Elon Musk
“They don’t even leave the factory”: Tesla employees in China suffer, the boss celebrates
The Tesla factory in Shanghai, China: CEO Elon Musk is proud of the working conditions there.
© Xiaolu Chu / Freelance Photographer / Getty Images
Elon Musk is enthusiastic about his employees in China. The reason: In the Gigafactory Shanghai, people sleep on the floor, there is no work-life balance there.
The electric car manufacturer Tesla no longer builds its vehicles exclusively in Fremont, California. In addition to other locations in the USA, the company also manufactures in Germany and China. The plant in Shanghai in particular seems to have grown dear to the heart of company boss Elon Musk.
In an interview with the Financial Times, he expressed his admiration for China’s work ethic, saying: “There are just a lot of very talented, hard-working people in China who believe in production. They don’t just work at midnight, they even at 3 a.m., they don’t even leave the factory.”
Quarantine on the line instead of at home
A report in the British daily newspaper “Guardian” describes what actually lies behind this work culture, which multi-billionaire Musk welcomes so euphorically. In April, Tesla was still benefiting from the strict corona lockdown in the Chinese city of millions. Despite the curfews, it was possible for people to operate the Gigafactory because the employees had to complete the quarantine on the assembly line.
In concrete terms, this meant that it was not possible to leave the company, instead of free time there were twelve-hour shifts six days a week. The floor of the factory served as a place to sleep.
About two years ago there were reports that the working conditions at the Chinese Tesla site were particularly bad, the tech magazine “Pingwest” described the plant as a “Giga Sweatshop”, based on the world-famous sweatshops of large sewing shops. It was already known at that time that the wage level of the line workers was quite low at around 1,500 US dollars a month.
Aside from the pay, the hard work of the Chinese Tesla employees may suit CEO Musk – he too is said to work around the clock, hardly taking a break. Musk once said, “No one ever changed the world with a 40-hour week,” and recommended at least doubling the working hours.
The hated “996”
With the extreme rate, Tesla is one of many international corporations that benefit from the Chinese “996” system. The number represents work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., 6 days a week. Scientists at an Australian university have described this working environment as “modern slavery”.
For Musk, the opposite seems to be a problem. His admiration for the long working days in China was followed in the video by a dig at American workers, who he says “avoid going to work at all.” He said not a word about the workforce that is still being set up at the German location, but his statements give an idea of how Musk is likely to find the ongoing efforts of IG Metall in this country.
As for China, according to the Guardian report, there seems to be growing dissatisfaction within the population, which has harshly criticized the “996” system. Social media should also play a major role in this, in which critics can come together. It was particularly loud there in January, when reports about a deceased employee of the e-commerce platform Pinduoduo made the rounds. The 22-year-old collapsed after a series of long shifts shortly after work at half past one in the night and died, it is said.
Tesla and Elon Musk plan second plant in China
For Tesla and Elon Musk, the location and the opportunities there remain extremely attractive. Just last week, the Reuters news agency not only reported that Tesla was planning another plant in the immediate vicinity of the existing Gigafactory, but also confirmed that the Chinese authorities had actively made it possible to bring around 6,000 employees to the factory despite the lockdown.
Together with the new plant, the largest and most important location for Tesla will be created in China. According to the company, “the world’s largest export center for vehicles” is to be built there. By the end of 2023, 1.5 million vehicles a year are expected to roll off the production line there. This corresponds to one and a half times the total production that Tesla was able to report worldwide in 2021.