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Last week, President Trump, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Foxconn – an electronics manufacturing company owned by a wealthy Taiwanese tycoon – announced plans to build a factory in the United States to produce LCD screens. Trump lauded this as a victory in his stated quest to bring manufacturing jobs to the United States. But the reality may be something different.
If the name Foxconn rings a bell, you may be remembering the epidemic of suicides that horrified the world at the so-called Foxconn City industrial park in Shenzhen, China. In 2010, 18 employees attempted suicide, and 14 died as a result of those attempts. Many reports attribute this rash of suicides – which continued through 2016 – to the harsh working conditions workers endured in the factories, with forced overtime and unrealistic production quotas.
