Posted on 01/02/2006 4:19:44 AM PST by ventana
AP Middle-Class Job Losses Batter Workforce Sunday January 1, 8:53 pm ET By Kathy Barks Hoffman, Associated Press Writer Middle-Class Job Losses Batter Workforce As Companies Slash Payrolls, Send Jobs Overseas
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Thirty years ago, Dan Fairbanks looked at the jobs he could get with his college degree and what he could make working the line at General Motors Corp., and decided the GM job looked better.
He still thinks he made the right choice. But with GM planning to end production of the Chevrolet SSR and shut down the Lansing Craft Centre where he works sometime in mid-2006, Fairbanks faces an uncertain future.
"Back when I hired in at General Motors 30 years ago, it seemed like a good, secure job," said Fairbanks, president since June of UAW Local 1618. Since then, "I've seen good times and I've seen bad times. This qualifies as a bad time, in more ways than one."
Many of the country's manufacturing workers are caught in a worldwide economic shift that is forcing companies to slash payrolls or send jobs elsewhere, leaving workers to wonder if their way of life is disappearing.
The trend in the manufacturing sector toward lower pay, fewer benefits and fewer jobs is alarming many of them.
"They end up paying more of their health care and they end up with lousier pensions -- if they keep one at all," says Michigan AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney. As wages and benefits drop, "it's the working class that's paying the price."
West Virginia steelworkers are all too familiar with the problem. The former Weirton Steel Corp., which 20 years ago had some 13,000 employees, today has just 1,300 union workers left on the job.
The steel mill has changed hands twice in two years, and just last month, Mittal Steel Co. told the Independent Steelworkers Union it would permanently cut the jobs of 800 people who'd been laid off since summer.
Larry Keister, 50, of Weirton, W.Va., has 31 years in the mill that his father and brothers all joined. His son tried, but got laid off quickly.
"I'm too old to go back to school. I've worked there all my life," says Keister, who drives a buggy in the tin mill. "I went there straight out of high school. It's all I know."
Though Keister is safe for now from layoffs, he wonders what will happen to the hundreds of friends and co-workers who will be jobless by the end of January.M
Gary Colflesh, 56, of Bloomingdale, Ohio, said there are few jobs in nearby Ohio or Pennsylvania for workers to move to.
"They're destroying the working class. Why can't people see this?" asked the 38-year veteran. "Anybody who works in manufacturing has no future in this country, unless you want to work for wages they get in China."
Abby Abdo, 52, of Weirton, said workers once believed that if they accepted pay cuts and shunned strikes, they would keep their jobs. Not anymore.
"Once they get what they want, they kick us to the curb," he said. "There's no guarantee anymore. No pensions. No health care. No job security. We have none of those things anymore."
Fairbanks of the Lansing GM plant said the changes are going to force a lot of people to retrench to deal with the new economic reality. For some, it will make it harder to send their children to college or be able to retire when they want. For others, it will mean giving up some of the trappings a comfortable income can bring.
"You're going to see lake property, you're going to see boats, you're going to see motorcycles hit the market," he said. "People get rid of the toys."
Economists agree the outlook is changing for workers who moved from high school to good-paying factory jobs two and three decades ago, or for those seeking that lifestyle now.
"It was possible for people with a high school education to get a job that paid $75,000 to $100,000 and six weeks of paid vacation. Those jobs are disappearing," says Patrick Anderson of Anderson Economic Group in East Lansing, Mich. "The ... low-skill, upper-middle-class way of life is in danger."
General Motors Corp. has announced that it plans to cut 30,000 hourly jobs by 2008. Ford Motor Co. is scheduled to announce plant closings and layoffs in January that could affect at least 15,000 workers in the United States and Mexico, analysts say, and is cutting thousands from its white-collar work force.
GM and Ford have won concessions from the United Auto Workers that will require active and retired workers to pick up more of their health care costs, and DaimlerChrysler AG is seeking similar concessions.
Thomas Klier, senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, says the transition for manufacturers toward leaner, lower-cost operations has been going on for some time. But the bankruptcy of the nation's largest auto supplier, Delphi Corp., pushed the issue into the headlines.
Its 34,000 hourly U.S. workers could see their pay cut from $27 an hour to less than half of that, although the company is still trying to work out a compromise unions will support. Workers also could have to pay health care deductibles for the first time and lose their dental and vision care coverage.
Delphi worker Michael Balls of Saginaw, Mich., hears the argument that U.S. companies' costs are too high to compete with plants that pay workers less overseas, but he doesn't buy it.
"I think if Delphi wins, they lose," he says. "If I'm making $9 an hour, I'm not making enough to buy vehicles."
Unfortunately for workers like Balls, the old rules no longer apply in the new global economy, says John Austin, a senior fellow with the Washington-based Brookings Institute.
"We're in a different ball game now," Austin says. "We're going to be shedding a lot of the low-education manufacturing jobs."
Some of those workers are likely to try to move into the growing service sector, Austin says. But he says the transition can be tough, even if the jobs pay as well as the ones they had -- and many don't.
"Pointing out a medical technician job is available if they go back and get a certificate doesn't solve the issue today for those 45-year-olds who are losing their jobs at Delphi," he said.
Dick Posthumus, a partner in an office furniture system manufacturing company in Grand Rapids, Mich., says that "basic, unskilled manufacturing is going to be done in China, India, places like that because we are in a global world, and there's nothing anyone can do about that."
His company, Compatico Inc., buys much of its basic parts from South Korea, Taiwan, Canada and China, where Posthumus has toured plants he says rival modern manufacturing plants in the U.S. But the company still saves its sophisticated parts-making and assembly for its Michigan plant.
"The manufacturing of tomorrow is going to look somewhat different from the manufacturing of yesterday," Posthumus says. "It doesn't mean that we no longer manufacture ... (But) it's going to be a painful adjustment."
Associated Press Writer Vicki Smith in Morgantown, W.Va., contributed to this story.
Oh Really?
Perot was promted on the LKL show as a presidential candidate when he was a political nobody. Perot later drops when he has a high level of support. Then Perot -- gee, golly gosh -- comes back in again when it has become almost impossible for him to win.
Bill Clinton then wins.
You don't think that's a circus -- I do.
You're a dupe.
Oh BTW, document the so-called dirty tricks, who did them and what named sources can prove who did them. Or did CNN not give you all those details.
What a dope you are.
How long does it take from the moment one is hired till one has reached this "highly skilled" level you are claiming is needed? How is it that that unionized plants like GM are producing a lower quality vehicle than plants in other parts of the US which have non-unionized, lower paid workers. The problem with Union's such as the auto workers is that their pay is not based on skill or demand, it is based on the ability of the Union to force a salary increase. In the days when the American Auto manufacturers had a monopoly on car sales it was easier to give in to the union and raise the price of cars, than to hold the line. The American Auto industry is now facing the consequences of that behavior. What the Auto workers make is not based on actual skill, but on the fact they are unionized.
"That's just tough luck for the overpriced worker. The criminal conspiracies known as labor unions now have exactly what they've been working for for the past 70 years at least."
And remember that unions are very profitable for the Mafia!
It is when doing so undermines your countrymen. That's kindof obvious, isn't it.. I mean, it goes without saying that selling secrets isn't treason either, until it extends to subversive activity, then you can hang for it. Amazing how that works isn't it. And the American public can be pretty fickle about treason. Some they imprison, some they deport, some they hang, shoot or even electrocute.. Gee, I rhymed.
Gee, I shop at Kroger for my Groceries, or at the local discount market that sells (gasp) american products. Is there some unwritten rule that people must shop at Walmart?
As for knowing my next argument... No, you didn't. I would have overlooked your references to social diseases as tangential non-issues. Which is what I'm about to do now, btw.
Getting good value for your money is fine. And it amazes me that such an argument is even brought up - largely because it isn't an argument. It's a soundbite. And a hollow one at that. It's a human thing to get the best price one can. It's just common sense everywhere but in the treason lobby that one doesn't sell out one's family, friends and neighbors to do so. That would be the morality thing kicking in again, something I'm aware challenges you to understand. Call it loyalty - you might come closer to understanding that concept. Betraying a loyalty is bad. You might say it in terms of being 'a device harmful to one's standing for murky reaons.' You know, a kind of treason.. lol
Where I live $9/hr is not even survival. It would be just the pay for 1 of several jobs I would have to get. Gov't likes importing...they can charge for import taxes, duties, etc. It makes them more powerful so that they can use their power to regulate american manufacturing out of existence.
"More work, less whining."
Only four words but it says more than a book!
Good, I'll be right over to hog tie you, prostrate you on the ground with 200 pounds on your back and then race you 100 yards for everything you own. If you can't compete, no fair whining about it. Oops, didn't say anything about fairness or a level playing field did we.. how obtuse of you. lost that one. wanna just mail me my winnings, or are you going to put up a fight now that you'll want to specify a fair fight...
..And you almost looked like you were making sense for a moment. Almost. Or is your conscience still telling you, stupidly, you were beaten, just mail him the stuff. If so, you need a transplant and psychiatric help. Fairness, is what tariffs bring - a balancing of the playing field so that .37 cent wages can't undermine our economy. Tariffs make .37 cents an hour into 5.53 an hour or higher depending on the competing interest in the field so that you aren't being undercut and the better product wins on an even playing field instead of a rigged field. This is pretty basic stuff that sheep understand. How is it that intellectual superiors are so ignorant of it as to look foolish?
Sometimes there are people on FR (and Fox News too) who work hard to put lipstick on a pig.
Which is why the Second Amendment has to be abolished. Confiscation cannot occur unless there is no constitutional safeguard against its happening. The abolition of the Second Amendment will also set a cultural precedent that will make confiscation more palatable to those more inclined to by the government lie of a globalist, market-based utopia.
Don't be surprised if this doesn't happen under a Republican administration. Those most likely to pull the plug on private ownership of firearms could very well be those who campaigned most stringently in its favor.
I would caution you, however. 200 million guns in the hands of 80 million armed citizens, or however those numbers play out, does not an army make.
Personally, you may be in high demand. That doesn't protect your position. The moment someone in China comes available, you will be expendable no matter how valuable you think your position is. It means nothing. You have no future and no right to your job, no expectation toward security - isn't that the treason lobby mantra... Who do you think you're kidding! That isn't a question. I watched irreplaceable people get replaced in droves. You are nothing special and are deluding yourself no matter what your area of expertise. The only people that aren't expendable are the ones at the head of the organization. And that won't last long if the chinese realize that the executives are costing the state too much.. If you think little guys are bolt turners and you aren't, you've got some learning to do. My job required problem solving skills and technical knowledge that not everyone has. I've talked to college grads who don't understand how windows really works but have it degrees. Theory and practical experience are a world apart. But so are American and Chinese workers, and that doesn't stop anyone from replacing you with a Chinese worker who knows the theory at .37 an hour. Wake up. You are a throwaway in denial in the face of your own arguments. If you're gonna parade the beast around as harmless, you best kiss it, cause it's got you too.
You aren't too bright are you. Did you bother to look at the actual circumstance you just rattled off, or are you merely paraphrasing a timeline you saw somewhere.
That depends entirely on the industry and areas of production. As one example, consider how skilled machinists can take a quite varied path:
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Good Machinists Have Inquiring Minds
By Dan O'Brien Jim Hazenstab pauses a moment before answering what led him to become a machinist: He always had intense curiosity about how machines worked. His route to becoming a machinist, though, was tougher than most. Diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD) at an early age, Hazenstab says most of his teachers couldn't see his academic ability as they wrote off his enthusiasm for tinkering with machines. "I was a classic case," says Hazenstab, now the president of Hazenstab Machine Inc., Salem. "I graduated high school with a 2.3 grade point average, but my IQ was 140." It wasn't until his senior year in high school that Hazenstab enrolled in courses that directly applied to the life of a machinist his father's chosen trade. "In my senior year, I was taking subjects I liked. I could understand the applications of trigonometry, chemistry and calculus because by that time I was practicing it," he recalls. All are important to understanding the fundamentals of the machinist trade, Hazenstab says. He was introduced to machining at age 12 by his father. By eighth grade, Hazenstab says, he was showing some of his shop teachers how to repair equipment. In 1977, the elder Hazenstab founded the company in Ellsworth, which machined parts mainly for the region's steel mills. "When the mills closed, business dropped off. By 1980, I was partners with my dad and was the only one in the shop. I don't think I was paid between 1980 and 1985," he says. Today business is much improved as his company machines components for a diverse range of customers in the electrical, steel and aluminum industries. While dollars were scarce, the experience proved invaluable, Hazenstab says. Although a vocational education may be a useful starting point for a machinist, many new graduates, fearing ridicule, won't ask questions. This, in many cases, is what separates good machinists from mediocre ones, he says. "My father used to say that there's only one stupid question, and that's the one you don't ask," Hazenstab remarks. "You have to want to learn this trade and have a basic desire to understand how things work." In addition to a vocational and technical education, Hazenstab says it usually takes between three and five years of on-the-job training until machinists fully master their craft. "You need creative talent, mechanical ability and a desire to make something," he says. Hazenstab Machine, which employs 18, has the capability of mass producing small machined parts through its computer numerically controlled (CNC) operations and prototype parts with the company's traditional lathes, grinders and mills, he says. On many occasions, trial and error is the best teacher when it comes to machining a part to perfection, Hazenstab says. One such project involved a prototype for General Electric Co., he recalls. "We developed several models before the part was right." The company worked in tandem with a GE engineer and the prototype took almost four years to complete. Ultimately, the component became an integral piece of GE's mass-production line for pressure-sodium light bulbs, he says. A good machinist learns from mistakes often his own, Hazenstab notes, and experience gradually helps improve the quality and speed of the work. "My dad used to say, 'If you're not making scrap, then you're not a good machinist.' You need to envision the part in your mind, figure out how it will work and then build it," he says. Despite the introduction of CNC equipment and other technological advances in the industry, machining is nevertheless an art form that depends heavily on individual talent, says Glen Beatty, a machinist at Mills Machine Co., Warren. Beatty, who entered the trade in 1972, says he's qualified to operate CNC machines but prefers to work with manual equipment such as grinders, lathes and mills. Since the company works strictly with close-tolerance prototypes and doesn't machine parts in quantity, CNC technology is not required at the shop. "We work with real close dimensions, and this takes an extreme amount of patience," he says. "There are things we've had to repair because they weren't done right the first time through a CNC machine." If he's working from an engineer's print, Beatty says he can probably make just about anything a customer wants. Therefore, today's machinist must maintain a high level of professional expertise, says Tom Rasey, Mills Machine's shop supervisor. "There's a big difference between someone who strictly runs a CNC machine and one who operates a manual machine. A lot of the guys coming out of school now are not taught the same skills as 20 years ago." A superior machinist, Rasey adds, is part engineer, part artist, part metallurgist and part inventor. "It goes beyond a skill. There's a certain gift to it." All these talents come into play when working on complex and sophisticated projects, Rasey notes. He points to a prototype part the company machined and built from scratch for a cutting line at Delphi Packard Electric Systems in Warren. In such cases, Mills Machine usually works with a Delphi engineer. Together they will decide on changes or improvements to the component. "When we get it done, we send them the model part and they'll build their own," he says. Such demands, however, make it increasingly difficult to find qualified employees in an extremely tight labor market, Rasey says. Most of the five employees at Mills Machine work part time, and many of them are retired machinists who devoted much their lives to the trade. "We've got some of the best machinists in the area working for us. There are a lot of people who call themselves machinists, but some don't even know how to turn on a machine," he states. Although employed by the industry since the 1970s, Beatty says it wasn't until 1990 that he earned the status of journeyman machinist, a classification conferred only when the worker has logged his requisite number of classroom and machine hours. "To become a journeyman machinist, it takes 144 hours of classroom time and 8,000 hours' machine time. It took me about four years," he elaborates. During such a program, a machinist's skill is monitored on just about every piece of equipment, including lathes, boring mills, drills, threaders and CNC mills. "Journeyman papers are as good as a college education," he says. Beatty adds he would have received his certification earlier except that the company he started with in the '70s didn't sponsor a journeyman program. Shop supervisor Rasey, who performs all the assembly work on the company's prototypes, says the average salary for a journeyman machinist is $15 an hour. "There's decent money to be made. It's one of the last skilled craftsman positions out there," he states.
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Have you read Samuel Johnson's, The Patriot?
Maybe not; but, it makes a lot of Buttholes and elbows gettin away from it. I'm not military; but, I can bulseye a still target dead center at 100yds with a .44 bulldog. I can bullseye a moving target at the same distance with the same gun repeatedly. And it's a tough weapon for me to control. I didn't grow up with a gun in my hands, I'm just a natural at it. And to be honest, there isn't much to aiming and firing a weapon. So, it isn't rocket science and anyone can do it. What makes an army is simple, injustice and determination. Our founders are proof of that.
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