3 workers died at Hyundai’s Georgia plant since 2022, before US immigration raid: reports

Three workers have died since Hyundai Motor started construction of its US$7.6 billion car factory in Georgia in 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a review of federal records.

Apart from the deaths, more than a dozen workers have suffered serious injuries, including from falling without wearing harnesses and getting crushed by forklifts, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“We conducted a comprehensive audit and strengthened safety oversight across the site. We have enhanced contractor vetting, training, and accountability to ensure all partners meet Hyundai’s standards and legal requirements,” a spokesman for Hyundai Motor North America told Reuters in an emailed statement.

Dozens of the company’s current and former workers, many of them safety coordinators who helped oversee construction, told the newspaper in interviews that the work environment involved many inexperienced immigrant labourers, often lax safety standards and frequent accidents.

The plant, which is operated through a joint venture between Hyundai and South Korea’s LG Energy Solution, has been in the limelight since an immigration raid by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last month that detained hundreds of South Korean workers in the largest single-site enforcement operation in the US Department of Homeland Security’s history.

The workers interviewed by The Wall Street Journal said Hyundai did not ensure that people were properly trained and safety regulators did little to prevent worksite violations, the report added.

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