Friday, April 26, 2019

Foxconn smashes Walker's crystal ball

Foxconn says "calm down." 

We'll see if the company can back it up the way Aaron Rodgers did with his famous message of "R-E-L-A-X" to fans.


Foxconn continued to undermine its Wisconsin project with this jaw-dropping and-crystal-ball-breaking tweet:

[Foxconn's US strategic director] Alan Yeung's tweet from Wednesday was in response to an article reporting on Gov. Tony Evers saying he didn't think Foxconn would employ 13,000 people.
Foxconn could earn nearly $3 billion in taxpayer-funded credits if it has 13,000 workers and invests $9 billion by 2032 in Wisconsin. Yeung tweeted "calm down" in response to the Evers story. 
Yeung says, "Who has the crystal ball to predict if 13,000 jobs will be created by the year 2032?" He says that was especially difficult to do in April 2019.
Actually, Yeung's full Tweet included Trump's favorite catch phrase "fake news." Yeung must know that Trump is coming to Wisconsin today. And don't you love the emojis? Does it boost your confidence in the whole deal?
7:29 PM - 24 Apr 2019  Calm down. Probably fake news ๐Ÿ˜‚ Who has the crystal ball ๐Ÿ”ฎ to predict if 13,000 jobs will be created by the year 2032? Esp in April ‘19 ๐Ÿค” ๐Ÿค—๐Ÿ˜€๐Ÿ˜Ž


Questions abound:

What kind of company strategy is this...from its strategic director of US operations?

And about who has the crystal ball?

How about this guy who repeated things like this about eleventy-hundred times over the last two years:

"Just think about it," Walker said shortly before sitting down with [Foxconn CEO and founder Terry] Gou to sign the contract.
"We’re talking about things we talked about for years (but) we only dreamed of: 13,000 good-paying, family-supporting jobs. That’s just the start. "We're going to take the world over when it comes to high-tech technology like we're going to build ... right here in the state of Wisconsin," he said.
Or on Twitter.
Foxconn is bringing 13,000 high-tech jobs to Wisconsin -- the biggest jobs announcement in our state’s history!
4:50 PM - 26 Jul 2017 
Oh, wait: On August 2nd, it's tweeted as "at least 13,000 jobs:
Wisconsin landed Foxconn – and with it comes at least 13,000 good-paying, family-supporting jobs throughout the state! Check out the direct impact it’s having on northeastern Wisconsin and circle back here tomorrow for even more!
And while Walker says the contract he signed before the voters booted him out of office is "iron clad," here's a recent video where he easily shrugs off Foxconn only creating half the jobs he and the company repeatedly promised. 

A complete Foxconn archive is here.





6 comments:

Minnesconsin Tom said...

It sickens me that Channel 12 News actually sat down with Scott Walker and gave him a televised interview about this situation. It’s bad enough that Walker is ignoring over 150 years of Wisconsin gubernatorial tradition by refusing to bow out gracefully and move on after leaving office. But for a major-market TV station to enable his blatant and purposeful undermining of the current governor is absolutely disgraceful.

Chris said...

Maya Angelou once said "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

Foxconn continues to show us who they are, but when will the Wisconsin GOP start believing? Perhaps they're just stringing things along until infrastructure (roads, water, gas, etc.) can be built out for their corporate donors at state and local taxpayer expense.

By now it should be clear to everyone that Foxconn can't be trusted.

Let's cut our losses and get out of this 'deal'.

Anonymous said...

As you rightly point out words matter. They went from saying at least 13,000 high paying jobs. Which means 13,000 plus. Then they changed the words to "up to" 13,000 jobs. Which means anything above 1 job. Then they dropped the phrase "high paying" when talking about the 13,000 number. They started saying that "some" would be high paying. Then came their announcement that these jobs will not necessarily go to Wisconsin residents. Then came the announcement that the plant would not produce the mega size screens but some much smaller variant. So the back-pedaling just keeps going doesn't it?

Anonymous said...

I think the politicians owe us the truth. I get that some of the Democrats voted for this because it was in their district and it was popular. The most truthful thing said to date is when Gov Evers said it was unlikely Foxconn would employ 13,000. I don't think the politicians should be so coy. They should tell us what they know instead of spinning it and trying to delay any bad news.

Jake formerly of the LP said...

Heck, even Foxconn themselves admitted this week that they're hiring 30 people for a Gen 6 plant, and not the Gen 10.5 they and Trump and Walker claimed. So anything that might happen there is going to be much smaller.

Anyone who's trying the "13,000 job" claim IS LYING. It likely wont be 1,300 jobs in the whole state. So let's deal with that reality- either through a breach of contract suit, or a renegotiation that doesn't leave state taxpayers shelling out $200 mil+ for 520 jobs next year.

Anonymous said...

so much winning!