Tencent Securities News in the early morning of July 29th Beijing timeApplePresident Trump hailed Foxconn as "one of the really great companies in the world" after it announced that it would invest $10 billion to build a factory in Wisconsin.
However, industry observers are skeptical about the future of the company's investment in the United States. Experts point out that Foxconn has a poor track record in terms of labor rights and is seeking to do as much as possible, according to the CNN.RobotTo replace human workers, and it seems to be a tradition for them to talk nonsense.
"American workers should remain vigilant." Eli Friedman, associate professor of international and comparative labor at Cornell University, warns that Foxconn has always been an expert in winning "headlines but rarely taking action".
He pointed out that Foxconn announced plans to build a $30 million plant in Pennsylvania in 2013, but so far it has only blossomed and has not borne fruit.
Foxconn explained to CNN that it still has a strong interest in Pennsylvania, but the state government has so far not promised to give them the necessary support to make the project "economically viable."
Foxconn added that the Wisconsin plant will create 3000 jobs and has the potential to increase to 10, 3000 in the future. The state's governor says the plant is expected to be completed by the end of 2020.
Robots, not workers.
Although the South China Morning Post reported that as many as 60,000 jobs were cut at a Foxconn factory last year because of automation, but on the whole, the company's CEO Terry Gou's dream of robotic labor has not come true quickly.
However, Gou's enthusiasm for automation has not abated. Christopher Balding, an economics professor at Peking University, points out that the plan to build a plant in Wisconsin is in line with Foxconn's long-term strategy of seeking automation in response to rising labor and transportation costs in China.
For Foxconn, there is no difference between using robots in China and using robots in the United States, Barding said.
"the 3000 jobs are negligible for Foxconn, which means that if they want to build a factory in the United States, they will definitely not have manpower to produce televisions on the production line. but let a small number of people monitor robots to complete such characters."
Mr Friedman points out that Foxconn has been "taking action to invest in robotics so that they no longer have to hire workers", along with rising wages in China.
For its part, Foxconn said it had been investing in automation for many years, but expected that "we still need to maintain a large number of employees in our global operations."
It's not Trump's promise.
During the election campaign, Trump vowed to restore the glory days of American manufacturing-workers who make cars and washing machines on assembly lines are organized by unions and can be handsomely paid.
However, Associate Professor Friedman of Cornell University suspects that Foxconn will not be able to bring similar things to workers in Wisconsin.
"even in the best of times, there is nothing exciting about a job at Foxconn for Americans. It will never be the kind of quality work that Trump promised. "
In this respect, Barding is more optimistic, he said. Given the complexity of monitoring and operating automated production lines, these jobs are expected to require people with considerable technical skills and pay well, but even so, Barding also believes that the number of jobs created by Foxconn in the United States is unlikely to be comparable to that in China.
"they say they want to create 3000 jobs in Wisconsin, which is a lot for an American factory, but in a Chinese factory, it's not even a fraction." (Ferry Green)