Is Manufacturing BAK in Buffalo?

Low cost computer tablet manufacturer BAK has set up shop in Buffalo, with a little help from our taxes in the form of a grant from the Buffalo Billion.

Is BAK all t is cracked up to be?

BAK started in Haiti manufacturing tablets for distribution in African countries. Why the owners set up shop in Haiti is open to speculation, but I suspect the owners received some encouragement from the devastation from the Haitian Earthquake that devastated the country and left it “open for business” in the terms of the Clintons and Former Haitian President Martelly. Wages are very low in Haiti and I'm sure there was plenty of startup money that wouldn't have to be paid back floating around.

If the owners of BAK were interested in building up sales in African nations, why not just build in Africa?

After the business became successful, they sold it – not to the workers but most likely to a member (or members) of the Haitian 1%. The workers supposedly had good working conditions but no article that I read mentioned anything about that or wages. If the owner was looking to make the lives of Haitians better, he should have turned it into a worker owned, worker run cooperative. He would have also trained them how to run it so that it could stay in business and succeed.

Now the owners are here in Buffalo with the same model. They received money from the Buffalo Billion and set up shop in the former Sheehan Memorial Hospital (top floor, where there is plenty of sun and natural lighting, not like the Guiled Age factories that China has. No joke. One of the articles in the Buffalo News makes that point.)

Instead of working assembly line style, the workers build the tablet from beginning to end. They get to see the completed project. No word on whether they are being paid enough to afford one. Or if they have any benefits at the company.

How successful is the business? The Buffalo City School District has ordered tablets from the company for all its schools supposedly. And MicroSoft(TM) has taken on a partnership with the firm. A new line of tablets will be released with the Windows(TM) 10 OS on it. (As if things couldnot get any more corporate.)

I know I have slammed the company a little hard here and I'll point out a few good things (potentially) that the owners want to do. They want to repeat the model in other cities with high poverty rates. Rather than sourcing their components from China and other slave wage countries, they want to have them manufactured here in the USA. (It seems that people will pay 5% more for something if it is built in our country. Go patriotism?) Who knew that Corning Glass manufactured their glass for tablets in China? And their company HQ is about two hours from here (unless you drive like a typical WNY maniac. Then it is only about an hour away, give or take for speed traps.)

The Buffalo News also highlights how a new immigrant and citizen to the country has a job working in the “plant” and likes it and being in Buffalo. The owner is also looking to expand to Baltimore, Cleveland, and other high poverty cities.

With all the BAK company is doing, is it training its workers to be part owners in the eventual future? Following the Haitian model of building and dumping, I fear that this venture will be sold off eventually. Why not truly empower the workers and train them in how to run the company for themselves?

Now that would be truly empowering.