China's Foxconn Eyes U.S. as Next Land of Cheap Labor

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Imagine a young couple in China shopping for some cheap tech that won’t break the bank. They finally find an off-brand TV in their price range, they flip it over and it says, “Made in USA.” Of course, the only way to get something affordable is to import it from the states.

 

Sounds like some sort of silly joke a distant uncle might tell at Thanksgivin,g but reports from DigiTimes suggest that it won’t be long until America is a source of cheap labor for Chinese manufacturers. On the forefront of eyeballing the American workforce is Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry), the makers of all iTech like iPads and iPhones.  

 

Americans wouldn’t be producing Apple products, however, because it is a rather complicated procedure. The plants Foxconn is considering opening in the U.S. would focus on LCD TVs, which are considerably simpler to manufacture and automated easier. Eric Stavitz, tech and finance writer for Forbes, commented, “Nice to think they will be hiring here…but [it's] still a fascinating insult to U.S. manufacturing prowess, dontcha think – the idea that actually making Apple products is a little too complicated for Americans to handle…”

 

Maybe it is a glimmer of hope that American labor still pulls in a few extra dollars compared to the international competition,h or maybe not. CNET reported that Foxconn was meeting with Sharp earlier this year to acquire two of that company's assembly plants in Mexico and China. The assembly plants are designed to produce LCD televisions. If market watchers are correct, Foxconn will be opening more plants in cities like Detroit and Los Angeles.

 

Foxconn chairman Terry Guo announced plans to begin teaming with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop a training program for U.S.-based engineers. They will bring engineers to Taiwan and China to get first-hand experience in the company’s manufacturing and production process. Immersed in the environment, the engineers will be learning the Chinese language as well as tips to take back to the states and implement into the process here.

 

While job creation in general sounds like a good thing, there are some people that would consider accepting work from Foxconn a dance with the devil. Not popular in recent news, the company has been under investigation for its labor practice including excessive overtime, coerced labor and breaches in child labor laws. Earlier this year, nearly 150 workers threatened mass suicide by jumping off the building because of the conditions in which they were working. Previous years have seen such high suicide rates in their staff that Foxconn has installed safety nets from buildings to prevent attempts from becoming successful.

 

In hard-hit places like Michigan, there are many workers willing to do just about anything to get a job. A big computer manufacturing company like Foxconn could be just what the community needs to get out of economic ruin. However, civil leaders need to be very clear about how labor standards should be met before letting such companies move into town.

 

Image courtesy of njaj at FreeDigitalPhotos.
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  • Melissa Kennedy
    Melissa Kennedy •
    Thanks Barry. You make a great point. For as long as I can remember, I've always tried to shop at local businesses rather than Wal Mart. Of course, there are some times when it can't be helped, but for the most part I avoid buying cheap stuff from china that I don't need anyway. If I do need it, I'll look for a more durable version or even look for one at a thrift store. That being said, I also love online shopping. I hadn't thought about what damage shopping online has on the little guy. If they are also online or sell things through eBay, they can reach a much larger customer base. But, when their regular customer turn to places like Amazon to buy household goods, those businesses get hurt either way.
  • Barry W.
    Barry W. •
    "I'm less concerned about our lack of  "fastidiousness", than our more important ability to recognize when we are being treated as  organized slaves."Have we sufficiently recognized how we treat the rest of the world like slaves for the low wages they earn? We do buy most of the world's iPhone (for now). People in China work at FoxConn because as bad as it may be, it is better than the alternative there - which is perhaps even more laborious and tedious work, or no work at all. And there are no social safety nets in China.As far as tiny wages and living in dormitories in America, just ask the South American immigrants who tend to our agriculture what that is like.If China can do something better than we can, then they should. In the long run it's a better use of resources to maximize efficiencies. Some of us will suffer in the short run, but the adaptable will figure it out. No one today would argue for saving the horse-and-buggy industry when the automobile started becoming affordable and dependable. And ultimately this is our fault. We, as Americans, want More instead of Better. We'll shop at Walmart to save $10; and we'll shop online instead of supporting local businesses.Though recently there has been news that Apple will manufacture some devices here in the USA someday soon.
  • Heather Fairchild
    Heather Fairchild •
    Lots of great feedback and insight, thank you! I've worked for a company that some might consider soul crushing and made the choice that no work was better than that work but others remained despite what it did to their spirit, everyone has their own motivations and level of tolerance. I definitely like the points you made Robert B on the jobs our cultures raise us to do... I might have to look into that a little further.
  • A.D.W
    A.D.W •
    I'm less concerned about our lack of  "fastidiousness", than our more important ability to recognize when we are being treated as  organized slaves. If you read the history of this company and the long standing relationship with Apple, you'd be wise to be on the watch for nets being mounted on the sides of the building you'll be working at. Those fastidious Chinese workers would often take a flying leap of the top of the building due to the cruel and inhuman treatment that they suffered at the hands of the management at Foxconn. I would be very wary of any company like this doing business on American soil on that basis alone!!
  • Robert B
    Robert B •
    Please help separate fact from stereotype concerning Chinese and United States labor forces.    • Manufacturing an iPhone to an established design  requires fastidiousness and consistency, not creativity.       • An iPhone board is too tiny and complex to economically re-work; if defective, it is discarded, so there is only one chance for everyone along the assembly line to get it right. Problem-solving skills are not useful; rather, there must be no problems.    • Fastidiousness and consistency are learned mainly in the home, not in the school.    • Chinese homes impart fastidiousness and consistency more consistently than United States homes do.    • Most United States children of any ancestry who do their schoolwork carefully and faithfully can go to college and learn to earn higher wages than any mass-production business can pay. Scholarships, loans and menial jobs pay the costs of college for almost any promising student. Only a few lack the intellectual power to do this.    • Many Chinese children learn care, faithfulness and persistence in the home and in the fields, but only a few of these are offered sufficient secondary education to succeed in college.    • Thus, China produces a great many young people who can be taught to build printed circuit assemblies, and do it with the care needed for success, in return for wages that allow large profit margins. The United States produces very few. Now, how much of this is inaccurate stereotype? If these assertions are accurate, the United States cannot expect to provide the kind of labor required for small, complex products. It might, however, be able to automate production of larger electronic products for which shipping from China is an important component of cost.  
  • David P
    David P •
    Gilbert: That's all part of the plan. They offer financing to go to school, you graduate deeply in debt and take whatever job you can get, at whatever low salary they offer. You remain under-employed, under-paid, and in debt for much, if not all, of your working life, and end up with no pension when you are too old to work.Welcome to the 21st-century company store.
  • Jack P
    Jack P •
    Anyone who arrogantly thinks assembling iPhones is too complicated should for Americans would do well to remember who invented not only them, but most of the foundation technologies as well.
  • Albert T
    Albert T •
    More jobs in the US would be great
  • GILBERT K
    GILBERT K •
    I BELIEVE THE TIME HAS COME TO STOP CHARGING OUR AMERICANS FOR A TIME AND JUST TEACH THEM WHAT THEY NEED SO THAT THEY CAN EXCELL THAN AFTER THEY ACQUIRE WORK THAN BILL THEM FOR THEIR LEARNING  EXPERIENCEWE CANT GET THE TRAINING OR EXPERIENCE IF IT COSTS TOO MUCH AND IF IT IS NOT READILY AVAILABLE TO US
  • David P
    David P •
    It's not that Americans are incapable of complex assembly, it is simply that those who are capable will NOT work for chump change and live in dormitories.Odd how the, "communist," Peoples Republic has discovered 19th-century colonial capitalism.Odder still how we've given them the financial backing to do it. The Soviets couldn't bury the west, but the Chinese might. And, we're digging the hole for them.
  • Brian D
    Brian D •
    If we pay a cheap labor. It is not America anymore.A land of freedom and the home of the brave.Why are we like to come to USA ? It is not because of US Dollar and living ?   

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