BYD's California Ventures

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Jennifer Medina, Chinese Company Falling Short of Goal for California Jobs. New York Times, Oct 26, 2013.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/2 ... alifornia-jobs.html
(In 2010 then Los Angeles mayor Antonio R villaraigosa announced a deal that included nearly $2 million in tax subsidies, an appendix where BYD executives forecasst the creation of more than 100 jobs by August 2013, and heralded the potential for hundred of "high-paying green-collar jobs" (mayor's words). Since the company has secured contracts worth more than $40 million with LA  and Long Beach transit authorities to produce electric buses.  "But three and a half years after initial promise, the company has employed fewer than 40 workers here [in LA], and at least 5 of them are Chinese workers here temporarily, being paid in yuan an amount less than $8 an hour, California's minimum wage. * * * Chinese workers told investigators that they were working in Los Angeles for one to six months, living in dormitory-style housing in the San Gabriel Valley, a heavily Asian suburban area just east of Los Angeles. One worker said they were earning $1.50 an hour plus a $50-per-day allowance. The state fined the company a total of $99,245, citing it for failing to provide minimum wage, not providing workers’ compensation insurance and not giving a second brief rest break")  

Note:
(a) The Spanish surname Medina is from names of places in Spain such as "Medina-Sidonia in Cádiz province and Medina del Campo in Valladolid, so called from Arabic medina ‘city.’"

Cf  Medina
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medina
(The Arabic word madinah simply means "city;"  It is the second holiest city in Islam after Mecca [Muhammad's birthplace] and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet) Muhammad
(b) "Julie Su, the state labor commissioner"

Labor Commissioner’s Office (also known as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE)), Department of Industrial Relations, State of California, undated.
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/
(c) "In May, BYD took over a former RV [recreational vehicle] plant in Lancaster, a surburb in the northeast desert of Los Angeles County."

Lancaster, California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancaster,_California
(The origin of Lancaster's name is unclear)
(d) Translation has not appeared in the cn.nytimes.com.