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Tesla's New Factory Project Imported Foreign Laborers (mercurynews.com)
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.
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.
"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?
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
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.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
The US needs to decide what they want. Are we a first world county with first world benefits? If that's what we want to be then we need to protect first world salaries somehow. If we don't protect the salaries, then we're going to become a third world nation like the rest. I thought this was something we didn't want, but I could be wrong. The 1% don't care, they don't have anything to lose by living in a third world nation because their wealth becomes all the more valuable relatively speaking.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
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!
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.
"He took a duck in the face at 250 knots." -- William Gibson, Pattern Recognition
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.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
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.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens