Posted on 08/13/2005 11:19:39 AM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
INDIANAPOLIS - DaimlerChrysler AG will close its Indianapolis foundry and eliminate 881 jobs by Sept. 30, reducing the automaker's once formidable Indiana manufacturing presence to just the city of Kokomo.
DaimlerChrysler recently notified the Indiana Department of Workforce Development of the closure under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act. The law requires employers to give 60 days notice before certain plant closings and layoffs. The loss of 881 jobs is the largest in Indiana under WARN this year.
A provision in the four-year labor agreement struck by the automaker and the United Auto Workers in 2003 called for the foundry to close by the end of the third quarter of 2005, company spokeswoman Curtrise Garner said Friday.
"The company and union jointly agreed to that," she said by telephone from DaimlerChrysler's U.S. headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich.
News reports at the time of the labor agreement said DaimlerChrysler would phase out the foundry over four years. The plant along Interstate 70 west of downtown Indianapolis produces V-6 and V-8 engine blocks.
UAW Local 550 represents workers at the foundry. Local President James Clark had little to say about the closure when asked for comment Friday. The affected workers, most of whom now live in Indianapolis, have been offered jobs at a variety of other DaimlerChrysler plants, he said.
Workers who choose to transfer to another DaimlerChrysler plant instead of retiring receive 95 percent of their base pay after taxes until a new job is found for them, Garner said.
Department of Workforce Development agency officials will meet with DaimlerChrysler representatives next Thursday to discuss state job assistance to the affected workers, agency spokesman Kip Chase said.
The plant was owned by American Foundry Co. until Chrysler bought it in 1946. The automaker invested in major upgrades there in 1964, 1978, 1988, and the late 1990s.
The closing will diminish DaimlerChrysler's presence in Indiana to Kokomo, where three transmission plants and an aluminum casting plant employ about 7,500 workers. The automaker spun off its 1,400-worker New Castle machine shop to a joint venture three year ago, ending a 96-year history in the eastern Indiana city where the high school still bears the Chrysler name.
The notice to the state of 881 jobs being lost topped Indiana's largest previous WARN job loss this year, for 613 jobs eliminated with the June closure of Tower Automotive's auto frame assembly plant in Corydon.
My, my, my...........I seemed to have hit a nerve with you didn't I..............all because you could not understand the nature of my comment you now have to defend your attack on said comment.
It's not working my friend, I spent nearly 20 years in politics defending American jobs.........so I suggest you quit while you are ahead with your unwarranted comments aime at me.
No, he's saying that the number of manufacturing jobs has dropped in the US, in Mexico and in China.
What should we do? Pretend it isn't happening? Willie posts news stories about businesses that close up and usually go out of the country. Should we pretend this isn't happening?
Havoc is obviously having a tough time, which accounts for his lack of objectivity on the matter. The guy who gets hit on the head with a brick doesn't care who made the brick or how much it costs.
they may have gone to mexico, meanwhile existing jobs in mexico went somewhere else.
Since NAFTA Mexico has lost about 250,000 manufacturing jobs mostly to Asia.
But the biggest destroyer of manufacturing jobs worldwide has been the evil monster called "Productivity"
Manufacturing productivty grows about 8-10% annually, but demand is growing at most 4%, that creates a huge redundancy of manufacturing jobs worldwide.
What matters isnt employment, that is the wrong way to measure manufacturing, it is output. By that measure manufacturing in the US has bee nremarkably stable over the past 25 years.
BTW are you are that over the past 100 years farming employment has fallen by 90%??? Are you starving???
or I could post the jobs data that keeps coming out monthly and watch you guys blast it was burger flippers and whatnot...
its a give and take. And it isn't NEARLY as bad as some on this forum think it is....
BTW are you are that over the past 100 years farming employment has fallen by 90%??? Are you starving???
I'm a little peckish. Cake would be nice. Thanks for asking...
But the key is your statement that you took advantage of the opportunities you got. THAT will make you a success in any climate.
While I consider myself a success, I will never deny that I had opportunities others have not had, along with NOT having had opportunities others have had; I'm not a great athlete, do not possess a genius IQ, am too scatter-brained to focus on one specific task...but I maximized my chances and didn't squander them.
But I have made the most of my opportunities (to paraphrase Woody Allen, 90% of success is just showing up), and I have none of the guilt that liberals feel successful people should have.
Have I had breaks? You bet. Doesn't diminish my accomplishments one iota.
So they didn't lose jobs, just being relocated? Relocating from Indy should be considered a bonus! (speaking as a former hoosier)
Don't believe I said that.
I said that I think your success - like mine - is independent of who is in office. It's based on you and your talents, not on economic policy.
Not all of us are greedy thieves, nor corporate................some of actually were fighting that kind of crapola. :) Unfortunately representing the little guy is often a thankless task and unless they can hook up with something bigger, it tends to be a lost cause, but that doesn't mean not trying.
interesting that nobody thins that this foundry just might be closing because of rising productivity at existing foundaries has mde this one redundant and that total output might just remain unchanged?
No, I'm not confusing politics and economics. I know that Politics is being used to force and economic result on America. And we're not debating the "free market" system. We're debating the resultant damage from trade when vastly unequal wage/labor cost & cost of living systems compete directly with one another. Without some means of leveling the playing field for competition, there cannot be anything calling itself "fair" competition. If you put a guy with no legs on the cinders with a guy that has two good legs in the olympics (no prosthetics on the guy without legs) you would probably get a riot due to the cruelty. You do it in economics and then act like it should be accepted as normal when everyone else can see the inequity and bold/flagrant
immorality of the act.
We have a capitolist market that functions on supply and demand. That works equitably when established in a moral setting. It is abusive when there is no moral grounding - ie the slave trade history. So, let's not act as though it's a simple misunderstanding of what we're discussing.
It isn't. Tariffs level the playing field to make competition fair. Without the tariffs, there is no way of leveling the playing field. But with the tariffs, there is no "free" trade. The only reason there is "free" trade is because Corporate America doesn't like supply and demand when labor supply causes them to have to compete for the best available labor at market cost. They want market profit without market cost. The only way to do that legally is to subvert the labor market and remove any advantage the labor market can have by means of quality/supply and cost.
Without tariffs, foriegn labor cannot be beat - no two ways about it.. because their cost of living is lower, their labor cost is lower, etc.
So, again, no, I'm not confusing politics with economics. I'm just aware that politics has been used here to subvert American economics to the benefit of large corporations and to the very large detriment of the average American. It is Walmart's job to do the best they can do. When that extends to Using foriegn labor to subvert the American market for profit, they've crossed the line and acted like a King we rebelled against. And that isn't their job..
Funny you should state that killing competition should be illegal and policed by the politicos via legislation. Their legislation on trade hasn't merely killed competition, it nullified it and completely subverted our market. Who polices the police?
I hadn't intended to get so deep into this - I was just making the requisite (and sarcastic) blame someone post.......I rarely get the chance to do it :)
Blaming WalMart (as in my comment) for the closing of an automotive foundry makes as much sense as blaming Bush (or even Clinton) for a hurricane...........it's not my fault some people have no sense of the absurd.
Most of us that decry what is happening don't look at the situation like an accountant (Bottom line; short term profit). We are more concerned about the future generations.
Projections put our population at about 300 million in 2050. Where do the jobs come from to support that many people? Before you say they can start a business and the usual super-capitalist talk about how rich we are as a nation, do this:
The next time you are out at the mall look around you. Look at the people going by carefully. Do you think they are all capable of starting a business, becoming a doctor or lawyer? You must know some people that make you scratch your head and say, "I don't know how they have survived as long as they have."
There must be a middle class sector of jobs able to support the middle class. If we eliminate all the so-called unnecessary jobs in the U.S. how will the middle class secure its future?
I have two young sons. Do I want them to succeed and have a future? Of course. But, what if, one of them just doesn't have the drive and ability to be more than just a middle class worker? What happens to him? Does he starve or live on the streets? Does he get welfare while at the same time people like you ostracize and criticize his lack of capitalist prowess?
There can't be just two classes in this country. We need the several we have in order to sustain the economy we have.
Look at the bright side Willie, 881 new Brain Surgeons in the making. I wonder if MikeinIraq (who is no longer in Iraq) would like to volunteer for their warmup surgery? Blackbird.
I was working in a salaried good paying job. That part I had control over and I was a success in it. I didn't cause myself to lose that job. That was policy that allowed foriegn labor to be dumped on the market to put me out of my job - sending it to Mexico. Had nothing to do with me. But, when that reality doesn't work for you, you have to find some way to blame me for it so it looks like something I did rather than something that results from bad policy which makes your guy look an ass. Too bad, so sad. Try again toddler.
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