President Trump struck a deal with Foxconn that promised to turn Wisconsin into a tech manufacturing powerhouse in exchange for billions in tax subsidies. Three years later, the factory — and the jobs — don’t exist, and they probably never will https://www.theverge.com/21507966/foxconn-empty-factories-wisconsin-jobs-loophole-trump

Foxconn had said it would build a 20-million-square-foot LCD complex in Wisconsin. Instead, it constructed an empty building 1/20th that size

The company said it would aim to employ 5,200 people at the end of this year, a number that was to grow to 13,000. At the end of 2019, Wisconsin found it employed only 281 people eligible under the terms of the contract

Foxconn attempted to exploit a loophole in its contract with the state by hiring a sufficient number of employees to receive subsidies just before the end of the year. Employees were hired with no actual work to do. Many were laid off after the deadline passed

Employees describe a toxic workplace, where supervisors often berated and publicly humiliated employees. Many of the original Wisconsin hires have quit or been laid off

Despite publicly insisting it was building an LCD factory, as early as 2018 Foxconn employees had been asked to figure out a business plan for the company in Wisconsin. Records show Foxconn recently changed the intended use of its factory from manufacturing to storage

Foxconn’s search for a viable business led it to consider everything from fish farming to exporting dairy to renting storage space. Almost every idea collapsed in corporate infighting and a reluctance to spend money

Very little manufacturing ever occurred with the Foxconn project. The company has started a small manufacturing line making servers, and now says it is making ventilators, but no employees or state officials could say whether any have been produced

In the end, the Foxconn debacle in Wisconsin is the physical manifestation of the alternate reality that has defined the Trump administration. Read @joshdzieza’s full story here: https://www.theverge.com/21507966/foxconn-empty-factories-wisconsin-jobs-loophole-trump