Foreign workers being used to build auto plants in U.S.
July 31, 2017, 7:39 AM
Foreign workers being used to build auto plants in U.S.
Last Updated Jul 31, 2017 12:12 PM EDT
Foreign automakers have received billions of dollars in subsidies and tax incentives to build factories in the U.S. and create American jobs.
A new CBS News primetime series, "CBSN: On Assignment," uncovers the hidden foreign workforce being used to build sections of U.S. auto plants. The show premieres on CBS on Monday, July 31 at 10 p.m. EST & PST, streaming simultaneously on CBSN, the network's streaming news service.
This CBSN investigation took us thousands of miles, from South Carolina to Slovenia, in eastern Europe, in search of answers.
For three years, Gerald Greiner managed safety on American construction projects for a German contractor called Eisenmann. His first job was at Mercedes in Vance, Alabama in 2013.
"There was Polish and Slovenian and Croatian people there," he told correspondent Vladimir Duthiers. "It was hard for me to believe because I just didn't understand why they would be here."
What did they do? "Anywhere from steel erection to pipe fitting to pouring concrete to installing equipment, just about everything."
The cars would be built by American workers -- but the building of the auto plants was being done by foreign workers.
"Exactly," said Greiner. "They come in at groundbreaking, they're done at start of production."
Duthiers asked, "Did you think to yourself that the jobs that these guys were doing could be done by Americans?"
"Oh yeah, absolutely. Yes."
Our investigation led us to an apartment complex in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where it appeared workers from Slovenia and Croatia were being housed by their employer.
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A "CBSN: On Assignment" producer witnessed foreign workers being picked up and taken to a BMW plant under construction in South Carolina.
CBS NEWS
Around 6:30 a.m., the workers had one last cigarette, before a van came to take them to work.
A CBS producer filmed the van of workers going through BMW security at 6:45 a.m. The producer shot 15 or more vans and vehicles filled with workers from Eastern Europe.
"I'm angry. Angry," said Daniel Travancic, who has worked for the Local 104 sheet metal workers union out of San Jose, California, for more than a decade.
"There's lots of guys out there still looking for work in the United States," he said. "And now we have how many thousands and thousands of East European workers working here, and they're abused, too? Who lets this happen?"
BMW, Mercedes, Volvo, Tesla, Volkswagen and Eisenmann declined CBS News' request for an interview. But they sent statements that all said essentially the same thing: their contractors are legally obligated to comply with all immigration, safety and employment laws, and any violations are promptly addressed.
Eisenmann also told CBS News they stopped writing letters to the U.S. Consulate on behalf of specific employees' visa requests last summer.
Last week, Mercedes said they are investigating allegations of B1/B2 visa abuse and have already banned one subcontractor from the Alabama work site as a result. As for a different subcontractor, Ism Vuzem, they told CBS News they were on vacation and would get back to us after the summer.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbsn-on-...-plants-in-us/
Mercedes-Benz Drops Foreign Construction Workers from American Auto Plant
by JOHN BINDER
2 Aug 2017
Vance, AL
German car giant Mercedes-Benz dropped the importation of foreign workers to build their Vance, Alabama-based auto plant following a report on how Americans are often left behind by multinational corporations.
In a CBS News investigation, as Breitbart Texas reported, researchers found that over the course of the last four years, foreign workers were brought to the states–either on the B-1 or L-1 visa–to fill construction jobs for the car manufacturing plant.
The L-1 visa is for foreign workers who are employed by a multinational corporation. The workers are allowed to come to the U.S. after working with a corporation abroad for a year. Close to 80,000 foreigners are imported to take jobs that Americans would otherwise do.
CBS researchers spoke with Gerald Greiner, a former manager for German contractor Eisenmann, revealing how foreign workers were imported to take construction jobs that blue-collar American workers could have done locally.
In Greiner’s exchange with CBS News, he said “Oh yeah, absolutely. Yes,” American workers could have taken the construction jobs to build the Mercedes auto plant in Alabama, but were passed over.
Since the investigation was released, Mercedes-Benz dropped Eisenmann as the contracting firm they use for construction jobs in Alabama.
The CBS investigation discovered more than 200 mostly Eastern European, low-wage workers were brought to the U.S. to perform American construction jobs:
CBS News collected hundreds of videos and photos they posted on social media proudly showing off their American jobs, their work IDs, the money they were making, and the B1/B2 visas that got many of them into the United States. The visa costs less than $200 and allows foreigners to come and go for ten years. Visa holders are not allowed to work construction unless they are supervising a project which is not what appeared to be happening.
Our investigation led us us to an apartment complex in Spartanburg, South Carolina where it appeared workers from Slovenia and Croatia were being housed by their employer nearby BMW’s largest manufacturing plant in the world, built with the help of more than $250 million in tax incentives and subsidies afforded to BMW since 1992.
There are four pipelines for which multinational corporations use to import foreign workers. Those options include legal immigrants who come to the U.S. for work; non-immigrants who come to the U.S. on any of the employment-based visa programs available; foreign nationals who are allowed to work legally on Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) – like those given amnesty through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program; and illegal aliens who enter the U.S. mostly through the southern border.
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/...an-auto-plant/
