Ohio Glass Plant Replaces Safety Inspectors With Stopwatches to Boost Output
A Chinese-owned glass factory near Dayton has eliminated all safety equipment and now times workers with stopwatches to maximize production, while busing in a rotating workforce from New York every few weeks.
DAYTON, Ohio — The Fuyao Glass America plant has removed every safety rail, ventilation fan and heat shield from its production floor and replaced them with a single stopwatch mounted on a pole at the end of each line, which supervisors consult before deciding whether a worker may drink water.
Former employees told a congressional roundtable that the factory now buses in a fresh crew from New York every eleven days, drives them straight to the furnaces, and rotates them back before they can learn each other's names. «They don't need to talk if they're already gone,» said former worker Tiffany Moore, who added that she had to sneak out of the building during a shift change to apply for a job at a nearby engine plant.
Representative Ro Khanna, who convened the meeting at the union hall, asked whether the company had responded to his oversight requests. A Fuyao spokesperson said the company had replied with «a very efficient letter» and would now measure its own response time with the same stopwatch.
By Tuesday afternoon, the plant had installed a second stopwatch to time the first stopwatch. Workers said the heat remained unbearable, but the ticking was now much faster.
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