Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Breaking news: Foxconn says "not building a factory in Wisconsin"

You know the TV screen factory for which Foxconn said thousands of acres and scores of homes and farms had to be bulldozed in Mount Pleasant?
Mt. Pleasant cabbage fields on Foxconn site, 2017
Forget it: "We're not building a factory in Wisconsin," Foxconn told Reuters.

And all those thousands of assembly jobs for blue-collar workers, including people leaving prisons looking for good, entry-level wages?

Forget that, too. 

Foxconn now tells Reuters things have changed:
 Louis Woo, special assistant to Foxconn Chief Executive Terry Gou, told Reuters...[Foxconn] was still evaluating options for Wisconsin, but cited the steep cost of making advanced TV screens in the United States, where labor expenses are comparatively high. 
“In terms of TV, we have no place in the U.S.,” he said in an interview. “We can’t compete.
Initially - - Foxconn had said the hiring would be so concentrated on assembly and packaging that only 763 would be engineers.

Remember that Foxconn has done this before.
WI Foxconn plant, election-talk? Remember it stiffed Penn.
So while the nicely-timed-for-Walker's-re-election giddiness over some job growth here finally after six failed years in office, as well as a race between neighboring states to throw corporate welfare/public inducements Foxconn's way are on - - remember that Pennsylvania put big money on the table for a Foxconn plant that never happened there. 
Details.
How Foxconn’s broken pledges in Pennsylvania cast doubt on Trump’s jobs plan 
So I guess Foxconn won't need that controversial Great Lakes diversion, right? Are the wetlands torn up already?

See the Foxconn archive I have been posting since Day One for more than 275 items tracing this project's disgusting history for more details.

Remember that the GOP's lame-duck power grab retained a partisan, legislative glory hold on the WEDC - - lead Wisconsin agency overseeing the billions in taxpayer aid to be shoveled to the company - - to prevent incoming Gov. Tony Evers from tampering with the deal and especially Walker's legacy, as he tweeted:
 Dec 8
More OUR LEGACY - We began work on the largest economic development project in state history - Foxconn’s $10 billion investment that will employee [Sic] 13,000 people - and one of the largest in America.


Well, Donald Trump, Robin Vos and Scott Fitzgerald, and the political ghost of Scott Walker who promised eleventy-thousand times that 13,000 jobs were coming - - it's all yours now.

Politically.

But financially - - look at all the state, Mount Pleasant and Racine County money and land and homeowners rights' and worker dreams that have been thrown away.

And hundreds of millions of precious transportation dollars dumped into new lanes and interchanges to nowhere except more sprawl and subsidy to developers.

For what?

To re-elect a governor whose signature achievement had been and remains a two-term failure to create promised jobs.

Hang your heads, all.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would love to be a lawyer for all the people who were hood winked into selling their property for the good of Walker's campaign. Lets get every penny back to the good folks were taken to the cleaners as well as the legislators who bought into this. I small law suits for the next 100 years. Thank you Scott Hole.

Man MKE said...

Jeez. Well, this was fairly predictable. What now? Foxconn subleases all that land to some golf course develoepr. Hey, all that lake water will keep the greens looking really great.

Anonymous said...

Let's hope the new Governor is having the contract evaluated to see if what can be done to get out of the deal with as little cost to the state as possible. What a disaster for the people who lost their homes.

Unknown said...

Now maybe we can spend that money on infrastructure and green energy.

Anonymous said...

What does this do for Scott Wanker's reelection efforts?
Is he sinking like a boneless brown trout? (asking for a friend!)

peregrine said...

If it sounded to good to be true (and it did) it was to good to be true. This all should be hung on the doorstep of a complicit GOP legislature that went along with Walkers desperate dash for jobs prior to the election. Fortunately, enough voters were not buying his lies anymore and we hopefully can begin to move toward taking care of people and the environment instead of shelling out billions to corporate scam artists. This whole sorry escapade make me want to puke. Steve Schmuki

Anonymous said...

You really called this one James. Well done and thanks for keeping up the list of articles. It's a great history for future business students.

James Rowen said...

The water deal was tied to Foxconn's need for TV screen production/treatment/rinsing. The diversion is not needed and will be fought even harder.

Anonymous said...

And let's not forget the deal they made with the University for R & D now the focus of the Mt. Pleasant "campus."

http://www.startribune.com/documents-uw-deal-with-foxconn-largely-confidential/493154391/

"The UW-Madison Teaching Assistants Association said in a statement to the State Journal that sharing those rights endangers academic freedom and the Wisconsin Idea, the university's philosophy that states its research should be used to benefit Wisconsin's citizens.

"The fruits of research at UW belong to the people of Wisconsin, not to a private corporation," the statement said."

And

https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/university/cost-sharing-of-researchers-between-uw-madison-and-foxconn-is/article_cfc880b5-9593-53bf-8d46-ddc9d76d472d.html

Anonymous said...

Wow. It takes a really special kind of stupid to blame this on Tony Evers. I guess the Repubs. thought they were the only party!

Unknown said...

This is so false. Don't be a dummy and believe this lie!