Foxconn dream may be nightmare
There’s nothing that makes me feel like the stereotype of a liberal killjoy faster than seeing a major jobs announcement for Wisconsin and almost immediately reacting with caution and skepticism.
I want good, sustainable employment and economic development in my state. I want people to have more options for and access to honest work, with solid pay and benefits. I wish that Foxconn represented that. The hard truth is that it doesn’t.
This is perceived to be such a big deal that Gov. Scott Walker flew out to Washington, D.C., to join President Donald Trump for the official announcement that Foxconn had chosen our state to locate its new LCD manufacturing facility. Walker must be particularly elated, as the promised number of jobs this might create would at least help put a dent in his stillfailed campaign promise to create 250,000 jobs in his first four years in office.
The Foxconn deal also is seen as a potential boon to other local businesses that would support both the company’s workforce and its raw materials needs. On its face, this seems like a dream deal. Wisconsin has a strong manufacturing tradition and plenty of people looking to get good work in that industry.
What seems like a dream at first glance, however, becomes far more of a nightmare when you dig just below the surface.
First, Walker wants us to pay for Foxconn to be here: an incentive package could total $3 billion, not including goodies the company could require of local governments, and an exemption on sales taxes that means zero tax revenue at a time when the state desperately needs new sources of just that. Instead, Walker’s bill includes $252 million in additional borrowing just to rebuild I-94 south of Milwaukee, which would become a key corridor for a plant currently planned for Racine or Kenosha counties.
If passed, the bill would require Wisconsin to pay Foxconn out of the state treasury for up to 15 years. It will cost us $519 per citizen, if the total number of jobs promised actually comes to fruition (don’t hold your breath).
All this, and the average salary of a Foxconn employee is projected at about $54,000 a year — before you factor in health and other benefits. After that, it puts the actual total at below the state average.
We also need to take into consideration that Foxconn has a long history of treating its employees with open disdain (the CEO called workers
“animals”). Working conditions in some of its China factories were so bad that it led to a rash
of suicides. How did the company respond? By requiring new hires to sign an “antisuicide pledge” that frees the company of responsibility, and by putting up literal suicide nets around its buildings.
We haven’t even touched on the massive environmental exemptions being sought for this one company. Liquid crystal display manufacturing could require 15,850,200 gallons of water a day, roughly the equivalent of what the entire
city of Racine uses, according to an article on WisContext. A lot of that water would not be able to be returned to our system, either, due to some of the processes required. This necessitates a huge exemption from the Great Lakes Compact, which will have to be voted on at either the state or multi-state level, depending on where exactly the factory is located.
The exemption also would allow Foxconn to run roughshod
over other crucial environmental rules, such as having to submit an environmental impact statement, essentially setting a terrible precedent while giving an unfair (and dangerous) advantage to a multimillion dollar company while small/other businesses have to work within reasonable constraints.
If we’re going to throw this much money around, why not put it toward those small and mid-sized businesses in our state that are the real drivers of sustainable employment? Call me a killjoy, but I believe we should be focused on funding things such as incubators, start-ups, minority-owned operations, people with innovative ideas — things that don’t require bleeding workers and our land dry to get the job done.