Amid China’s struggles with excess manufacturing of various products, workers at a domestic auto plant are confronted with a tough decision regarding their employment.
According to a Tuesday interview with Nikkei, Lisa, a factory worker at the Li Auto Factory and a newlywed bride, stated that over 1,000 employees, including herself, were presented with the option to either resign or accept minimum wage until business conditions pick up.
The 27-year-old worker further noted: “We were told that our pure electric vehicle sales are weak due to the bad conditions, so the company has to cut production.” Speaking on the condition of anonymity, Lisa said if she fails to find another job, she will be “starving to death.”
It never occurred to me that the tariffs could be for anything other than blocking off access to affordable EV’s to protect automaker profits; I guess Reddit has made me cynical
There are legitimate justifications for this type of protectionism, such as dumping and other predatory pricing schemes. Those are reasonable and legitimate concerns in this instance.
My point was that for a policy with so many vested and monied interests, it’s not unreasonable to consider that the policy makers might have alternative, or additional, policy objectives as well, including ones that aren’t publicly acknowledged.