General Motors and a Chinese partner will spend $1 billion to build a third major factory in China, the Associated Press reports. The Wall Street Journal has a similar article.
Neither article says whether the workers at this Chinese factory will be members of the United Auto Workers union, what their wages or benefits will be, or how those wages and benefits compare with those of American auto workers. Do the China-based GM workers have a right to strike the way American workers do? Nor does either article mention the American-taxpayer-funded bailout of GM (actually, I suppose one could argue that the GM bailout wasn't actually funded by American taxpayers, but by the American government with money borrowed from Chinese taxpayers). I suppose building GM cars in China supports some jobs in America, and I'm all for the laws of comparative advantage and for companies locating their manufacturing wherever the companies think they make the most sense.
But given all the time President Obama spent during the campaign season describing the auto bailout as a big success and accusing Mitt Romney of wanting to "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" — even though GM and Chrysler actually did go through bankruptcy at Mr. Obama's behest — you'd think this sort of decision would attract a bit more scrutiny. Why can't American workers build the cars in America and ship them to China? The U.S. government still owns a significant chunk of GM, and here GM is doing something that President Obama says he's against — an American company creating manufacturing jobs overseas rather than here in America.
