Chinese Auto-Glass Magnate Faces Union Challenge in Ohio<br />A small number of Chinese companies — such as Fuyao<br />and Qingdao Haier, the appliance maker, with a plant in South Carolina — have opened factories in the United States.<br />Workers at the plant — owned by Mr. Cao’s company, Fuyao Glass — will vote on Wednesday and Thursday on whether to unionize.<br />FUQING, China — Cao Dewang saw his impoverished mother nearly die of starvation more than<br />50 years ago, during a famine driven by Mao’s mismanaged push to industrialize China.<br />Mr. Cao said Fuyao had hired the initial workers for its factory without trying to screen them for pro-union tendencies.<br />Athena Hou, the chief legal officer of Fuyao Glass America, said the company denied the accusations “categorically”<br />and dismissed them as part of a misinformation campaign by the union.<br />Most of the time, Mr. Cao said, “people like me would rather stay in China than go to the U. S.”<br />Still, others may follow thanks to politics and the potential for President Trump to impose trade restrictions.<br />“I started from the very bottom of society, so I understand the wants<br />and needs of those at the very bottom,” said Mr. Cao in an interview earlier this year.
