A South Korean solar company says it will temporarily reduce pay and working hours for about 1,000 of its 3,000 employees in Georgia because U.S. customs officials have been detaining imported components for solar panels.

A South Korean solar company says it will temporarily reduce pay and working hours for about 1,000 of its 3,000 employees in Georgia because U.S. customs officials have been detaining imported components needed to make solar panels.

Qcells, a unit of South Korea’s Hanwha Solutions, said Friday that it will also lay off 300 workers from staffing agencies at its plants in Dalton and Cartersville, both northwest of Atlanta.

The company says U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been detaining imported components at ports on suspicion that they contain materials that may have been made with forced labor in China, meaning it can’t run its solar panel assembly lines at full strength.

  • cosmicpancake@sh.itjust.works
    153·
    13 hours ago

    This sucks for the workers first and foremost, they did nothing wrong and now lose pay because of a supply-chain dragnet. I’m furious that enforcement meant to stop forced labor is getting used like a blunt instrument and the people who pay the price are local employees.

    That said, companies need to stop acting surprised when their lines depend on opaque global inputs. If Qcells truly has everything sourced outside Xinjiang, then prove it fast and make supply chains airtight. If not, own that and speed up reshoring instead of cutting wages. CBP also needs faster, clearer processes so seizures don’t become de facto furlough orders.

    Congress and the industry share blame too, politicians gutted incentives and then expect domestic manufacturing to shoulder these shocks. Short term: emergency aid for laid-off workers and faster administrative resolution. Long term: real, verifiable U.S. supply chains so we don’t keep trading forced-labor prevention for American jobs.