Unfortunately the author of this little rant didn't bother too much with fact checking. The Author, in fact, pointed to a PingWest article which has been roundly debunked as nothing more than a smear campaign on Tesla. You can tell when PingWest is scraping the barrel when it includes the Model S as "evidence" to back up it's position that the factory in Shanghai is somehow all wrong. Clue check, the Model S is made in the US and some are assembled from US components in Holland.
One of the pictures, supposed to back up the Tesla "horror story" of not feeding it's workers,
Is classic disinformation. This was taken of a worker on the Phase2 of the factory. This is a construction worker who works outside the factory, not a factory worker who works inside it.
Check out the "horrendous" food situation at Giga Shanghai yourself.
https://youtu.be/2rrnxbukvlM?t=747
So what brought on this Guardian article vomiting sewage about Musk?
Two things really. One, he said.
“There is just a lot of super talented hardworking people in China who strongly believe in manufacturing,” the billionaire said. “They won’t just be burning the midnight oil, they will be burning the 3am oil, they won’t even leave the factory type of thing, whereas in America people are trying to avoid going to work at all.”
The other is on the TED conference he said
“nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week”
Well that's enough to drive Labour movements off the edge anywhere in the world. After all we all know it is far better for people to work 36 hours a week or less. Much more relaxing and everything will get done just as well. Won't it?
Then it drops off into deep blue idiocy territory with.
In April, Tesla restricted its Shanghai workers from leaving the factory under a so-called “closed-loop” system originally developed by Chinese authorities to contain Beijing Olympics participants.
My son is currently working in China. No company is restricting it's Shanghai workers from leaving the factory. The Shanghai Government has given the workers a choice. They can stay at home (and get a minimum stipend), or they can go to work and stay in a closed loop system and stay there until the emergency is over. Tesla is one of nearly 2,000 companies providing the same "option" to their workers.
The Guardian idiot then compounds the stupidity by saying
While locked inside, the workers were reportedly made to work 12-hour shifts, six days in a row, and to sleep on factory floors.
So having determined that Tesla is NOT locking it's workers inside, how about the shifts? Reality is that Tesla workers work a 12 hour 4 day shift rota. When the workers were given the opportunity to come back to work, it was recognised that they would only get 2 of the 3 work crews back in. So the workers agreed to work 6 days instead of 4. That means they get paid for 6 days instead of 4. That means they work a week and get paid for 1.5 weeks. I know, this is BAD. Really, really, BAD. The workers have nothing to do, only minimal recreation space (the factory is, after all, designed to build vehicles it is not a recreation park), therefore what do they have to do but work?
Of course if you didn't watch the video (it is set just at the entry to the restaurants), but if you read the PingWest article, you'll be worried about their food health.... Watch the video.
To add to this, TorqueNews covered the benefits that workers at Giga Shanghai get. One of them is 3 all you can eat meals a day in these "terrible" restaurants.
So why would these workers want to do this anyway and why do they put up with 48 hours over a 6 day week in 12 hours shifts? You could watch the TorqueNews video on it. Or you can just nod along with the Guardian in hating Musk.
The key benefit that Tesla Shanghai workers get is a 17 month pay schedule. 12 months income. 4 quarterly, production related, bonuses plus one annual production related bonus. You might wonder, or not, why Giga Shanghai is knocking it out of the park every month. They just keep pushing out more and more cars. If you read that PingWest article you would see that the suppliers to Tesla were struggling with Tesla producing such a "ridiculous" amount of cars every month for a factory. I mean, 20,000 a month, crazy. How many did Shanghai push out in Q4 2021? 160,000. Over 50k per month.
Why? Because of those production related bonuses which drive their pay way above any other auto worker in China.
The Guardian article also shoots itself in the foot (what a surprise), by saying that Tesla Shanghai is
on par with China’s extreme work culture, nicknamed “996”, in which workers are expected to work from 9am to 9pm, six days a week. The practice has been the source of protests in recent years and has been characterized as a form of modern slavery.
Yeah but hang on a minute. He's locking them in the factory and turning them into slaves 6 days a week. That is hardly compatible with the statement of on par with China’s extreme work culture.
But let's hang on another minute. If you read the Torque news video, the workers work 4 12 hour shifts and then have two days off. A little more than a 48 hour week, but certainly not 12 hours a day 6 days a week with the implication that there is only one day off (sunday), before going back for another 108 hour week.
Tesla work a 4 day 48 hour "work week" then get 2 days off. This is hardly what I'd call slave labour. In fact in an average 30 day month, Tesla workers get 12 days downtime. I average 8.5. Again, hardly what I'd call slave labour.
To be honest, rather than avoiding Tesla, I'd say a lot of manufacturing workers would be trying to tear the doors down. Hence the policy of Tesla of firing anyone who simply doesn't fit, wants to cause trouble, or doesn't really want to work. Floods of workers trying to get in, why take those who won't bring the company forward?
This article is the worst kind of smear story. One which leverages discredited and borderline illegal reporting then uses misleading and inaccurate statements to build a story of censure.
Scumsuckers. If it was not for their outstanding climate reporting I would not read a word they have to say. Worse, Tesla is all about climate mitigation. Breaking the Guardian's traditions of honesty about the whole thing.
