Tesla CEO Elon Musk discussed the striking disparity between an American worker and a Chinese worker in a recent interview. Musk praised the Chinese employees for their dedication. There are simply a lot of highly-skilled, diligent people in China who are passionate about manufacturing, he said.
He said that they (the Chinese labor) do not just burn the midnight oil, but they burn it at 3 AM, Musk reportedly told the Financial Times.
Because of the country’s workforce, the billionaire predicted that China will develop some really strong enterprises.
The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX said that he also slept on the floor of Tesla’s Fremont facility during the Model 3’s “production hell.”
Referring to Americans’ attitude toward employment, he said they are trying to avoid going to work at all.
In the midst of a pandemic lockdown, Tesla’s gigantic Shanghai “Giga-factory” is pushing its workers to the edge to fulfill production targets.
Tesla banned its Shanghai workers from leaving the factory in April, using a “closed-loop” system created by Chinese officials to keep Beijing Olympics participants contained. The workers were reportedly forced to perform 12-hour shifts for six days in a row and sleep on factory floors while confined inside. The plant’s production was halted this week owing to parts shortages, according to the business.
Since its opening in 2018, labor rights and safety concerns have been documented at Tesla’s Shanghai factory, with some workers earning as little as $1,500 per month in what local journalists have dubbed the “Giga-sweatshop.”
Last month, Bloomberg reported that workers at Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory were compelled to sleep at the plant as production began after a three-week hiatus, citing sources familiar with the situation.
The CEO’s comparative remarks followed a query on which electric-vehicle startups pleased him the most, to which he responded that Volkswagen, was “doing the most” in the EV space though it was not a startup.
Musk later lauded his team’s software engineers and technologists, claiming that his companies’ focus on problems like artificial intelligence and spaceflight helps them attract top talent.
