Posted on 06/20/2011 7:35:18 PM PDT by Hojczyk
I had to check my paper copy of the Wall Street Journal today to make sure this wasn’t some elaborate prank. Then I double-checked what year it is, to make sure I hadn’t been slingshotted around the sun and found myself back in 1975.
That’s about when I remember it last being routine for Rust Belt lawyers to publicly disparage the skills and education of people from the South. The only thing missing from the op-ed by Chicago-based lawyer Thomas Geoghegan is the word “hick” or “hillbilly.” WSJ is to be applauded for its determination to feature different viewpoints, but Geoghegan’s piece certainly pushes the envelope.
The topic is the NLRB ruling against Boeing moving its assembly plant for the Dreamliner to South Carolina. And it really is as bad as my intro suggests. Go read it, if you think I may be cherry-picking or making a mountain out of a molehill. I’ll wait. OK, here’s that last paragraph again:
Most depressing of all, Boeing’s move would send a market signal to those considering a career in engineering or high-skilled manufacturing …: Don’t go to engineering school, don’t bother with fancy apprenticeships, don’t invest in skills.
In case you miss the point of the piece, here’s another go at it: “We should be aghast that Boeing is sending a big fat market signal that it wants a less-skilled, lower-quality work force.”
Here’s a weird fact, though. There is already a plant manufacturing rear-fuselage elements for Boeing in South Carolina. (The Dreamliner final-assembly plant that opened 10 June is located next to it.) South Carolina also has a BMW plant, a Honda plant, a Bosch plant, a Caterpillar plant, an American LaFrance plant (fire engines and ambulances), and a Daimler plant, all employing highly-skilled labor to manufacture big, intricate stuff
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
I am surprised that the NLRB didn’t work “bitter clinger” in there somewhere.
Seriously McDonald’s
I have a close friend who works for Boeing and splits his time between both the Everett Washington and Charleston SC plants. He hates going to Everett and dealing with the union can’t do mentality constantly citing rules and sniping at the “low grade” SC workers with all their ignorant caricatures of the South. The SC plant is a breath of fresh air with workers, although not quite as experienced yet, but highly motivated and happy to be where they are and having voted down joining the mechanic’s union at the plant.They never snipe at Everett but stay focused on getting up to speed.
It is always useful to be reminded how liberals view the south and those of us that live here. Because without reminders, we might forget what bigoted, elitist, Democrat’s really think of their “fellow countrymen” ... It goes a long way to explaining why they feel empowered to make decisions for us, to tell us how to live, and to pass laws despite our wishes.
It also reminds me personally that I no longer wish to share a country with people that snot-nosed son of a bitch Chicago lawyer. I hope to some day piss on the graves of his ilk.
Yeah, this attitude will really help Obummer win the state in 2012.
~”people (like) that ... “
I think this fellow is very clever: The insults to Southerners make people so angry that they don’t pay as much attention to the crony capitalism.
Hardly ignorant here.
Born and raised in the South.
As were many, many generations of my family.
A member of MENSA since 1979.
Good thing none of us “southerners” moved here from the north. That might confuse them.
Intelligence has nothing to do with being an ignorant hick to the left. I live just outside of of Chicago, and grew up in Chicago, and I would be considered an ignorant hick.
I also scored an almost perfect ASVAB, hold a masters and 2 secondary bachelor degrees, but trust me, I am treated as if I am a dumb hick. Why?
Because I must be a dumb hick to disagree with the left. That is the model that they present in the MSM and in all the newspapers. I am not only ignorant, heck, I have EXTREME views. The views of even those like JFK would be EXTREME (I capitalized that on purpose, because that is the message they are pushing forth). MLK? Forget it, judging a man by the content of his character rather than the color of his skin would be extreme, and only an ignorant, extremist hick could think like that!
This is why Obama is considered such an intellectual, he agrees with everything they spew, everything from Krugman to Gore, therefore, he is “enlightened”. Nevermind wrong, facts be damned. Sarah? She’s an ignorant hick too, because she disagrees with the left. Even if her ACT and SAT’s were perfect, and Obamas unreleased scores were near the bottom, she’d still be an ignorant hick, and he’d still be the smartest-president-we’ve-ever-had.
The list goes on and on, I’ve somewhat grown used to it, because I know that when they call me a hick or ignorant, it is actually a badge of honor, because I know I am in good company.
Low killed Southern workforce..... Hmm....
Since I’m from Alabama, I’ll take a swipe at that.
Montgomery = Hyundai Assembly plant
Vance/Tuscaloosa = Mecedes Benz Assembly plant
Lincoln = 2 Honda Odydssy plants
Mobile = Brand New Thyssen Krup Steel plant.
Mobile was also the selected spot to build Tankers for the Military for EADS. They lost to Boeing on appeal and re-bid.
Decatur - Advanced Solid Rocket Motor Plant
Huntsville = Marshall Space Flight Center (the develop moon rockets, space shuttle, space stations, stuff like that)
Huntsville = Army Missle Command (all they do is develop and administer all the missle programs for the US Army)
Even in our backwoods, redneck places in the heart of coal country, like Cordova, Al, they are building trusses for Navy destroyers.
THe NLRB and the unions can stick it where the sun don’t shine.
A proud Alabamian
Hey man. Keep that quiet. We don’t want their sorry liberal asses down here in Alabama. I mean I’ve been an electronics engineer for 26 years here in Huntsville and you are blowing my cover.....err I mean I’m a redneck. Wez all rednecks down here. Stay away yankee liberals.
A species, the existence of which proves that pigs can mate with snakes.
When I lived in SC, I worked for huffman corp.
Go to huffmancorp.com to see how dumb people in Clover SC are.
( They build advanced precision( micron accuracy) grinding, laser deposition and waterjet systems for aerospace and medical manufacturing plants around the world)
Maybe one day his little balls will drop and he'll get to drop the "Smarter than thou" front and use some real man game to pick up girls...
Naw...I doubt it...He'll fund the private school of many philipino children of video chat chics.
And I have a close friend who works for Boeing and hates them - but is rooting for them to win against the NLRB. He would love to see the union dismantled.
In time all the leverage will be with the SC workers. If Boeing makes the mistake of not treating them well other employers will be eager to hire them.
Know a company who makes pool liners outside Huntsville. In my first visit the owner shows me a cutting machine I’d never seen before, and when I asked about it he tells me the “good old boys” up the road built it for him. Then he shows me a welder with no name plate either and says yep those “good old boys” up the road again. Then he shows a wide bed digital printer in a clean room running by itself. So I asked who these “good old boys” were, and he smiled and said...from NASA by moonlight.
The printer was the first ever built they say. Liked to visit there and he hired his female workers by cup size I think.
If they had said something similar about, um, other types of labor, we’d have a civil rights lawsuit.
How dare this company go to a red southern state, increase its population thus raising its representation. Those southerners vote conservative. How dumb is that? Heavy sarcasm. I’m from alabama and proud. We have fine university that has a top engineering division. War Eagle!
Amen brother, preach it!
To hell with the left. I hope they all lose their jobs and starve as well as their families.
The NRLB is a cancer.
If the author is the Chicago lawyer of the same name that I met a few decades ago, he is/was a big time gambler.
Hope he’s better at winning games than winning friends.
+1.
Thomas Geoghegan needs to be greeted with some good old southern pine tar and some good old southern chicken feathers.
My family has roots in WV and KY and migrated to Ohio, MI, and Washington 3 generations ago. All of them were solidly union until my generation which is belligerently anti-union.
I think culturally it was about fighting the big companies aka “The Man”. The problem is that unions are now “The Man”.
Many parts of Washington will seem like Appalachia.
I read that article in the Wall Street Journal and thought about how the unions ruined rust belt cities like Detroit and manufacturers like GM. Now the NRLB seems to be trying to destroy Boeing and prevent companies from moving to states where the business climate and right to work laws make economic sense.
I was a southerner who was a manager in a national company. I had technicians working for me in a northern state and a southern state. The northern technicians were members of a national union affiliated with big labor. Many of the workers were OK, but others were terribly inefficient (e.g., “ he is not allowed to turn that [simple, harmless] valve; I’m the guy who turns valves”). The inefficient ones didn’t seem to care for the good of the company. I probably had 70 technicians working for me at that location at one time or another, and I knew them all.
On the other hand, I had maybe 25 technicians working for me over the years in a southern state in the same company. They did the same type of jobs as their northern counterparts. The southerners were in a local, non-national union not affiliated with big labor. They would do things that made sense and worked to help the company be more efficient.
There was a difference in attitude between some of the northern workers and all of the southern ones and the unions that represented them. Fortunately the professionals working for me in both states were not unionized, and all worked for the good of the company.
What is it worth 6 Electoral votes versus SC 7 ?
There’s plenty of folks right here on FR that HATE the South and anyone who’s foolish enough to self identify as a Southerner.
To them, we are intrinsically deficient, both moraly and mentally. They will allow us to live, as long as we remember our place, pay taxes to FedGov, and don’t get uppity.
Golly, mister, I always wanted to work on them there aeroplanes. Shazam!
But then again, he wasn't a College Professor either, even though the Media spreads that lie far and wide.
Obama the man is a myth, just like his Economic and Foreign Policies.
Ya got that right. Atlanta in the '70's was a great place to be; a cesspool now.
Yep, those dumb low skilled southerners. Guess Mercedes, BMW, Nissan (Tennessee), Government motors (Shreveport and Dallas) Caterpillar (San Antonio) and all the other companies that have located down here are just as stupid.
And we are so stooopid that none of us ever move north after retirement. Hmmm something goin on here.
btw, roll tide. Both kids born in L A.
I was actually referring to the snot nosed Chicago lawyer that wrote the article in question. It’s one thing to refer to people as ‘bitter clingers’ in the context of a pretentious pseudo-intellectual San Francisco wine and cheese fundraiser ... it’s another altogether to essentially say that southerners are ‘bitter clingers with no talent, skill, or work ethic and jobs from major manufacturers should be denied them so quality doesn’t suffer’ and say it in a major publication.
Unions are on the wane in WV. What has changed is that 50 years ago and earlier people would become trapped in a town. There was no other employer and no way to leave. They were not free. The towns were run by foremen who knew their employers, who never got within 500 miles of the town, saw no reason why they should treat the people working in that town honestly.
Now that people have freedom to move, they can leave the unions and the bad employers.
Also Volkswagen just over the state line in Chattanooga.
Dear Mr. Geoghegan: Do you, or any of your friends, drive a BMW X5 or X6, or maybe the new X3? Nice cars, aren’t they? Luxurious, fast, well-built? Well, sir, every single one of those big Beemers were built at a plant in the beautiful Upstate of South Carolina, halfway between Greenville and Spartanburg right off I-85. Your X5 was not, in fact, built by mythical Bavarian supermen named Klaus and Gunther. It was built by drawlin’, NASCAR-lovin’, good ol’ boys named Dale and Billy. And I’ll bet you couldn’t tell the damn difference between a BMW made in Greer, SC and one made in Germany.
BMW: Bubba Makes Wheels.
}:-)4
appendicitis - I’m certain that TG would prefer to get his medical treatment in Cuba.
BTW - Did you catch the video on Yahoo of The One miraculously calming a baby? Obama is the new Benny Hinn.
Look forward to Journalistic hero worship on Steroids from now until November 2011.
Make that November 2012. LOL
Greenville, SC (upstate):
Corporations based in or with a major presence in the UpstateThe following corporations have a major presence in the Upstate: Adidas Group, Bank of America, Bi-Lo, BMW of North America, Bon Secours St. Francis Health System [2], Bosch North America, Bowater, SunTrust, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Charter Communications, Denny’s Restaurants, Dunlop Slazenger Group, Ernst & Young, Fluor Corporation, Freightliner LLC, GE Power Systems, Greenville Hospital System [3], IBM, Liberty Corporation, Mary Black Health System, Michelin of North America, Microsoft, Milliken & Co., Perrigo Company of South Carolina, and Spartanburg Regional Health System.
• BMW’s only North American manufacturing plant is located in Spartanburg County, with an investment of $3.7 billion. [4]
• Fuji Film located their first manufacturing facility in the U.S. in Greenwood County. [5]
• Michelin of North America has five manufacturing plants and their R&D facility located in the Upstate. [6]
• Walgreens has their southeastern distribution center located in Anderson County, which employs mentally handicapped workers as nearly 40% of their workforce. [7]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstate_South_Carolina
My nephew is an engineer with BMW. He recently spent two years in Germany learning how things are done.
Aside, I visited two plants near the BMW plant. They make products unrelated to cars but the sight is awesome. There are industrial parks more or less out in the country ie not in a city with manicured grounds and neat as can be. They are new. They fly the flags of many nations and represent various subvendors/contractors who have set up shop and are thriving.
Freepers whine and complain about “buy America” and rice burners (kraut burners) but the American companies had the same chance, even better chance but didn’t take it. GM built Saturn in Tennessee in the same manner and then allowed the UAW to come in and destroy it all, including the whole line.
When you buy an American made car you are buying UAW welfare
South Carolina is pointing the way and is succeeding beyond expectations. The Boeing fight with the union is proof that the lefties see it all unraveling and will do all they can to stop it. There is palpable fear. Ratland is disintegrating into deserted and unrebuildable ruins.
I live in Greer, SC now and it is really nice. We have high tech manufacturing and large companies, but still the Southern feel. It is amazing to see how the area has grown. And downtown Greenville is just beautiful. I never get tired of going there. The best of both worlds.
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