Shanghai’s Tesla Factory Won’t Be a Dorm for Long
Chinese workers’ tolerance for current deprivations is unlikely to last past the lockdowns. With labor in high demand, the “demographic dividend” is now in their favor.
Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
In recent days, employees of Tesla Inc. have been learning whether it's possible to obtain a good night's sleep on the floor at the company's sprawling Gigafactory in Shanghai. The arrangement is a non-negotiable part of going back to work amid the city's Covid lockdown, and so far around 8,000 of the company’s workers have agreed to give up their comfort and privacy for the paycheck.
That won't be the case for much longer, however. Over the last two decades, conditions for China's factory workers have improved markedly. Wages are higher; on-site meals are better; and worker dorms, once a ubiquitous facet of Chinese factory life, have rapidly shrunk and disappeared.