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BrikoX @lemmy.zip

2mo ago

Brazil shuts BYD factory site over 'slavery' conditions

www.bbc.com Brazil shuts BYD factory site over 'slavery' conditions

More than 160 workers have been rescued, according to local prosecutors.

Brazil shuts BYD factory site over 'slavery' conditions

More than 160 workers have been rescued, according to local prosecutors.

Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20241224110929/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8xj9jp57r2o

SpinScore: https://spinscore.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2Fc8xj9jp57r2o

18 comments

EV sales in China have been boosted by government subsidies. which encourage consumers to trade their petrol-powered cars for EVs or hybrids.
But there is a growing backlash abroad against what some see as the Chinese government's unfair support for domestic car makers.
Just the bbc doing BBC things
- Yeah, bailing local car companies was OK.
- Congratulations, you found the second and third last paragraphs of the article where they tack on a slightly wider view in case you've missed it. It's far from being the meat of the story.
- No, there really is talk of tariffs several places to neutralise the price advantage that the Chinese subsidies result in. The Chinese want to promote their domestic auto industries, but so does any other country with an auto industry.
  
  Right but it reads very “omg communism Bad cuz it leads to… affordable electric vehicles… please ignore every other country that produces cars also having subsidies.” The US changed its subsidies to only US built EVs and then complains that the Chinese government is making EVs affordable.

I'm from Brazil. It's impressive how fast BYD cars have been multiplying in my city.
- I mean, it's because they are cheap and decent. But I guess it's impressive since other car makers have failed to do the same thing.
  Where I live, electric cars are much more expensive than fuel cars. We do have these Chinese low cost cars too though but they are probably not great for winter. I don't trust things not to break.
  It's like Teslas, also not known for their quality, despite their high price.
  If it's one thing I want to have good quality, it's my car, since my life can depend on it.
  
  Well, we know why they're cheap now lol

had their passports and salaries withheld by a building company
Usually "conditions similar to slavery" in Brazil doesn't imply the people can't quit their jobs. This is fucking "literal", not "similar".
Also, WTF, importing cheap workers to a job in Brazil is close to absurd. They aren't allowed to pay less than they would pay a local.

Just to make things more clear for people, this is about subcontractors, employed by what looks to be a local building company that is making a new factory for BYD EVs.
I think the article's title really makes it look like BYD is the one withholding passports and wages, but actually they are not and inside the article they say BYD has already asked the subcontractor to improve working conditions before it became news, but they didn't comply.
The article doesn't specify how much BYD's executives knew or if they had the ability to change things by their own choise.
- I think it's BYD's responsibility to know such things. This feels like the argument Hershey's made when they got caught using slave labor to source their cacao.
  
  Yeah, absolutely. They can't simply shift all responsibility to someone else.

18 comments