highest in the world then you haven't actually bothered to look at the data. Depending on how you measure it the labor costs in the US are mostly somewhere between 5th and 20th per capita. Yes there are some countries with higher labor costs but not very many of them [conference-board.org]. The fact that we don't have THE highest labor costs per capita is not important. What is important is that our labor costs are WELL above the mean globally. If you want to know why manufacturing companies have moved to China (and elsewhere) for labor intensive manufacturing, labor costs are by far the biggest factor. There are a lot of products that simply cannot be made in the US for the hourly wages that a US based manufacturer would have to pay.
I used to do global sourcing for a living. I've traveled all over Eastern Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central America for manufacturing companies. I work in manufacturing and I buy products and commodities from around the world. The US without question has some of the highest labor rates in the world. It's not even a debate. If you think otherwise you don't know what you are talking about.
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It most certainly IS important if you're responding to someone who claims the US has THE highest labor costs in the world.
If you want to have the discussion that US labor costs are too high, that's fine, but let's not start the discussion with a falsehood, OK?
Re:Effects of high labor costs (Score:5, Interesting)
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The problem is all costs are labor. The machines are made by people (labor) using machines (recursion) fueled by energy produced by people (labor). Those machines are then operated by people (labor), using fuel produced by people (labor) using other machines (turtles all the way down).
In the end, you can take all business input costs (accounting), shift the labor costs (economics) to the bottom, and find an aggregate cost (economics) and price (economics). When you have tall stacks of production, the p
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"oversized military" yeah, the U.S. should let China suck down Taiwan like they did Tibet. There's no reason they should be part of China's fascist empire. S. Korea? Sheesh, turn them into N. Korea and the U.S. won't have to compete with them any longer. And while the U.S. is at it, it should let China control Japan's sea lanes, what does the U.S. need with a Japan. Eastern Europe would be best left to Putin and his little green men, no one wants an Eastern Europe part of the world economy, let Putin do for
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Try trillions of cheap labor.
There aren't anywhere near a trillion people. Unless, you are part of the "every sperm is sacred" camp.
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China has 4 people for every 1 in the US. That means all other things being equal, labor costs in China will be 1/4 that in the US on average.
That is not technically possible if a Chinese person needs more than 1/4 the wages to survive. That is to say: if you have to pay the Chinaman 1/2 as much as a U.S. worker in order for him to eat and have shelter, then it doesn't matter if you have 90 times as many workers; the cost is still going to be 1/2 as much, because you have to feed your damned work force, and that's how much it costs.
Chinese labor estimate is $3.50, versus $8.25 minimum wage in my state and $7.25 minimum wage United States fede
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It's more of a shock that anyone is still paid well considering hype literal billions of cheap labor outside America.
Sure, we could fix the visa problem, but if companies are forced to use expensive (globally speaking) labor, they'll just leave the country.
I suggest everyone start saving their money, because the gravy train is ending.
Then, supply and demand will return to the markets and prices, wages, jobs and everything else will stabilize. BTW, in case you are not aware of it, doing things that is good for business and not for the people is called fascism or the new politically correct term corporatism.
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Supply-and-demand is an effect, not a cause. Notably, it won't drive prices below costs.
Wide Spread Abuse (Score:5, Interesting)
This "hidden workforce" arrives on B1/B2 visas, which federal authorities acknowledge are subject to "widespread abuse" in Silicon Valley
If everyone realises that wide spread abuse is going on, then why the hell do they allow the practice to continue? I am not generally one who bashes big business and the tech giants, but give me a break. Create a points system for bringing new people in with the right skills and education, and make sure they are paid a similar wage, so that local wages do not reduce rapidly.
Re:Wide Spread Abuse (Score:5, Insightful)
Because if they stopped those visas entirely it would harm the few companies who are using them legitimately. Well, that's the official explanation, I imagine the real reason is "lobbying and backhanders".
This article smells (Score:5, Insightful)
If I need a job done, I look for whomever can do it on time, correctly, and inexpensively; the latter generally being the least important. Upon settling upon a particular vendor, I may do some vetting, but exactly how much am I supposed to do? Particularly knowing there are already laws and enforcement bureaus in place to handle transgressions, I'm not likely to conduct my own deep investigation.
So Tesla hires Eisenmann to do a job, build a paint shop. That company, and at least one (ISM Vuzem), possibly more, position themselves to maximize the profit from the money Tesla is paying by hiring skilled workers made cheap through exploiting the visa system, and run afoul of the law. How much of that blame are we supposed to lay at Tesla's feet?
The the article mentions Tesla's name 39 times, including the title, 14 times in the first 16 paragraphs. Eisenmann is mentioned twice in the same space, and only in paragraphs 14 and 15 (13 overall). Vuzem is only mentioned once in that opening space (22 overall).
It looks like the Mercury News is intentionally bashing Tesla to grab headlines, particularly by front-loading the name. They could have just as easily reported that there is a huge problem in the United States with contractors hiring overseas workers under false pretenses, and Tesla was the latest victim.
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Re:This article smells (Score:4, Insightful)
It looks like the Mercury News is intentionally bashing Tesla to grab headlines, particularly by front-loading the name. They could have just as easily reported that there is a huge problem in the United States with contractors hiring overseas workers under false pretenses, and Tesla was the latest victim.
Good analysis IMO. Mod parent up.
It might be a gdecent analysis but the above statement falls into the age old method of deflection and shows a tad bit of bias. All of a sudden Tesla is the "victim" of overzealous reporting. Let's just ignore that they decided to outsource and use cheap labor...
While it may be true that the Mercury News has an agenda and is using the Tesla name to sell papers, Tesla put themselves in the position where they could be criticized for labor practices. For better or worse, they made the decision to outsource to a company that they knew, or should have known, would hire foreign workers. They put themselves in this position. They are anything but a victim.
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IMO, you're right -- but at the same time, I think there's something reasonable about it because Musk and Tesla are so often lauded as geniuses and the stars of the new, beard-and-flannel friendly economy yet are still ultimately contributing to the visa abuse game.
If Musk is going to bask in the glow of inventing the electric car, then he has to accept the blame for participating in visa abuse, too.
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This "hidden workforce" arrives on B1/B2 visas, which federal authorities acknowledge are subject to "widespread abuse" in Silicon Valley
If everyone realises that wide spread abuse is going on, then why the hell do they allow the practice to continue? I am not generally one who bashes big business and the tech giants, but give me a break. Create a points system for bringing new people in with the right skills and education, and make sure they are paid a similar wage, so that local wages do not reduce rapidly.
Money
Oompa Loompas (Score:4, Insightful)
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In business, whenever you have to ask "why?" the answer is almost always "money."
Hard to be effective and stop abuse (Score:3)
If everyone realises that wide spread abuse is going on, then why the hell do they allow the practice to continue?
It is very hard to create programs and policies to achieve a difficult goal and at the same time prevent unintended consequences and abuse. Abuse of immigration policies is probably inevitable, but so is the downfall of any nation which closes itself off to the world and/or tries to create one-sided trade policies. So one thing everyone should agree on is immigration requires a delicate and difficult balancing act of many concerns.
Create a points system for bringing new people in with the right skills and education, and make sure they are paid a similar wage, so that local wages do not reduce rapidly.
That isn't even the type of visa this article is talking about. B1 visas are
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What the HELL are you going on about? It's blindingly, stupidly obvious why "they" allow the practice to continue. The USA has become c
Doesn't that violate federal labor laws? (Score:5, Interesting)
"and they worked 10-hour days -- without overtime -- up to seven days a week."
I have seen people do seven days in a row but then they got off several days in a row if you do a two week pay period. So you work 7 days at 10 hours and then have 7 days off. Some people like that.
So are they breaking labor laws or just doing 7 10s and 7 off?
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http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq... [ca.gov]
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Yes and no.
There are federal labor laws https://www.usa.gov/labor-laws [usa.gov] and these are minimums.
A state can have laws on top of the federal laws for example California. For example at on company I work at we offered people the option of 4 10 hour days a week.
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I read the story and you are correct. It looks like it is a sub-contractor of a contractor that is working Tesla's factory. To be honest I am not a fan of the rabid Tesla fan boys but this really has nothing to do with Tesla. It would be like busting the mayor of a city because the company that they hired to do landscaping subcontracted out mowing the grass at parks to a company that hired illegals.
The subcontractor that is breaking the law should be punished. The answer to why is Tesla's name all over this
the upper level contractors / main comp (Score:2)
the upper level contractors / main comp need to be held as well.
Some places even try to hide under 1099's like lift / uber to get out of stuff.
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I think at a certain point you have to accept some of the blame for the people or contractors you hire to do a job. It's too convenient to say "they were contractors".
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So it is the fault of the people that buy Teslas.
They bought a car from a company that hired a contractor that hired a subcontractor that was breaking labor laws.
The only way they have any guilt is if they knew that it was going on. I doubt that anyone at Tesla knows any more about the construction workers adding on to the factory than you know about the subcontractor that worked on the roof of your home.
Pay what the market will bear (Score:5, Insightful)
Ever eat at a grocery store? Guess what? You are eating products that were worked on by imported labor and I bet you aren't complaining about the lower prices. This is nothing unusual and I don't think less of Tesla for trying to get a better deal. As long as Tesla followed whatever regulations are in place for bringing in their workforce and paying them, I don't really see a problem here. If they broke some laws then appropriate and proportional punishment should follow. If the laws are allowing something they shouldn't then the answer is to change the laws. See some of the H1B abuse if you need an example of laws that are being abused.
While most of the imported workers were happy with their wages, one worker was earning the equivalent of $5 an hour while his American counterpart was earning as much as $52, and they worked 10-hour days -- without overtime -- up to seven days a week.
If someone is willing to pay the American worker $52/hour (roughly $100K/year with 8 hour work day) and gets good value for their money then where is the problem? On the other hand I cannot imagine paying $52/hour for that sort of work unless I had no alternative. Heck, my little company doesn't pay skilled trades $52/hour and we're a pimple on a gnat's ass in size compared with Tesla. I respect skilled trades immensely but Tesla would be nuts to pay that sort of labor rate if they could get the same work done for less. Just because this hypothetical American skilled trade worker is asking $52/hour doesn't mean Tesla or anybody else should be prohibited from looking for a better deal. Would you pay 10X the cost for work on your house solely because the worker is a US citizen and not because they do any better work? If you say yes I'm going to call you a liar.
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Tesla pays contractors, not subcontracted workers (Score:5, Interesting)
Tesla hired a German contractor, Eisenmann, to build a paint shop.
Eisenmann then hired ISM Vuzem, a Slovenian company, who then hired the said Slovenian electrician.
Who then had an accident, ended up in a hospital and who is now suing all three for following reasons:
From TFA:
Eisenmann USA wrote letters to the U.S. Embassy on behalf of Lesnik and as many as 200 foreign workers stating they would supervise employees at a U.S. auto plant.
Most of the Vuzem workers were nonsupervisory laborers and tradesmen.
Tesla issued company security badges to the foreign workers, recorded their time on site and shared responsibility for setting safety conditions.
Vuzem required foreign employees to regularly work between 60 and 70 hours a week.
Vuzem paid Lesnik an average of 800 euros per month, or about $900, for a rate of less than $5 per hour. Lesnik was promised an equal amount when he returned home, but the company never paid the balance.
The companies violated wage and employment laws and benefitted from the cheap labor of foreign workers.
Workers were promised $12.70 an hour based on a standard workweek.
The suit estimates they are due $2.6 million in overtime and premium pay.
All in all, Tesla is the least responsible party in this case.
In fact, they could probably sue Eisenmann USA for failing to meet their requirements "to hire and pay their workers appropriately", as they claim is their practice.
That is, unless it turns out they were simply turning a blind eye and just looking at the bottom line.
Like everyone else.
More from TFA:
Vuzem provides teams of Eastern European workers to build manufacturing plants in Europe and the U.S. It counts Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Volkswagen, Ford and Saab as clients, according to its website.
In 2003, an Alabama sheet metal workers union protested Eisenmann hiring a contractor that brought in Polish workers to complete a Mercedes-Benz paint shop.
The company was cleared of any wrongdoing by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Officials with the agency declined to answer questions about the investigation and denied a Freedom of Information Act request for materials related to the probe.
Eisenmann declined to respond to written questions about the case.
Ten years later, ICE fined Infosys a record $34 million for circumventing H-1B and B1 regulations and unlawfully using visa holders for skilled work around the country, among other offenses, according to a court settlement.
This month, Bitmicro Networks Inc. of Fremont was fined about $168,000 for giving substandard wages to workers brought in from the Philippines.
It's not a case of Tesla or emigrants or cheap labor.
It's just another example of corporations in the US being subsidized at the expense of US citizens.
Everyone does it, everyone pretends it is not an issue... until they get sued.
Let Me Get This Straight... (Score:5, Insightful)
So, cheap labor was supplied by a subcontractor who worked for the company that Tesla hired to build an add-on to its existing facility?
How is this news worthy?
If Tesla were deliberately skirting US labor laws, that would be news worthy. If they chose to contract with well-known abusive employers overseas, that might be important to potential buyers.
But outside of defense and aerospace, how many industries routinely vet every subcontractor they hire? No one. At best, they might check the primary contractor to make sure they don't have a sketchy history. But not everyone he might hire.
Because that is a ton of work. It takes lots of time and money to investigate, especially since you'll need to check every bidder before you award the contract.
If you personally don't like it, support laws that prohibit foreign workers or make disclosure of foreign labor required for all primary contractors.
A company cannot be expected to investigate the labor practices of every company it might contract. That is just insane, and that is why this article is worthless trash.
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Re:Let Me Get This Straight... (Score:5, Informative)
Automotive does. And with all the regulations surrounding conflict minerals and child labor these days, pretty much anyone making a consumer product that cares about their brand does now too.
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I expect they have to maintain tight quality control over their parts suppliers because they are responsible if the product fails.
There is a difference between contracting out for your products and contracting for the renovation and maintenance of your facilities.
Everyone should be keeping a close eye on what happens with their products. The supplies and labor going into the product ultimately have an effect on the general public.
But that level of oversight is not particularly important for other areas of t
Slovenian subcontractor (Score:2)
Replace Tesla with actual company name (Score:4, Insightful)
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Companies exist to make money by doing things as efficiently as possible. I can't fault any company for hiring foreign workers.
Now the people who allow these visas, and the foreigners to be exempt from the same basic protections of citizens, and who break down trade barriers which exist because of the large discrepancies in the laws and behaviours between different countries, ... well they should get shot with a bucket of their own shit.
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It's not. Tesla doesn't make the laws. They may lobby and donate, but they don't make the laws. If they do (i.e. write them) then I'm back to the lawmakers getting shot with a bucket of their own shit.
Our problem isn't Tesla, it's career fucking politicians lining their own pockets and trading away the USA in exchange for another term of job security.
The New Economy (Score:2)
Visa policy needs to be looked at closely. (Score:5, Insightful)
As much as I'm not a Trump fan, one of the things he's right about is that visa abuse is rampant. The original intent of the H-1B program is good; our company is a multinational and we bring lots of very smart, talented employees to the US to work with us. The huge loophole is the body shops and IT service providers who just use it as a relief valve to earn more margin on IT outsourcing deals. The thing I don't like seeing is companies who just decide they don't want a 25-year veteran employee anymore, call up Tata or Infosys, and have a less-skilled replacement shipped in next week (that the veteran has to train to get his severance package.) I don't know how many more stories like that will have to be written before people realize this is not a good way to conduct business.
The problem with the visa abuse, the trade deals, etc. is that to make a dent, every company across the board needs to be affected equally and immediately. The only way to do that is to take away the visa programs for everybody, or unilaterally cancel a trade deal overnight. This would be the only way to ensure no company still had an advantage. One of the reasons companies offshore IT or import cheap H-1B workers from a body shop is because their competitors are doing it. If they don't, their IT costs are higher even if the quality is better. If, all at once, every company suddenly lost access to the loopholes they were exploiting, or that their "IT service partner" were exploiting, the incentive to offshore because everyone else is doing it would disappear.
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This is beyond H1B abuse, where they can bend poorly written laws; this is B1/B2 abuse which is straight up illegal.
As long as the media keeps rephrasing illegal immigration into "anti-immigration", these problems will never get solved; which is exactly what their corporate masters want.
that's why they call it a break room (Score:2)
While most of the imported workers were happy with their wages, one worker was earning the equivalent of $5 an hour while his American counterpart was earning as much as $52, and they worked 10-hour days -- without overtime -- up to seven days a week.
I'm sure that importing these new workers is just a temporary measure. Tesla's long-term plan is to lower the cost of American workers by refurbishing and reusing them after burnout. However, they've only been able to recover three of them so far. Hopefully the numbers will improve after they figure out how to soften some of the workers' hard landings.
Vote trump to fix this and the VP's and CEO should (Score:3)
Vote trump to fix this and the VP's and CEO should be doing hard time for stuff like there they can work for $0.13 /hr in prison.
Tesla did not imported, misleading title (Score:2)
Tesla did not imported the workers, it was the sub-sub contractor. Shameful slashdot title, I hope this is not the default.
Many wrongs in this one (Score:2)
Let's not let this pass since we all love Testa. Even though Tesla is not the party directly responsible for these contracted workers, they should have better practices to vet the companies they work with.
There is a path to legally bringing workers from your overseas offices, It is an L1 Visa, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] , B visas specifically are not allowed to work, but can come here to apply for jobs (which then require moving to a proper work permit), or build their own company (very easy to get p
Overtime (Score:2)
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You should do something about it. Or continue to accept it without complaints.
Europe in action (Score:2)
B1 visa abuse going on for a long time (Score:3, Interesting)
I know cases of three people with identical papers applying for B1, one getting it and the other two getting, "not eligible to apply for ANY visa to USA for 2 years" stamped on their passports. It was as if the first guy is up for stealing a policeman's helmet on the Oxford boat race night. Gets off with a five pound fine. The next guy up for the same thing. The magistrate notices a sudden spurt in theft of police helmets and sentences Agustus Fink-Nottle to two weeks in the slammer.
If Tesla has bought the paint shop from a shell company in Eastern Europe, and if this is part of erection and delivery contract, it would be covered under B1 visa rules.
I think it worked in large scale because they were from Eastern Europe. Embassies in India, China, Africa etc would have smelled a rat miles away.
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Re:How the hell... (Score:5, Informative)
Aren't visas like this for jobs skills that are lacking in the US? This was a construction job. thousands of people could have been imported from Detroit, Buffalo, etc.
Wrong type of Visa. B1 Visas are meant for business professionals to temporarily enter the country for negotiations, meetings, interview staff, perform research, etc. This type of abuse is outright fraud. The problem is not simply poorly written laws (or at least not primarily that). The problem is enforcement of those laws. It may be prohibitively difficult to prevent this type of abuse, but I assume there is also a drastic lack of enforcement of these Visa regulations.
Tesla is able to rightly say they never hired these fraudulent visa holders and expects its subcontractors to follow immigration and other labor laws. Forcing all companies to perform detailed audits of all their subcontractors which goes above and beyond what even the federal government does is probably not reasonable. But increased scrutiny of all B1 visa requests would probably solve a great deal of abuse (certainly not all abuse though).
Fossil fuel funded FUD (Score:2)
The LA Times attacks on Tesla and Musk are nothing but a poorly researched hatchet job, probably funded by the fossil fuel industry in an attempt to discredit Tesla and distract the media from their own failings (such as the fact that the fossil fuel industry receives $5 trillion in subsidies a year).
http://electrek.co/2016/05/12/... [electrek.co]
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The LA Times attacks on Tesla and Musk are nothing but a poorly researched hatchet job, probably funded by the fossil fuel industry ...
Maybe so, but the Mercury News and the LA Times are owed by different companies, and this story is by the Mercury News.
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Tesla SolarCity SpaceX...... $4.9 billion in government support
Finally the Gov has done something to get it's money's worth! With SpaceX's launch cost already ~$100M cheaper than ULA (1st link googling) they'll make their investment back in about 2 years! (23 launches in 2014) And thats just for SpaceX alone. Tesla is solving the chicken/egg problem for electric vehicles and solar city is encouraging the market for energy storage. Those $5B are probably the best tax dollars ever spent on one conglomerate (Musk). I say double that and see what his people come up with!
Don't pity Slovenia. (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree that American companies abuse the H1 visa program and that it undercuts American workers. But the implication in the article that Slovenia is an "impoverished" country is totally wrong. Slovenians are in general well educated and have a European standard of living. I suspect Tesla wants Slovenian workers because they know what they are doing. Maybe these particular workers are being abused... I don't know. But don't pity Slovenia.
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RFTFY, WAGAS.
Worrying about cheap foreign labour is passe (Score:2)
This paradox will increase with the soon-to-come full automation of the manufacturing sector, and half of the service sector.
Worrying about cheap foreign workers is so 20th century.
You should be worrying about even cheaper A.I. and robots, made in the U.S. of A.
Automation of work will reduce the low-wage advantages of poor countries.
But it will not get you your fairly routine job back. Fuggedaboudit.
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He in turn called the operations manager for the plant and shit started rolling down hill.