Foxconn Plans New Iowa Plant

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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According to several sources, Foxconn’s founder announced a new Foxconn factory right smack dab in the heart of the US. The factory will be located in Guthrie Center, Iowa and eventually will employ 300k workers . Although this news story just smacks of an April Fool’s joke, the sources check out. 10% of the state’s population working for Foxconn? Impressive.

The plant will include dormitories for workers, multiple swimming pools and Internet cafes, and meal seating for 100,000 employees.
 
Although this was checked out on numerous sires for the April Fool factor, I found nothing, but damn this sounds fishy to me. 300,000 workers at one plant? Dorms? cafeteria for 100k? Pigs? :eek:
 
only way Foxconn could afford to build a 300000 worker plant (labor cost wise) in America is if they imported 299,000 chinese workers to staff it.
 
I live in Iowa and can take a joke pretty well, but don't play around when it comes to eating bacon, that's serious business right there
 
Yeah, I don't many US workers being ok living in dormitories. I was thinking the exact same thing, they would have to be imported from Asia.

I still assume this to be a joke, but this could be very real as Foxconn needs to repair its' public image.
 
^^^^^^

Let me restate that. I don't feel that too many US workers would be ok living in dormitories.

English majors calm down. I'm multitasking :cool:
 
^^^^^^

Let me restate that. I don't feel that too many US workers would be ok living in dormitories.

English majors calm down. I'm multitasking :cool:

You don't know how badly some of us want to get out of the shitholes we live in.
 
Obviously an april fools:

“It just makes sense,” said Apple Piper Jaffray Sr Research Analyst Gene Munster . “Maybe this move will make Apple buy RIM and install BlackBerry OS on the iPhone. You know, for business.”
 
If this is something official from Apple or Foxconn on the joke front, I don't see it going over well with anyone. It's more mocking than joking.
 
It could be just like the old mining towns. You moved into the company's houses, or in this case, dormitories; and the company took care of all your living expenses at the cost of some salary. With the job market as it is, I can see some folks actually going for this. Now whether it'll be as safe as mining was, well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see...
 
Ah April fools day, another day where I want to take two cups of Drano and call the funny doctor in the morning.
 
Let me restate that. I don't feel that too many US workers would be ok living in dormitories.

Read up about the new 'oil job boom' in North Dakota. Many of those US workers are living in tents. Granted, these people were probably pretty desperate.
 
Psych. Entitled Americans demand too much for this to ever happen.

Yeah not wanting to live in a company dormitory means you're entitled.

How dare people think they should have a place of their own, lol!
 
It could be just like the old mining towns. You moved into the company's houses, or in this case, dormitories; and the company took care of all your living expenses at the cost of some salary. With the job market as it is, I can see some folks actually going for this. Now whether it'll be as safe as mining was, well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

Wasn't the big criticism of this kind of place was that the mining company owned all the businesses you dealt with and made everything so expensive you couldn't really save much? Since they owned everything for miles, they made it too difficult to get your stuff elsewhere or forced you to buy from them. So even if you made more money than elsewhere, you'd get the lion's share of it taken in living expenses they controlled the price of.

This is how some of the established immigrants treat the people they bring over from their home country. Sleep them 8 to a 1 bedroom apartment, provide groceries, transportation, and work them back to back. Then extract all those costs from their hourly rates so they have no way of escaping, and being immigrants and possibly illegals are afraid to do anything about it.
 
Why the fuck would they pick some middle of nowhere shithole in iowa? I'm sure there are many other choices that are closer to civilization and people.

Come to think of it, if they did build closer to civilization, they would never find enough people that would be willing to live in their dormitories. I can see unions killing this off. They'd demand too much of the employer claiming that it was in the best interest of the workers, and there's no manufacturing. That's what killed the auto manufacturers. Hard to imagine that foxconn would be blind to this ahead of time.
 
Why the fuck would they pick some middle of nowhere shithole in iowa? I'm sure there are many other choices that are closer to civilization and people.

Come to think of it, if they did build closer to civilization, they would never find enough people that would be willing to live in their dormitories. I can see unions killing this off. They'd demand too much of the employer claiming that it was in the best interest of the workers, and there's no manufacturing. That's what killed the auto manufacturers. Hard to imagine that foxconn would be blind to this ahead of time.

Why the midwest? Virtually anywhere on the east or west coast have much higher taxes, land costs, environmental laws, and other complications. In Iowa, you choose a 1000 acre stretch of land, which is nearly completely flat, and begin construction. No local homeowners up in arms about some factory near them, no environmental nut mad at destryoing a forest or migratory route, no giant areas of rock/land that needs to be flattened. Not to mention you can pay them much less as well, i'm expecting the average wages to be ~$8/hr w/ healthcare benefits only.
 
Is it just me or is even joking about this a big slap in the face to Chinese workers about the conditions? I dunno, just seems like a sensitive topic on Human rights/health/safety to make light of. Not that I care either way, just seems like it is in bad taste...
 
Its the exact same thing the military does, while I can't say the work conditions in the military are better, the hours are mostly better (except for deployments).
 
I don't see this as being real. There's a reason a lot of companies produce in China, besides cheap labor, it's the environmental laws (or lack of them). They can legally use poisonous materials to make their goods cheaper. That doesn't fly in the US.

It's exactly why linoleum is produced overseas, because the production of it is highly toxic.
 
It'll be hard for American workers to match the tenacity of Chinese workers. Also, they wouldn't live in Foxconn.
 
If the dorms didn't give it away surely the pig quote...
 
Yeah, I don't many US workers being ok living in dormitories. I was thinking the exact same thing, they would have to be imported from Asia.

I still assume this to be a joke, but this could be very real as Foxconn needs to repair its' public image.

Interestingly, as a younger generation person, I don't care too much about the quality of my living conditions -- within reason. As long as its a reasonable climate, not too small and contains my tv, stereo or high-quality headphones, projector and consoles/PC. As well as a perhaps a mall, gym or food venues within walking distance (preferably) or a reasonable drive. That's all I really need.

I spent probably 3+ hours a day playing video games and really if I am playing in a $500k house or $200k house, BF3 on Ultra is still BF3 on Ultra, isn't it?
 
Why the midwest? Virtually anywhere on the east or west coast have much higher taxes, land costs, environmental laws, and other complications. In Iowa, you choose a 1000 acre stretch of land, which is nearly completely flat, and begin construction. No local homeowners up in arms about some factory near them, no environmental nut mad at destryoing a forest or migratory route, no giant areas of rock/land that needs to be flattened. Not to mention you can pay them much less as well, i'm expecting the average wages to be ~$8/hr w/ healthcare benefits only.

Iowa actually has a fair bit of electronics manufacturing, and those jobs pay significantly more than the quoted $8 an hour. You're looking at more than twice that for an assembly type position and 24-30 an hour for a more technical position. Speaking from experience.

Interestingly, as a younger generation person, I don't care too much about the quality of my living conditions -- within reason. As long as its a reasonable climate, not too small and contains my tv, stereo or high-quality headphones, projector and consoles/PC. As well as a perhaps a mall, gym or food venues within walking distance (preferably) or a reasonable drive. That's all I really need.

I spent probably 3+ hours a day playing video games and really if I am playing in a $500k house or $200k house, BF3 on Ultra is still BF3 on Ultra, isn't it?

You can find pretty decent housing around here for around 100k, and it goes up or down from there depending on how picky you are.
 
It could be just like the old mining towns. You moved into the company's houses, or in this case, dormitories; and the company took care of all your living expenses at the cost of some salary. With the job market as it is, I can see some folks actually going for this. Now whether it'll be as safe as mining was, well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

Let me fix that for you:

"You Moved into the companies house's and the company paid you in company "scrip" which was worthless outside the company store, and then charged more for the cheap crap than you made in worthless scrip, so you always owed the company money. till you died from the unsafe working conditions. then the company kicked your family out on the street."

yup, sounds like something I'd like to see come back!
 
Its the exact same thing the military does, while I can't say the work conditions in the military are better, the hours are mostly better (except for deployments).

except we get paid a hell of a lot more in the military than a chinese worker does.
 
except we get paid a hell of a lot more in the military than a chinese worker does.

Yea, but I'm comparing to the US side of working. They will still get paid better then their chinese counterpart, get subsidized for their housing price, chowhall, medical, etc.

I don't complain with how much I make except when I was an E-1, wracking up a $450 check ...
 
Let me fix that for you:

"You Moved into the companies house's and the company paid you in company "scrip" which was worthless outside the company store, and then charged more for the cheap crap than you made in worthless scrip, so you always owed the company money. till you died from the unsafe working conditions. then the company kicked your family out on the street."

yup, sounds like something I'd like to see come back!
Exactly this, it was those types of conditions that got unions started in the first place.
 
Its the exact same thing the military does, while I can't say the work conditions in the military are better, the hours are mostly better (except for deployments).

What branch did you serve in? I don't remember getting to many weekends off and when we were "working" it was 10-16 hours a day.
 
What branch did you serve in? I don't remember getting to many weekends off and when we were "working" it was 10-16 hours a day.

I was ready to ask the same thing... What are these hours you speak of? When I was in, about 50% of the time we were in the field and on the rare occasions we were in garrison we didn't "work" less than a 14 hour day.
 
After 12 hours of nothing, several sources identify this as a steaming pile of bullshit ala April Fool's Day.....took them long enough to fess up. :D
 
After 12 hours of nothing, several sources identify this as a steaming pile of bullshit ala April Fool's Day.....took them long enough to fess up. :D

Maybe they should have gone with "Apple CEO in ritual suicide to honor Foxconn workers" or something. Might have been much quicker. lol
 
I wondered why they choose Iowa, and then I checked and it is indeed a "right to work" state. Enjoy the 0.23$/hour.
 
I was ready to ask the same thing... What are these hours you speak of? When I was in, about 50% of the time we were in the field and on the rare occasions we were in garrison we didn't "work" less than a 14 hour day.

Ya the Army sucks. I'm in the AF working 7 to 4 everyday, weekends off. Although around here Army gets more 3 and 4 day weekends.
 
Read up about the new 'oil job boom' in North Dakota. Many of those US workers are living in tents. Granted, these people were probably pretty desperate.

Those guys make a lot of money.
 
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