A Bridge Made in China (San Francisco, Oakland: houses, buying, gated)

[RedJacket]

Bridge Comes to San Francisco With a Made-in-China Label

SHANGHAI — Talk about outsourcing.

At a sprawling manufacturing complex here, hundreds of Chinese laborers are now completing work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/bu...bridge.html?hp

For a savings of less than 1% the state of CA gives 100s of Chinese people work, and gives the middle finger to American workers.

Doesn't get much more pathetic than that, now does it?

[Hemlock140]

Yikes, I'll have to remember to take the Dumbarton or Hayward-San Mateo next time I visit down there. I have very little confidence in the quality of work coming from China.

[Nineties Flava]

Wow... talk about cold-blooded. It's more like 6% savings, but... really? With the state of the economy they do that? Hope the Chinese workers are not cutting any corners whatsoever...

[ubringliten]

"The assembly work in California, and the pouring of the concrete road surface, will be done by Americans."

Please read carefully. China is known for manufacturing steel and the company that is manufacturing the bridge is backed by the Chinese government, so of course they were chosen to do it.

[Ultrarunner]

San Francisco has a long and storied past with China... the largest Chinese New Years Parade outside of China is in San Francisco...

Don't know what else to say...

[jeffredo]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

San Francisco has a long and storied past with China... the largest Chinese New Years Parade outside of China is in San Francisco...

Don't know what else to say...

TBH, that's not saying much. The state of California screwed over American industry, workers and the economies of communities where the steel work should have been done. To refuse federal funding to avoid "made in America" requirements is unconscionable. If I can avoid this bridge I will and I'm ashamed of this state's government.

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by jeffredo

TBH, that's not saying much. The state of California screwed over American industry, workers and the economies of communities where the steel work should have been done. To refuse federal funding to avoid "made in America" requirements is unconscionable. If I can avoid this bridge I will and I'm ashamed of this state's government.

Home Depot is being investigated for buying items made in China while Goverment can and does buy from China?

Do we even have the production capability to make the Fabricated Sections?

I worked in a Union Shop that is no more... all of the companies we made parts for have left the Bay Area...

There were many companies, including the steel plant in Pittsburg CA, supplying the New United Motor Plant in Fremont CA forced to close and layoff employees

No one seemed to care when 5,000 of my friends and neighbors lost their jobs and another 10 to 15,000 ancillary workers also lost their jobs when NUMMI closed due to General Motors, being managed by the Federal Government, elected to end cease production at the facility.

The same can be said when Transit Agencies elected to buy foreign buses that were almost the same price as the Gillig Buses made in Hayward CA...

The rules that apply to you and me only apply to you and me...

[BayAreaHillbilly]

This is the beginning of the end.

[beb0p]

No, no, no, no, no. This is misleading and misinformed. The U.S. DOESN'T have the infrastructure to do the things that are outsourced to China. A decade of Republican voodoo economics have striped much of the local talent, equipment, and warehouses needed to do this kind of jobs. We've been outsourcing this kind of work for a LONG time now because we simply can't do this anymore. It's that simple.

I have several cousins who work for Caltran, including one who is a bridge inspector. They all said the same thing - they don't trust US steel manufacturer. Last time they relied on one in Arizona to build a piece to fix the eyebar crack on the Bay Bridge, it arrived not according to spec and didn't fit. Caltran engineers had to use an ad hoc method to make it fit and the damn thing fell down a few months later and Caltran became the scape goat. According to them, all high level management were PO and would never use a US manufacturer again unless in an emergency.

To top it off, the Arizona manufacturer is the only one left in the country who is even mildly capable of taking on the task, so if CA went domestic they'd have to use the same people who screwed them before.

Don't blame the state, blame the people who created this outsourcing environment.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by beb0p

No, no, no, no, no. This is misleading and misinformed. The U.S. DOESN'T have the infrastructure to do the things that are outsourced to China. A decade of Republican voodoo economics have striped much of the local talent, equipment, and warehouses needed to do this kind of jobs. We've been outsourcing this kind of work for a LONG time now because we simply can't do this anymore. It's that simple.

I have several cousins who work for Caltran, including one who is a bridge inspector. They all said the same thing - they don't trust US steel manufacturer. Last time they relied on one in Arizona to build a piece to fix the eyebar crack on the Bay Bridge, it arrived not according to spec and didn't fit. Caltran engineers had to use an ad hoc method to make it fit and the damn thing fell down a few months later and Caltran became the scape goat. According to them, all high level management were PO and would never use a US manufacturer again unless in an emergency.

To top it off, the Arizona manufacturer is the only one left in the country who is even mildly capable of taking on the task, so if CA went domestic they'd have to use the same people who screwed them before.

Don't blame the state, blame the people who created this outsourcing environment.

I doubt this. There are several mills East of the Rockies.

Or failing that, at least go the NAFTA route.

It did not have to come from the PRC. Of course, a little Guan Xi will go a long way these days.