As Shanghai sweltered in a heat wave in June, the car factory where Mike Chen works switched production to night shifts and dialed down the air-conditioning.
For Chen, toiling through the early hours in his sweat-soaked uniform, it was the latest slap in the face after cuts in bonuses and overtime slashed his monthly pay this year to little more than a third of what he earned when he was hired in 2016.
Chen, 32, who works for a joint venture between China's state-owned car giant SAIC and Germany's Volkswagen, is far from alone. Millions of auto workers and suppliers in China are feeling the heat as an electric vehicle price war forces carmakers to shave costs anywhere they can.