The fact is that if you want to sell into the EU, the factory has to meet ISO 14000 environmental controls. Which is not to say that some of the sub-tier folks aren't a little more lax. But Elkhart had to buy components from the same suppliers, they're the only ones making the components. The fab shops I've been in over there are as good or better than many of the small mom and pop fab shops here in Silicon Valley, who do have to deal with the San Jose or Santa Clara public works and fire department inspections. The more "industrial" processes like injection molding, casting and such have always been dirty. Ever been in a steel foundry? I've gone over productivity reports and on the job injuries (flying lessons for leaking product notwithstanding) are comparable to the US.
What Americans might find upsetting is the housing of not only production line workers but lower level engineers and administrative staff in company dorms, eating company food, and often shopping in company stores. Not much different than industrial revolution America.
One thing Americans found upsetting is the suicide rate from workers jumping off of balconies in hon hai (apple CM) dormitories, but some of those factory complexes are like a small city (hundreds of thousands of workers so bigger than my nearest city).
I didn't like the thought of sending workers back to the dormitory without pay until the line was up and running again, but they don't exactly have unions (or didn't when I was over there).
The dormitory system is/was practical when workers were pulled in from hundreds of miles away, wanting only to work/eat/sleep and earn money to save and/or send home.
There is a mild resemblance to the old American company towns, and you don't really want to learn too much about that part of "our" history.
JR
PS: at the risk of crossing some line, these factory jobs are/were a major quality of life improvement for those workers, and their wages keep going up as this all matures. Big CM are building new factories away from coastal population centers to get cheaper workers (and/or buying robots).
