So naturally, I'm doing quality control as I read. Where are interviews with management? Couldn't get them. Where are the interviews with the politicians who set this deal up? Couldn't do that either (but no explanation). Interviews with the people who like the work? Nope. Any attempt to try to see if there was another side to the story? Unknown, but unlikely.
But more importantly: where is the context to the story? You know, where you look at similar plants in the region, talk to somebody who has seen this story occur before, tell us how these things usually play out?
You see, there is a great regional story here. But you wouldn't know if from this article.
I'm not saying Ikea is running a great plant. If the trend holds, it's probably just like it was described -- at least for some. For others it's probably a life-saver. It follows in a long line of plants where politicians made tax concessions and begged overseas companies to come use the lower wages and higher work ethic found around here. There's a big ribbon-cutting ceremony where your local politician gets to smile and be on the news, there's a big construction effort, there's a big story about management abusing the workers, there's unionization threats, and then -- unionize or not -- both sides work it out. I could tell you 4 or 5 of these stories myself, and I haven't written any news copy in over 20 years.
But you wouldn't know any of that from this article. All we get is some hack playing dialing for assholes from a phone hundreds of miles away. I'd like to know where he got the list of people to talk with. I'd also like to know where he got the story idea in the first place.
I don't know enough about Ikea to say this story is mostly correct or mostly incorrect. But I know enough about writing and the local area to say this story is mostly incomplete. Not a good article.