The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Milwaukee branch of the Gannett empire, is reporting on Foxconn’s awarding of contracts to Wisconsin companies with parent companies outside our state border. Rather than celebrate the creation of jobs for Wisconsin, the Journal Sentinel is lamenting the jobs going to “out-of-state” companies.
Foxconn Technology Group on Wednesday announced the award of $13 million in contracts to three firms it described as “outstanding Wisconsin-based companies.”
One of the firms, however, has headquarters in Connecticut, while another is part of a 44,000-employee global company headquartered in the United Kingdom.
The contracts announced Wednesday are for work on the foundations of the display panel plant Foxconn has said it will build in Mount Pleasant. The contracts represent the first awards for vertical construction of the building, the company said.
Foxconn said the contracts are going to C.D. Smith Construction Inc., of Fond du Lac; Otis Elevator Company, Milwaukee; and PSI Intertek, Waukesha.
“We’re proud to be delivering on our ‘Wisconsin First’ commitment by awarding these contracts to outstanding Wisconsin-based companies,” the company said in its announcement.
Later in the story, the Journal Sentinel acknowledges that Foxconn is complying with the terms of the contract with the state by choosing vendors that have a presence in Wisconsin for at least a year and pay taxes to Wisconsin.
Under that definition, it appears that companies such as The Home Depot Inc. (headquarters in Atlanta) or McDonald’s Corp. (headquarters in Chicago) could be considered Wisconsin-based.
Well, the Journal Sentinel should know from experience what constitutes an out-of-state company.
As their increasingly empty building will attest, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is not really a “Milwaukee” newspaper. The layout of the Gannett newspaper is done elsewhere and looks like every other Gannett newspaper (sometimes with the same headlines).
And, of course, the parent company is located in McLean, VA, and not Wisconsin.
We’re surprised the Journal Sentinel didn’t include themselves in their fun, hypothetical list of possible vendors from out of state. But that would make the newspaper a company that is adding jobs, and we know that’s not happening.
