Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,194
30,136



Apple supplier Foxconn today said that it remains committed to its contract to build a display plant and research facility in Wisconsin (via Reuters). The company's comment comes a few days after Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said that the state wanted to renegotiate the Foxconn deal, partly due to the belief that the Taiwanese company was not expected to reach its goal of creating 13,000 jobs in Wisconsin.

wisconsin-foxconn.jpg

Foxconn's original goal for the project was to eventually employ 13,000 workers on the site, and today the company has confirmed that it "remains committed" to this plan. Foxconn initially announced the project in 2017 at a White House event alongside President Donald Trump. Governor Evers recently took office in January 2019, inheriting the deal to Give Foxconn $4 billion in tax breaks and other incentives.
"Foxconn's commitment to job creation in Wisconsin remains long term and will span over the length of the WEDC (Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation) contract and beyond."
Over the years, Foxconn's Wisconsin plant has gone through many iterations as the supplier faced new roadblocks and cost-cutting measures. The plant was designated as a TV display factory in its early stages, then pivoted to small to medium-size displays for smartphones, infotainment systems, and other "niche products".

In early 2019, Reuters reported that Foxconn would greatly scale back its plans to produce displays of any kind in Wisconsin and instead focus on research and development. The news came from Louis Woo, assistant to Foxconn CEO Terry Gou, who said Foxconn is "not building a factory" in Wisconsin.

According to Woo, the steep cost of making advanced screens for TV sets and other devices in the United States led to the decision. Around the same time, the company confirmed it had slowed its pace of hiring, down to about 5,200 people expected by the end of 2020.

As of now, Foxconn has fallen short of its employment goals in 2018, hiring just 178 full-time workers rather than the 260 it intended to for the year. The supplier has to meet certain hiring and capital investment goals under its current contract to qualify for tax credits in Wisconsin. With its inability to meet the 260 hiring target last year, it failed to earn a tax credit of up to $9.5 million.

Article Link: Foxconn 'Remains Committed' to Wisconsin Plant and Promise of Eventually Employing 13,000 Workers
 
  • Like
Reactions: RandomDSdevel

44267547

Cancelled
Jul 12, 2016
37,642
42,491
Except, didn’t the new Wisconsin governor state something about 13,000 jobs seems unrealistic:

I think at this point in time that would be an unrealistic expectation when they're downsizing the footprint of what they're doing," Evers said. "So, 13,000 people as Foxconn employees is probably difficult to imagine for me right now."

https://www.chicagotribune.com/busi...in-jobs-contract-revision-20190417-story.html
 

michaelsviews

macrumors 65816
Sep 25, 2007
1,476
467
New England
According to Woo, the steep cost of making advanced screens for TV sets and other devices in the United States led to the decision.

Because of American Greed maybe
 

Stevez67

macrumors regular
Dec 24, 2016
195
714
Iowa
According to Woo, the steep cost of making advanced screens for TV sets and other devices in the United States led to the decision.

Because of American Greed maybe
As long as you define "American greed" as paying a living wage, worker protections, environmental stewardship, and following through on promises made to secure taxpayer funding, yea Americans are greedy. /sarcasm
 

JetTester

macrumors 6502
Feb 12, 2014
461
885
A contract is a contract. Keep up with the annual requirements, or lose the incentives. It may be premature to just write it off because "it seems unrealistic". Let it play out as written in the contract, and let the chips, or displays, fall where they may.
 

gugy

macrumors 68040
Jan 31, 2005
3,879
5,292
La Jolla, CA
Americans can’t compete with manufacturing costs of third world countries and expect to pay the same for the products made in US. There are almost no regulations there, the quality of living is lower and cheaper. Labor gets paid a fraction.
It’s a pipe dream. Adapt or die.
Still amazes me how Americans still fall for this political BS.
 

MacDann

macrumors 6502a
And I quote from a previous post from an article about much the same:

As a former resident of southeast Wisconsin, I can't see how this would come as a surprise to anyone. The area's politicians are wizards at doing the "This will be great for the area and its residents!!" to the locals when it comes to these sorts of projects.

I'm still pissed about the tax that was put in place in the surrounding Milwaukee counties to fund the Brewer's stadium. You would think the politicos would learn from prior actions - nearly every officeholder who voted for that tax was promptly voted out of office in the next election cycle as the voters promised to do.

Foxconn appears to have scammed the politicians and the residents. Sadly, there are a number of locals who have been affected by this due to land grabs using eminent domain among other such tactics. At least Foxconn isn't meeting benchmarks so they don't get their tax spiffs. The people who suffer are the taxpayers who are funding the development for the factory that won't get built....

MacDann
 

69Mustang

macrumors 604
Jan 7, 2014
7,895
15,043
In between a rock and a hard place
The whole thing was nothing more than a PR stunt. There will be no jobs, no long term benefit to the state or workers in Wisconsin.
To make matters worse, the outgoing Governor Scott Walker, and the outgoing legislature pushed through a ton of "roadblocks" to keep the incoming government from undoing this debacle. They didn't give two whits about the Wisconsinites.
 

BootsWalking

macrumors 68020
Feb 1, 2014
2,267
14,181
This is what happens when government and politics gets in the way of business and free markets. Absent these fundamentally unfair tax incentives that favor one company over another, the notion that a business would know in advance how many employees it will eventually hire to manufacture a technology it hasn't even developed or committed to yet is absolutely absurd.
 
  • Like
Reactions: thebeans

jlc1978

macrumors 603
Aug 14, 2009
5,431
4,183
Still amazes me how Americans still fall for this political BS.

Politicians love to say "See JOBS!!!" and people want to believe they'll get a good paying job with benefits.Telling the hard truths doesn't win elections.
[doublepost=1555682845][/doublepost]
This is what happens when government and politics gets in the way of business and free markets. Absent these fundamentally unfair tax incentives that favor one company over another, the notion that a business would know in advance how many employees it will eventually hire to manufacture a technology it hasn't even developed or committed to yet is absolutely absurd.

That's the dirty little secret of "economic development incentives." They don't create jobs, they just create winners and losers in terms of where jobs go. If it is profitable to build a plant a company will, if not they won't; economic incentives just make an unprofitable one worthwhile as long as the incentives last. Then you shutter the plant and start the cycle all over elsewhere.
 
Last edited:

TheShadowKnows!

macrumors 6502a
Sep 30, 2014
859
1,729
National Capital Region
And I quote from a previous post from an article about much the same:



Foxconn appears to have scammed the politicians and the residents. Sadly, there are a number of locals who have been affected by this due to land grabs using eminent domain among other such tactics. At least Foxconn isn't meeting benchmarks so they don't get their tax spiffs. The people who suffer are the taxpayers who are funding the development for the factory that won't get built....

MacDann
MacDann, you nailed it, but only partially, though: No, tax spiffs, but money has been spent for infrastructure.

This is an excellent report on the "CON" pulled by FoxCONn:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/1/1...nsin-factory-government-subsidies-investments

[The name alone should have raised the red flags, as FoxConn has done this mating dance elsewhere, not just once but multiple times, with exactly the same endgame.]
 

Squonk

macrumors 65816
Mar 15, 2005
1,370
14
You have all made excellent points above. Mine is not so well conceived...

They lost out on "up to $9.5 million tax credit" for falling short of hiring 82 full time positions last year. I do not condone corporate greed, but that is a bone-headed fail.
 

GuruZac

macrumors 68040
Sep 9, 2015
3,590
11,467
⛰️🏕️🏔️
As long as you define "American greed" as paying a living wage, worker protections, environmental stewardship, and following through on promises made to secure taxpayer funding, yea Americans are greedy. /sarcasm
Yep, American business has been shortsighted for profit. Now we have generations of the American buying public who simultaneously bemoan the loss of jobs, while also buying the cheaper product made elsewhere. People will have to get introduced to the notion of buying local simply costs more. Want jobs here, vote with your wallet. The other side to this is there is little in the way of a qualified worker base to produce high end electronics on the scale we see done in Asia. That could be changed with more emphasis in trade school training etc. College is simply unnecessary for many people. They leave school in debt with a degree that is essentially useless. Unless it requires a special skill, what is the point anymore? We need more trade schools and vocational programs affiliated with high schools.
 

szw-mapple fan

macrumors 68040
Jul 28, 2012
3,449
4,298
You have all made excellent points above. Mine is not so well conceived...

They lost out on "up to $9.5 million tax credit" for falling short of hiring 82 full time positions last year. I do not condone corporate greed, but that is a bone-headed fail.

How is that a fail? Hiring 82 more workers with salary and benefits would cost much more than $9.5 million in the long run, especially if they are not really needed in any specific roles.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline

Lee_Bo

Cancelled
Mar 26, 2017
606
876
I probably shouldn't reply this way, based on the company I work for.....but....

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.