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> "With H-1B and L-1 work visas, which are harder to obtain, in short supply, Korean firms have routinely rotated engineers through 90-day ESTA entries or short

> "With H-1B and L-1 work visas, which are harder to obtain, in short supply, Korean firms have routinely rotated engineers through 90-day ESTA entries or short-term B-1 visas to meet tight construction schedules" As I mentioned multiple times before, this is a callous disregard of US immigration and labor laws. VW Group has built battery factories in the South as well, and Germany has VWP priviliges as well, but they never abused the VWP or B1/2 program. Same with Japan's Panasonic Heck, Daimler has built a similar sized gigafactory in MS without resorting to similar shenanigans to Hyundai or LG [2] This plant that Hyundai-LG has been building has seen multiple, persistent OSHA violations [0] at a rate that is severely higher than comparable projects in the US [1]. If the news was flipped and we saw a report that Tesla is building a gigafactory in Korea and bringing in American construction workers without filing for formal work visas in Korea, that would be unacceptable. This is very much the same thing. If this is acceptable, then why don't we completely disregard H1B regulations when hiring in the tech industry? Can someone give me a reason why we should allow Korea a special exemption on construction labor and not the rest of the EU, Japan, Taiwan, and other allies? [0] - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/immigration-georgia-hyundai-south-korea https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/immigration-... [1] - https://www.ajc.com/news/2025/06/construction-deaths-injuries-at-hyundais-georgia-ev-plant-draw-scrutiny/ https://www.ajc.com/news/2025/06/construction-deaths-injurie... [2] - https://www.daimlertruck.com/en/newsroom/pressrelease/accelera-by-cummins-daimler-truck-and-paccar-select-mississippi-for-battery-cell-production-in-the-united-states-52568947 https://www.daimlertruck.com/en/newsroom/pressrelease/accele...

mindslight 1y ago
One has to perversely love how this movement has morphed into the primary concern being negative-sum strict enforcement of broken immigration laws, including against countries we're hoping will transfer us expertise and technology. I thought the constructive goal was to restore US industrial capacity and manufacturing jobs? Maybe you should try holding this con artist to doing something positive for our country, rather than being distracted by a series of destructive spectacles.
- alephnerd 1y ago
  I HATE Trump, and was very closely aligned with the previous administration. Even in the Biden admin we pushed back on Taiwanese companies like TSMC attempting something similar, as well as Hyundai after they were discovered using undocumented child labor to build one of their EV factories. This exact raid would have happened even if Harris was in the White House right now. > I thought the constructive goal was to restore US industrial capacity and manufacturing jobs And deciding to almost exclusively use temporary Korean labor without the correct insurance and workman's comp contributions in order to set cement and lay pipe is adding American jobs? European, Japanese, and Taiwanese projects of similar scope haven't done similar shenanigans. > We understand bending of the rules to build things... That'll hold up in court when an employee is crushed by falling steel while building a battery plant, like what happened at this Hyundai plant right before the raid (which the Guardian reports seems to have been done by OSHA inspectors annoyed at Hyundai's relative impunity) [0] > I thought the constructive goal was to restore US industrial capacity and manufacturing jobs "The children yearn for the mines" [0] - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/immigration-georgia-hyundai-south-korea https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/immigration-...
  - triceratops 1y ago
    > use temporary Korean labor to set cement and lay pipe is adding American jobs Media reporting on this has been kinda slipshod. Is that what actually happened? I was under the impression they were setting up imported machinery. It seems grossly inefficient to me to send workers on B1s to pour cement.
    - alephnerd 1y ago
      > Is that what actually happened Yes. Manufacturing speicifc news agencies have reported on this [0]. Korean and American unions have united to condemn the ICE raids [1], but that doesn't absolve Hyundai-LG for committing labor and immigration abuse. > It seems grossly inefficient to me to send workers on B1s to pour cement. It is WAY cheaper than paying the right insurance and US construction salairies ($20k-40k in SK versus $70k-90k in the Georgia). > It's not just salaries though is it? There's hotels/accommodation, flights, per diems That's at most $10k post-tax. Paying $70k-90k means also paying around an additional 0.25-0.5x in employer contributions depending on the state in the US. By bringing in labor from Korea, they are being paid in Won, covered by insurance IN Korea (not the US), and all workman's comp has been paid IN Korea (not the US). > so there'd be some language friction Yep, but most of management and the chain in-between in Hyundai (and most Korean companies) are always Koreans or Korean diaspora. This has been a major friction in Vietnam and India as well, where Korean companies like Hyundai-Kia and Samsung would segregate Korean nationals and Korean origin personnel from locals (eg. Separate canteens, separate accommodations, separate per diems) even if they were doing the same work at the same level. Samsung's chip design office in Gurgaon is notorious for this. > which you edited later to remove) I can't reply, so I'm in the process of replying via edits. I accidentally deleted it during the editing process [0] - https://www.manufacturingdive.com/news/georgia-hyundai-jobsite-raid-ice-construction/759629/ https://www.manufacturingdive.com/news/georgia-hyundai-jobsi... [1] - https://uaw.org/kmwu-and-uaw-joint-statement-we-stand-united-against-all-attacks-restricting-the-rights-of-workers/ https://uaw.org/kmwu-and-uaw-joint-statement-we-stand-united...
triceratops 1y ago
Why are the only choices "allow Korea a special exemption on construction labor" and "put all Korean workers in chains without checking status"? > This plant that Hyundai-LG has been building has seen multiple, persistent OSHA violations Sounds like they need an OSHA raid. Maybe the NLRB too.
- alephnerd 1y ago
  > Sounds like they need an OSHA raid. Maybe the NLRB too They did. On multiple occasions under both Biden and Trump. But Hyundai would always shield their liability by creating a shell contracting/consulting firm to hire labor. If one got popped, another one would be spun up. Heck, it took the DoJ almost 3 years to begin the prosecution against Hyundai and it's partners for using child labor in their Mississippi factory becuase of political interference. The issue is Hyundai is one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, and "Make American Shipbuilding Great Again" has been a key Biden and Trump policy. The Japanese shipbuilders chose to invest in Philippines and India over the US because they knew they'd face similar scrutiny over labor practices. Korean companies on the other hand decided to roll the dice. > If Hyundai can do that, any American company could do it too. Yet none of them who are working on peer projects to Hyundai-LG's did. There are dozens of battery gigafactory projects in the US thanks to rhe IRA, but Hyundai-LG's are the only ones with a persistent pattern of labor abuse [0]. > needs to be addressed by putting the labor in chains I am not disagreeing with you on that point. I am saying supporting that and then jumping to defend Hyundai-LG for breaking the law as well is hypocrisy > maybe a team sent to Hyundai corporate to crack some heads (figuratively) They are in South Korea, not the US. Furthermore, Hyundai consistently uses contracting/consulting firms to shield against liability, which was a major reason it took 3 years just to reach a point where the DoJ could begin prosecuting Hyundai for child labor in their MS factories [0] - https://labornotes.org/2025/09/georgia-battery-plant-raid-spotlights-hyundais-horrible-labor-practices https://labornotes.org/2025/09/georgia-battery-plant-raid-sp...
  - triceratops 1y ago
    If Hyundai can do that, any American company could do it too. That's a deeper problem with the law, and one that can't be solved by putting random workers into detention centers. They're the ones getting injured, right?
buyucu 1y ago
and 8500 Americans will lose their jobs as a result.
JumpCrisscross 1y ago
> If the news was flipped and we saw a report that Tesla is building a gigafactory in Korea and bringing in American construction workers without filing for formal work visas in Korea, that would be unacceptable If Seoul then shackled those workers and treated them in a way we’d find barely acceptable for POWs, you really think there wouldn’t be an irrational outburst in Washington?
- alephnerd 1y ago
  It absolutely would have been a major political football in the US! And I'm in agreement that ICE's conduct was despicable. What I'm annoyed at is people trying to argue that Hyundai-LG are guilt-free and did nothing wrong. Both ICE and Hyundai-LG are in the wrong, but Hyundai-LG could have resolved this problem extremely early when it was flagged by the Biden administration. Notice how Korean reporting is overwhelmingly about business implications and not at all about persistent issues of labor abuse within Hyundai America. Samsung America is equally as large (if not larger) yet has never had similar scandals year after year. Laying pipe, pouring concrete, and other manual labor is not covered by the B1/2, VWP, or TN [0][1] visas, but Hyundai America and it's contractors continued to flout existing regulations and norms. This had been a major pain point in the Biden administration as well. If equally large and Korean Samsung SDI (as well as European, Japanese, and even Chinese conglomerates) can manage to build gigafactories in the US scandal free, other Korean conglomerates like Hyundai can as well. [0] - https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/a-total-lie-mexican-engineers-say-they-were-misled-into-manual-labor-in-ga-factories/CB44GCXWARFL7FLICASGYRAS24/ https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/a-total-lie-mexican-en... [1] - https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/lawsuit-says-hyundai-and-others-conspired-to-import-cheap-labor-to-ga/TEKFIMLBQRG23CMQUHVBSAPGXI/ https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/lawsuit-says-hyundai-a...
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    Totally agree, this is an everyone is shitty here situation. But because of the overreaction by ICE, Hyundai is in some senses given a pass. Like, if I run you over with my car for borrowing my pencil without asking, you’re forgiven for the faux pas.

mindslight 1y ago

One has to perversely love how this movement has morphed into the primary concern being negative-sum strict enforcement of broken immigration laws, including against countries we're hoping will transfer us expertise and technology. I thought the constructive goal was to restore US industrial capacity and manufacturing jobs? Maybe you should try holding this con artist to doing something positive for our country, rather than being distracted by a series of destructive spectacles.

alephnerd 1y ago
I HATE Trump, and was very closely aligned with the previous administration. Even in the Biden admin we pushed back on Taiwanese companies like TSMC attempting something similar, as well as Hyundai after they were discovered using undocumented child labor to build one of their EV factories. This exact raid would have happened even if Harris was in the White House right now. > I thought the constructive goal was to restore US industrial capacity and manufacturing jobs And deciding to almost exclusively use temporary Korean labor without the correct insurance and workman's comp contributions in order to set cement and lay pipe is adding American jobs? European, Japanese, and Taiwanese projects of similar scope haven't done similar shenanigans. > We understand bending of the rules to build things... That'll hold up in court when an employee is crushed by falling steel while building a battery plant, like what happened at this Hyundai plant right before the raid (which the Guardian reports seems to have been done by OSHA inspectors annoyed at Hyundai's relative impunity) [0] > I thought the constructive goal was to restore US industrial capacity and manufacturing jobs "The children yearn for the mines" [0] - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/immigration-georgia-hyundai-south-korea https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/immigration-...
- triceratops 1y ago
  > use temporary Korean labor to set cement and lay pipe is adding American jobs Media reporting on this has been kinda slipshod. Is that what actually happened? I was under the impression they were setting up imported machinery. It seems grossly inefficient to me to send workers on B1s to pour cement.
  - alephnerd 1y ago
    > Is that what actually happened Yes. Manufacturing speicifc news agencies have reported on this [0]. Korean and American unions have united to condemn the ICE raids [1], but that doesn't absolve Hyundai-LG for committing labor and immigration abuse. > It seems grossly inefficient to me to send workers on B1s to pour cement. It is WAY cheaper than paying the right insurance and US construction salairies ($20k-40k in SK versus $70k-90k in the Georgia). > It's not just salaries though is it? There's hotels/accommodation, flights, per diems That's at most $10k post-tax. Paying $70k-90k means also paying around an additional 0.25-0.5x in employer contributions depending on the state in the US. By bringing in labor from Korea, they are being paid in Won, covered by insurance IN Korea (not the US), and all workman's comp has been paid IN Korea (not the US). > so there'd be some language friction Yep, but most of management and the chain in-between in Hyundai (and most Korean companies) are always Koreans or Korean diaspora. This has been a major friction in Vietnam and India as well, where Korean companies like Hyundai-Kia and Samsung would segregate Korean nationals and Korean origin personnel from locals (eg. Separate canteens, separate accommodations, separate per diems) even if they were doing the same work at the same level. Samsung's chip design office in Gurgaon is notorious for this. > which you edited later to remove) I can't reply, so I'm in the process of replying via edits. I accidentally deleted it during the editing process [0] - https://www.manufacturingdive.com/news/georgia-hyundai-jobsite-raid-ice-construction/759629/ https://www.manufacturingdive.com/news/georgia-hyundai-jobsi... [1] - https://uaw.org/kmwu-and-uaw-joint-statement-we-stand-united-against-all-attacks-restricting-the-rights-of-workers/ https://uaw.org/kmwu-and-uaw-joint-statement-we-stand-united...

triceratops 1y ago

Why are the only choices "allow Korea a special exemption on construction labor" and "put all Korean workers in chains without checking status"? > This plant that Hyundai-LG has been building has seen multiple, persistent OSHA violations Sounds like they need an OSHA raid. Maybe the NLRB too.

alephnerd 1y ago
> Sounds like they need an OSHA raid. Maybe the NLRB too They did. On multiple occasions under both Biden and Trump. But Hyundai would always shield their liability by creating a shell contracting/consulting firm to hire labor. If one got popped, another one would be spun up. Heck, it took the DoJ almost 3 years to begin the prosecution against Hyundai and it's partners for using child labor in their Mississippi factory becuase of political interference. The issue is Hyundai is one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, and "Make American Shipbuilding Great Again" has been a key Biden and Trump policy. The Japanese shipbuilders chose to invest in Philippines and India over the US because they knew they'd face similar scrutiny over labor practices. Korean companies on the other hand decided to roll the dice. > If Hyundai can do that, any American company could do it too. Yet none of them who are working on peer projects to Hyundai-LG's did. There are dozens of battery gigafactory projects in the US thanks to rhe IRA, but Hyundai-LG's are the only ones with a persistent pattern of labor abuse [0]. > needs to be addressed by putting the labor in chains I am not disagreeing with you on that point. I am saying supporting that and then jumping to defend Hyundai-LG for breaking the law as well is hypocrisy > maybe a team sent to Hyundai corporate to crack some heads (figuratively) They are in South Korea, not the US. Furthermore, Hyundai consistently uses contracting/consulting firms to shield against liability, which was a major reason it took 3 years just to reach a point where the DoJ could begin prosecuting Hyundai for child labor in their MS factories [0] - https://labornotes.org/2025/09/georgia-battery-plant-raid-spotlights-hyundais-horrible-labor-practices https://labornotes.org/2025/09/georgia-battery-plant-raid-sp...
- triceratops 1y ago
  If Hyundai can do that, any American company could do it too. That's a deeper problem with the law, and one that can't be solved by putting random workers into detention centers. They're the ones getting injured, right?

buyucu 1y ago

and 8500 Americans will lose their jobs as a result.

JumpCrisscross 1y ago

> If the news was flipped and we saw a report that Tesla is building a gigafactory in Korea and bringing in American construction workers without filing for formal work visas in Korea, that would be unacceptable If Seoul then shackled those workers and treated them in a way we’d find barely acceptable for POWs, you really think there wouldn’t be an irrational outburst in Washington?

alephnerd 1y ago
It absolutely would have been a major political football in the US! And I'm in agreement that ICE's conduct was despicable. What I'm annoyed at is people trying to argue that Hyundai-LG are guilt-free and did nothing wrong. Both ICE and Hyundai-LG are in the wrong, but Hyundai-LG could have resolved this problem extremely early when it was flagged by the Biden administration. Notice how Korean reporting is overwhelmingly about business implications and not at all about persistent issues of labor abuse within Hyundai America. Samsung America is equally as large (if not larger) yet has never had similar scandals year after year. Laying pipe, pouring concrete, and other manual labor is not covered by the B1/2, VWP, or TN [0][1] visas, but Hyundai America and it's contractors continued to flout existing regulations and norms. This had been a major pain point in the Biden administration as well. If equally large and Korean Samsung SDI (as well as European, Japanese, and even Chinese conglomerates) can manage to build gigafactories in the US scandal free, other Korean conglomerates like Hyundai can as well. [0] - https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/a-total-lie-mexican-engineers-say-they-were-misled-into-manual-labor-in-ga-factories/CB44GCXWARFL7FLICASGYRAS24/ https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/a-total-lie-mexican-en... [1] - https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/lawsuit-says-hyundai-and-others-conspired-to-import-cheap-labor-to-ga/TEKFIMLBQRG23CMQUHVBSAPGXI/ https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/lawsuit-says-hyundai-a...
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  Totally agree, this is an everyone is shitty here situation. But because of the overreaction by ICE, Hyundai is in some senses given a pass. Like, if I run you over with my car for borrowing my pencil without asking, you’re forgiven for the faux pas.