3 ms·

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 tryin

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.
- alephnerd 1y ago
  Yep! But this isn't a "car run over becuase of a pencil" situation. This is a federal overreach on a business that has broken major labor laws in the US. And that's why I'm a bit miffed. In all this discuss about ICE's overreach, we are ignoring the very real and persistent disdain Hyundai America has for labor regulations. It's almost like (rightful) opposition to ICE's overreach is being used to whitewash what is a very very bad employer. In Korean business and political discourse, the anger isn't about the humanitarian aspect, but the "how dare they even try to do this to us because we have put in so much money". Being angry about ICE because of overreach and treating labor bad is valid, but feeling slighted that money doesn't buy impunity is not a good reason to be annoyed, and betrays a level of callousness that is sadly all to common in Korea Inc.

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.

alephnerd 1y ago
Yep! But this isn't a "car run over becuase of a pencil" situation. This is a federal overreach on a business that has broken major labor laws in the US. And that's why I'm a bit miffed. In all this discuss about ICE's overreach, we are ignoring the very real and persistent disdain Hyundai America has for labor regulations. It's almost like (rightful) opposition to ICE's overreach is being used to whitewash what is a very very bad employer. In Korean business and political discourse, the anger isn't about the humanitarian aspect, but the "how dare they even try to do this to us because we have put in so much money". Being angry about ICE because of overreach and treating labor bad is valid, but feeling slighted that money doesn't buy impunity is not a good reason to be annoyed, and betrays a level of callousness that is sadly all to common in Korea Inc.