Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer Foxconn is struggling to find enough skilled workers for its planned facility in Wisconsin and may bring in personnel from China, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The report said Foxconn, which makes devices and components for Apple and other tech firms, is facing a tight labor market for the manufacturing plant, which is getting some $3 billion in incentives from the midwestern state.
The company has pledged to hire 13,000 workers at the southern Wisconsin site, but some reports say the total may be lower as Foxconn scales back its initial plans.
They should offer American workers more festive suicide nets.
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For years, iPhones (or their boxes) have said that they were "designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China." But thanks to an escalating trade war between the US and China, that might not be true in the coming years. Reuters reports that two of Apple's biggest manufacturing contractors, Foxconn and Pegatron, are working to expand their facilities in Mexico with an eye toward eventually building iPhones there.
[...] This isn't Foxconn's only effort to diversify away from China. Last year, Foxconn announced plans to begin manufacturing iPhones in India, and the company is now manufacturing the iPhone SE there.
Sources told Reuters that Taiwan-based iPhone contractor Pegatron is also considering a shift to Mexico, but few details about its plans are known.
Previously:
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Wednesday November 07 2018, @01:40AM
I don't live in WI so have no skin in the game. But I predicted Foxconn (eat your young to get ahead) execs would outwit the WI folks (don't get caught and I might make it to National office!).
It's amazing how close to crying laughing is.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @01:54AM (3 children)
It looks like Wisconsin got fleeced. They gave away way too much without any real guarantees. Foxconn pulled a fast one before in Pennsylvania, but WI wanted to please Trump so badly that they gave Foxconn a $3B deal.
I guess the fine print in the agreement doesn't stipulate jobs for US workers, and Trump will wet himself handing out a factory full of H-1Bs just to claim job growth.
#SoThisIsWinning
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @02:37AM (2 children)
Promising not to rob someone is not the same as giving someone money.
(Score: 3, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday November 07 2018, @02:52AM
Go on A/C, tell us about the violently imposed monopoly again!
That one always gets a good laugh.
(Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Wednesday November 07 2018, @03:39PM
But they ARE giving someone money. It's not just future tax abatements. The state is sinking state taxpayer money RIGHT NOW into roads and infrastructure - money that Foxconn doesn't have to spend on construction that Foxconn doesn't have to construct.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mhajicek on Wednesday November 07 2018, @02:05AM (1 child)
"Foxconn is struggling to find enough skilled workers for its planned facility in Wisconsin that are willing to work for poverty wages."
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 5, Informative) by legont on Wednesday November 07 2018, @03:44AM
Actually, to "get" enough qualified workers a business must not only pay well, but provide training, help with education, good medical, and long time job and income protection such as pension plans and unions support. Then, may be, a sizable business could secure the labor.
That's the difference between a developed economy and a banana republic which both parties have to learn.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday November 07 2018, @02:09AM (1 child)
The WSJ report says they can't find enough engineers. They don need them to design the screens, they need them to design the machines that make the screens. The only way Foxconn could find them in the US would be to cannibalize their own suppliers.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday November 07 2018, @02:55AM
That might be true, but I fail to believe Foxconn didn't know they would have this problem.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday November 07 2018, @02:10AM (3 children)
If I did I wouldn't get enough sleep
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday November 07 2018, @02:11AM (2 children)
Perhaps I haven't been getting enough sleep
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 5, Funny) by takyon on Wednesday November 07 2018, @02:24AM (1 child)
I'd give my left kidney for $CANDIDATE to win!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday November 07 2018, @02:51AM
I've been having a hard day but you brought a smile to my weary eyes.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @04:39AM (1 child)
They need to learn English.
They need to come over with all relatives, and all of them need to fully get rid of Chinese citizenship.
They need to renounce collectivist thinking.
They need to renounce racism.
They need to side with freedom of speech.
They need guns.
(Score: 3, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday November 07 2018, @04:50AM
anyone who actually knows what collectivist means and uses it in complete sentences in the way you do is completely out of their trees.
Ayn Rand was insane.
That she built a substantial cult following is due to the propensity of charismatic psychotic people to become cult leaders.
But I'm criticizing the messenger but not the message: have a read of what some real philosophers have to say about what she alleged was a real philosophy.
I took a philosophy class once - ethics. Real philosophers like nothing more than to publish hair-splitting arguments that go on for millennia. They don't regard as valid those attempts at philosophy that cannot survive criticism from opposing philosophers.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday November 07 2018, @07:19AM
Thank you Foxconn, for investing $10 BILLION DOLLARS with the potential for up to 13K new jobs in Wisconsin! MadeInTheUSA 🇺🇸