It really stinks that they had their pensions taken away, an agreement was illegally broken. They should get some legal recourse but probably won't with Obama and Geithner involved in making them lose what they had. But the writing was clearly on the wall after the '70's. Any "rational" human being would have gotten out of there regardless of what was promised at the time. It was wishful thinking that the industry would ever come back, much less stronger to employ all of their kids. After Flint, did the rest think it would never happen to them? Same for the families of steel workers around the same time.
So the question is: Who knows who they will now vote for out of desperation and for whatever empty promises are made?
It has always amazed me of the utter stupidity of people who work for companies that are in shaky financial trouble with the eventual closure of the business in the near future.
In the past I worked for a large company (Datapoint) that was failing in the US and I didn’t wait one second to start looking for another career. Those who waited until “the ship sank” cried and bemoaned the fact that they were let go when the eventual calamity occurred. It’s “first come...first served” in the jobs market. If you leave your company before it fails you will ample opportunities...if you wait until the end the job market in your area will be flooded by those fools who waited.
The common thread in the excuses given by those in mass layoffs is something along the lines that they couldn’t move to another location because.....excuse....excuse...excuse and on and on. Fact is that they didn’t want to move period.
In my lifetime I’ve moved many, many times either to obtain a better job or to advance. I didn’t like it and I didn’t want to but it was necessary. These people in the article who waited until the last minute and were caught in the layoff fully knew what was coming simply by way of rumors and leaks from upper management in addition to slow business.
If you don’t watch the “tea leaves” and take action upon reading bad news shame on you. Responsible people make decisions whether they like it or not. Irresponsible people simply make them based upon what they like.
This scenario will work out more and more over the upcoming years thanks to the destruction of the American industrial system by both Obama and weak conservative members of congress.