Posted on 01/16/2004 5:35:50 AM PST by RockChucker
Electrolux employees began arriving at the plant well before the scheduled announcement to learn the fate of 2,700 Greenville jobs. This morning at 7:30 those employees learned that Electrolux will close its Greenville plant.
Last Friday was to be the day, but the deadline was postponed one week to allow talks to continue between the company, the city and the union. This morning at 7:00 a.m. Electrolux was scheduled to make the announcement; however, company officials delayed that announcement until 7:30 a.m. When that announcement finally did come, it wasn't what anyone in Greenville wanted to hear.
That's just the city of Grand Rapids. Ice Mountain water bottleing plant, the largest in North America, will likely be shutting down... and they just built the plant 1 year ago.
Electrolux to close plant in Greenville
In a prepared release, Electrolux announced that some products manufactured in Greenville will be moved to a plant in Anderson, South Carolina, while other lines will be moved to a plant in Mexico. In the meanwhile, operations in Greenville will continue into 2005.
The company says that it carefully considered the city's proposal to keep the plant in Greenville, but that in order to remain competitive it must move operations to Mexico.
Electrolux says it lost 38 percent of its profits in the third quarter and it can save $81 million a year by shuffling off to Mexico.
For Greenville, this means the loss of 2,700 jobs and $437,000. That's about a 20 percent blow to its tax base. For the region, the overall economic impact each year will affect the service industry and Electrolux suppliers, amounting to $243 million. The numbers are daunting especially for Electrolux employees
Anyone, anyone, is allowed to make a "comfortable wage who will learn the knowledge and/or skills required to perform a task for which someone is willing to pay a comfortable wage.
No one, no one, is entitled to a "comfortable wage" regardless of what they do to earn it.
Once you mandate that everyone must earn a "comfortable wage" you damage the delicate tradeoffs that work so well together to make an economy work.
As has been posted before, industries didn't just one day decide to pick up and leave the U.S. I'm sure that many which are leaving would rather stay if they could afford it. But economies are little chaotic systems that we do not fully understand and can not fully control. Tinkering is very dangerous.
Shalom.
Additionally, most products have a "sweet spot" price. More than that and you must show some premium value to go along with the premium price. Less than that and it will be presumed that your product is junk and people won't look seriously at it. I was a landlord for a short time. I kept my rent low to try to attract renters quickly since I was not interested in maintaining an empty property. It was nearly impossible to find good renters. A real estate agent told me that the renters wouldn't look at my property because they would assume it was a dump. I raised my rent to the market price and filled the unit within 2 days.
The Electrolux may not go down in price, but it will add features that consumers are demanding that Electrolux can't afford to put in now.
Shalom.
That's that stupid law they wrote to reduce the number of starting jobs, reduce the number of businesses working in the U.S., and curry favor with the liberals.
Retrain the to do what? There are only a limited number of service related jobs that can be created
There are active sectors here in the U.S., with new ones being created on a regular basis as people think up new ideas.
You don't need a wide open field, you just need to be better than others.
No guarantees in a free system, but if you will work, you can work.
Shalom.
Yes. The $4/hr worker was in Mexico. The $4/hr U.S. worker was hypothetical.
Again, retrain to do what?
There is a huge field. I am in IT myself but I have been thinking about a few things. There is a spot near here that is just ripe for a coffee shop. We need a competitor to the local Blockbuster. At the rate houses are going up, I could do a lot if I could just learn how to tape and float wallboard without making it look like garbage. I had a friend who made more money that I did renting earth-moving equipment. I've even thought about converting VHS to DVD for people with a lot of home videos that they never watch but waste space storing.
Risky? Sure. So is standing still and waiting for the job market I'm in to dry up.
How about taking care of the citizens first, before offering jobs to foreigners. Is that so hard to do?
It is when the citizen demands a lot for a little in return, while the foreigner is willing to work harder, longer, and with fewer complaints for less money.
I don't want to live in a hovel any more than the next person, but business don't succeed by being generous. They succeed by being efficient.
Think of it from your own job's perspective. Suppose you had a U.S. worker apply who had read about Active Directory somewhere and wanted $50,000 to start because he has an MCSE. Suppose someone wanting H1B sponsorship applies who can roll an AD implementation in half a day to 500 PCs and is willing to work for $25,000 (and has an MCSE also). Which would you hire. I know if the citizen and the non were reversed the choice would be easy. How long will your organization survive if you let the nationality decide?
Shalom.
I propose that we cut YOUR salary and while we're at it, let's cut YOUR job. I find that people's attitudes change when the sh** falls down on them personally. Let's say that your corporation has targeted you like a sniper. For whatever reason, they don't need YOU. You are cut. You are out on the street. Now you have to go out and retrain. You have to start over at a low salary and work your way up again. Gee sounds like fun doesn't it. That's what people today are facing in this economy.
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
NEXT.
Shalom.
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