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Foxconn Denies Looking To Transfer Chinese Workers To Incoming Wisconsin Factory (theverge.com)
A Wall Street Journal article published this morning reported that Foxconn is looking to transfer some of its Chinese workers to Wisconsin in time for its new factory opening in Racine. The article says that these workers would likely be engineers and would fill a gap in prospective talent due to a tight labor market. Foxconn has since denied these claims. The Verge reports: In a comment to Gizmodo, Foxconn denied that it was recruiting Chinese workers. The company said: "We can categorically state that the assertion that we are recruiting Chinese personnel to staff our Wisconsin project is untrue. Our recruitment priority remains Wisconsin first and we continue to focus on hiring and training workers from throughout Wisconsin. We will supplement that recruitment from other U.S. locations as required."
In November 2017, Wisconsin pledged $3 billion in subsidies for the Taiwan-based company if it opted to open the factory in Wisconsin. In return, Foxconn said it would create 13,000 jobs and invest $10 billion. (The state subsidy came out to $230,000 per job.) The Wall Street Journal report suggests that the company is struggling to find qualified engineers in the area, though, as the unemployment rate in the state reached a record low at 3 percent, along with a recent national low at 3.7 percent.
In November 2017, Wisconsin pledged $3 billion in subsidies for the Taiwan-based company if it opted to open the factory in Wisconsin. In return, Foxconn said it would create 13,000 jobs and invest $10 billion. (The state subsidy came out to $230,000 per job.) The Wall Street Journal report suggests that the company is struggling to find qualified engineers in the area, though, as the unemployment rate in the state reached a record low at 3 percent, along with a recent national low at 3.7 percent.
How else are they supposed to move Chinese manufacturing here? It might be the first time ever that a Chinese company has to do some knowledge transfer to Americans!
How stupid the people wanna be?
I mean, how in the world can anyone transfer Chinese workers from China to work in American factory inside America?
Don't they have any common sense left?
But I thought they liked him!
And I know a couple mechanical engineers doing the same because they couldn't get jobs in their field (unless you count $15/hr in a machine shop as " in your field" after a tough 4 year degree program). There's plenty of talent, but they're not gonna pay for it. They'll have folks on work Visas running the factory in a year or two. Gave it Wisconsin, you got played. Now what are you gonna do about it? Nothing, I bet. Just keep voting the same bums in. Year after year...
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This might be Real News after all.
as a 'tight labor market' .. they're just too fucking cheap, even with all that cash walker is giving them, to offer decent wages to americans first, before importing the cheaper h1b prospects.
The article is pretty detailed:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/...
If the article is correct, the cash subsidy for the factory has ballooned to $4.1 billion, and it won't make what was originally proposed. The payback of the subsidy is "...not 20 years, not 42 years..." likely never. The number of jobs is likely less than the 13,000 promised.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
Seriously though, they should've spent the 3 billions on education, then maybe they would know better than to spend the next 3 billion on this :)
Our middling City, in the grand tradition of keeping up with the Joneses, has implemented a quarter cent sales tax increase to fund an Economic Development Fund.
It has basically amounted to little more than a slush fund for the politically connected, and though the promise of economic diversity looms large like the lottery funding education, it is just another way to funnel taxpayer's money to the ruling class.
"Sure, let's legislate additional ways for our reliable politicians to hoover up our tax money... it's a tried and true method that virtually always falls short of expectations."
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
It looks to me like everyone is catching on to the Hollywood model of demanding massive subsidies to make a movie in your town.
Pretty soon we will be having to pay the boss to come to work every day.
The number of jobs is likely less than the 13,000 promised.
Yea, and go figure, nobody who lives in fucking Wisconsin is qualified to do any of them.
They can hire anyone in the US if they want to. Moving costs and/or remote worker environments are pretty cheap to set up.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
I know there was an episode, that seemed to parody this. I'm not sure which came earlier though ...
What a colossal fail.
The capital of Wisconsin has the most educated people per capita of any city in the western hemisphere.
If anything, there aren't enough people with worse options than working at a factory.
You reap what you sow cheeseheads.
Well, nobody willing to work for $7.50 an hour is qualified...
At over $200,000 per job, they ought to be able to afford all the high paying workers they want! Not the $15/hour workers, nor even the Chinese workers who will be paying for their flights over and housing and such at the company store.
showing that you're wrong. Starting in the 90s the State & Federal gov't pulled their funding. That's what made the cost of college sky rocket.
If you had kids in college (or were there yourself) you'd know this, because you'd know that for every 1 spot in the 300 and 400 level classes there's at least 2 qualified students. And by "qualified" I mean a GPA of 3.8 or higher. My kid just manged to squeak in. She was rocking a 4.0 and even that wasn't necessarily enough. She did a special prep program on top of that.
Now, if the reason for skyrocketing tuition was inflationary you'd expect the price to be much, much higher. Since in a capitalist system if you have more demand than supply and can't increase supply you raise prices. But that's not what's happened because teachers like to teach and they are desperately trying to. Even while folks like yourself sit on the sidelines and deride them...
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usa min wage will be big for some Chinese workers as long as live on site.
Foxconn is practicing the Taoist principle of Wu Wei -- how to do (lie) without doing (lying).
The allegation is of transferring Chinese employees to their US factory, and they counter with a denial of recruiting new Chinese workers. It's completely possible for both statements to be true.
The real story is most likely that some senior engineers/foremen familiar with Foxconn practices are heading to the new factory to make sure everything is working smoothly.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
I'm betting that the Friends of Scott Walker have so far reaped 10s millions of dollars in legal fees, "consulting fees", etc so not a fail for them. And now there will be a nice fat cushy job waiting at one of those Friends' firms after inauguration day - so not a fail for Walker.
Crony capitalism: it works. For cronies.
not pre-med. She's got plenty of friends in other, less demanding majors who are going to spend a year as "ronin" trying to get into their classes. All with high GPAs (she's a bit of a nerd, so are her friends).
/.ers want? We seem to really have it in for the humanities around here. Even more so than jocks. I wonder who put that idea in our heads? It wasn't us, that's for sure. Could it be somebody (like Koch media) has spent the last 30 years on a concentrated anti-education campaign. Naw. Couldn't be that.
I suppose you might be right about Communications majors, she doesn't know any of those. None of her friends were dumb enough to spend $160k on a degree that earns $40k/yr tops. But isn't that what us
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"If something looks to good to be true, it probably is"
It looks like Tony Evers has it for Wisconsin (by 1.2% points) so we will see what will happen with this. It's like being in the middle of an ocean on a boat; do you keep going in the direction you are pointed or turn around.
Either way, this turned out to be a waste. Not that any of it will stick to FOXCONN, I doubt people will stop using iPhones in solidarity with Wisconsin. I just hope Tony goes a bit hardball and tries to hammer out a better deal then abandoning it entirely. Time will tell.
In Canada for mining rights in northern Quebec.
https://plannord.gouv.qc.ca/en/
In short,the provincial liberal gov was "investing 1.3G$ yearly" and so that Chinese interest could take resources for free. Lacking local workers, they were asking for special visa allowing "miners" to rotate twice a year without being citizens. Sound familiar?
The fact the the Plan still exist show that something is still going on despite massive public outcry.
You forgot that uw-Madison has one of the best cs and engineering programs in the country.
Madison is actually number 6 in the US. just a bit higher than Bridgeport, CT.
"Foxconn said it would create 13,000 jobs and invest $10 billion. (The state subsidy came out to $230,000 per job.)" That is over ten years. Please at least TRY to not put so much fucking spin on things. Yunno, you can easily google the actual agreement. The subsidies are phased in and directly related to the number of jobs created. You must be a democrat, right?
Worked at Lenovo in RTP. It's at least 50% Chinese nationals. This is the way Chinese companies work.
What? I had to get a H1B visa to spend 2 weeks in CA (a business trip essentially). Regardless of my reason to visit, I had to get a visa. I'm an EU citizen and I really doubt Chinese nationals would have an easier time. Especially if they are working directly for a US based branch of a company (my H1B wouldn't cover that). Could you cite where you got the notion that independent contractors don't need a visa, like an on embassy page?