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.
How about this perspective. Assuming the government continues to cut programs, entitlements, etc. a certain percentage of folks will re-evaluate their relationship with their country. Where, they will ask themselves, does loyalty reside: with the multi-national firm that puts food on the table or the country that offers no assurances?
You can mis-identify me or others any way you choose, as it is apparently your inclination to proceed and make decisions on the basis of false data and your own pre-conceived notions. You seem to be particularly adept at constructing straw persons, and then knocking them down. Bully for you.
You've taken the amoral stand that money and greed justifies all actions, however remote, without any regulation whatsoever. I don't think you have a clue as to the implications of your economic philosophy, but maybe you should consider Albert Speer. It would seem you and he have a lot in common on the pure economic level. I challenge you to distinguish yourself from him among anything you've stated up to this point.
I am not afraid of such competition.
Oh well bully for you.
I am worthy of freedom.
And bully for you again. (Sheesh.)
I accept the risks.
Bully, bully, bully for you, you, YOU! I think we can get the picture. Allow me to summarize: independent and supremely in command of your awesome powers and recognition of your own vast accomplishments, you really should congratulate yourself. No problems with your self-confidence or ego, I think we can all agree (smile).
I don't think I am talking to someone like that and, frankly, I try to limit my contact with such people. Rail away if you like but it's not my job to educate you.
Yeah right. Don't let me or anyone else stop you from running away from your own defeats (smile).
No, your real calling in life was to be a business mogul. I highly recommend that you start your own IT company. I further recommend that you stick to your principle's and limit all your employee hires to American citizen's. You will hire only American's, and you will pay only what your new hires expect to earn, regardless of what they are worth. Give them a true "middle class" "living wage". Don't be excessive with the benefits and retirement plan, but don't be greedy in that respect either.
You will become the new model for business in America. If you are right -- banks, venture capitalists, and all manner of eager investor's will beat a path to your door fighting with each other for the chance to bury you in operating cash.
Any further time spent on FR outlining your brilliant business sense, and novel economic ideas, will only provide an opportunity for some other Freeper to steal your plan.
Don't waste another minute here, get that company started and become the beacon for all future American business.
P.S. Stop by when your new IT company is ready for it's IPO and let us know the how we can buy into your new business model. We will eagerly await your return, and you will have a chance to "show up" all the other Freeper's who may have thought you didn't know what the heck you were ranting about. Yes, you will finally have the upper-hand after your new company rockets to to the top of the markets.
/s
Agreed.
Where would be the Western civilization without thinking and debates?
And you should debate the general issues here or anywhere else for that matter. I'm not advocating any different for anyone else. For my personal, individual circumstances, with my limited time I prefer to work on a one-on-one basis, informed by the thinking and debates I've already had with my friends. This is simply how I choose to spend my time, and choose my battles against leftist ideology. You want to debate the general issues instead, and I respect that and encourage the open discussion. I believe there is ample room and need for both actions amongst conservatives. Conservatives are still vastly outnumbered in the world, there's plenty of work left to accomplish.
"Loyalty"? You expect that people will be loyal to such multi-national firms? What about getting the maximum gain from them in exchange for as little as possible? And ruining them if it brings some personal benefit?
People tend to be loyal to the hand that feeds them.
This is the solution.
They pay the government for that service in the form of taxes, both directly through corporate income taxes and property taxes, and indirectly through the income and payroll taxes of their employees. It is quite an expense they pay for that "deal".
I would rather think they'd approve of yours. But, that sort of nonsense doesn't address the issues, does it.
Right out of the dishonest, "I don't have a leg to stand on" debate playbook. What's next, picking on my mom?
Is she a math major too?
People don't exist to enrich businessmen. It is a two way street. But you come from the mindset that seems to believe that people owe you a living and owe themselves an uphill climb to get you there while they retreat ever lower each year to keep you going higher. That is the mindset of the corporation today. Filling people with psychobabble and hollow promises never intended to be kept in order to greese the wheels of the machinery and keep it going - never disaffecting people with the truth.. only with burnout as they discover the truth for themselves over time. That is why "corporation" is a curse word in america. And that's why nobody who's worked for one, by and large, wants anything to do with another when they leave one. It's a scam. But, do entertain us with more of your one sided story.
Why would I? You're asking me to aggree that your assumption is reasonable; but, you haven't established that it is. Nor have you established that Unions twist the arms of non-union companies to offshore. One truly wonders how that works, exactly. I won't agree to something you can't establish. And as I've noted, when foreign labor is cheaper than minimum wage, it's hardly the fault of unions that businesses are chosing foreign labor. It's predictable and our forefathers
understood that. They understood a great deal - seeing the ruin mega companies would inflict on the country and the like.
But, I suppose our founders are now all socialist/marxist/communist because they largely decry what you're pushing.
As for using the phrase "treason lobby", I'm sure you don't like it. I on the other hand prefer to use language apt to the task in making my points. I'm sure the dems don't like it when Coulter applies it to them; but, it makes a salient and valid point that they won't face up to any more than you will. On the other hand, sometimes you can shame people by displaying their wrongdoing for them. Some are beyond shame. I'm aware it is useless for people beyond shame. But it helps us to see who they are.. at long last.
Had to cry to mommy? Whatever are you talking about.
As for your attempts at verbal abuse as an excuse for argumentation. It doesn't work on me. Invest in an IQ and defend a position or shut up for your own sake. If you intend to waste energy on defamation, epithets and the like, you'll be doing just that - wasting *your* time.
What, we're supposed to make like nice democrats and redefine language now to make you happy?
Give it up. You're fighting a losing battle. These things have to be allowed to reach critical mass.
Ah, yes, another non-argument. Now that the treason lobby has
put competition to work forcing everyone else to commit treason just to stay alive - now you would like someone else to do it the right way and compete with those subverting "the right way" in a manner that beats them by paying more and charging more than Chinese and indian labor. IE, you rig the game and want me to beat you in order to show that I know better than you. You can't expect that everyone is that blind and stupid. Perhaps that logic made sense to you. If it did, I'd recommend therapy or an introduction to logic. At the very least, you need to stop wasting your time with goofyness.
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