Posted on 06/17/2010 5:28:23 AM PDT by Dadofmany
BY MOLLY MCMILLIN The Wichita Eagle Photos « 1 of 1» . Jaime Green/The Wichita Eagle | Buy this photo The Machinists union held rally on June 16, 2010 at the Holiday Inn Select at 549 S. Rock Road to protest plans by Wichita aircraft manufacturers to outsource jobs.
Machinists rally
Click here to see the video in full screen or to e-mail to a friend. Wichita aviation jobs are under attack more than ever, a top Machinists leader told workers attending a union rally Wednesday afternoon.
Bombardier, Cessna Aircraft and Hawker Beechcraft all are outsourcing work to Mexico and elsewhere.
"This is the birthplace of general aviation," Machinists aerospace coordinator Ron Eldridge told those gathered in the hot sun for a rally at the Holiday Inn Select hotel near Kellogg and Rock Road.
Union members from across Wichita — many of them carrying signs reading "Jobs Worth Fighting For" — attended the rally to protest the practice of outsourcing and to get an update on negotiations between the Machinists and Spirit AeroSystems.
Members vote June 25 at Century II on whether to accept the company's offer. Polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. until 6 p.m.
The current contract expires that day. Machinists represent about 6,000 Spirit hourly workers.
Talk at the rally first concerned Mexico.
In Wichita, Bombardier is outsourcing its Learjet 85 to Mexico, Cessna is sending work from its Prospect plant to Mexico, and Hawker Beechcraft has closed its Salina plant and notified the union it is stepping up efforts to outsource more work, said Machinists District 70 president Steve Rooney.
"Where's our mayor? Where's our governor?" Rooney shouted from the podium. "They've got to step up and recognize this is a serious issue."
Rooney urged workers to contact their congressional delegation.
Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/06/17/1364287/aviation-workers-rally-to-protest.html#storylink=omni_popular#ixzz0r71dP9UU
(Excerpt) Read more at kansas.com ...
For once, I am on the union side.
Enough with the outsource.
Let’s outsource business “leaders” instead.
It appears that our current crop are clones of Dilbert’s pointy head boss.
Oh, and while we’re at it - if they’ve got MBAs, fire them.
If they’ve got Harvard MBAs, first torture, then kill them.
This is one of the biggest Keyensian blindspots.
Ditto
I can see this coming like storm clouds in the distance.
As we stumble along with continued double-digit unemployment into 2012, the Ross Perot “giant suckin’ sound” caucus re-assembles and re-launches a third-party candidacy over the issues of outsourcing, NAFTA and GATT.
All well and good, except that it will lead to a 2nd. term for Obama on a 42% plurality.
These people are kind of moronic.
Let’s see, “We’ve made ourselves non-competitive in terms of pricing our services to you, our potential employers, so we are going to protest YOU!”
Would outsourcing have anything to do with being competitive within your industry?
Since the USA has one of, if not the highest corporate tax rate in the world, why does anyone have issues with outsourcing when that might be the only way for the particular industry to survive.
Once again government is the problem not the solution.
Along those lines, with the border situation with Mexico, as President I would cut off all Mexican outsourcing, and prohibit movement of factories etc, until the Mexican government is on board with a real border and the same rules they use against others, apply to the US border. No aid no nutin until compliance, and that includes fence building to keep your citizens IN. Got it?
“Jobs Worth Fighting For”
How much you want to bet their answer is to strike?
You want fries with that, Moron ?
it’s the responsibility of the govt, local, state and federal, to create an environment friendly to economic development.
Our governments have made it all but impossible for businesses to grow, build and thrive with an outrageous taxation and regulatory atmosphere that acts as a bodyguard with a stick, punishing anyone that dares to seek the dream.
Larger companies can afford the armies of lobbyists and lawyers required to traverse the labyrinthine regulations that force them to make deals with the devil to get exemptions and crate loopholes that all but stifle smaller business.
Outsourcing is a reasonable response to the outright hostile attitude in this country toward anyone seeking a profit and to make a living outside the government sector.
Unless the unions start to support candidates that make it easier for companies to hire, business to grow and prosper, I will not shed a tear for any union job lost. As a whole, they threw in with the American hating Democrats and now they reap what they sow.
If these same union workers hadn't unionized in the first place, they might be on much better footing to keep their jobs right now. Bad decisions have bad consequences.
Union idiocy is but one of the toxic ingredients destroying our manufacturing economy. The idiocy is manifested by unreasonable wage demands, unsustainable health care and pension benefits, and generally poor work habits by an uninspired work force. Other ingredients include excessive federal regulation of the industry, excessive litigation, rising relative costs of energy and raw materials, and poor executive management. Finally, once parts of an industry starts the outsourcing process, it tends to drag all of the component industries with it.
Given all of these factors, it’s no wonder industry is leaving the country.
Really? This is the first time ever? B.S.! You either pay union dues or live off union dues to stick your neck out and make that claim over this lame of a story.
Oh you can't do that, the industry will go to pot, and all those jobs will be lost.
What they really meant to say was: Oh no you can't do that or our bonuses will be cut.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2536020/posts
Congressman, former Presidential candidate, and rock-ribbed conservative veteran Duncan Hunter last week, on China:
“And so China is stepping into the superpower shoes that the Soviet Union left, clearly. And our ‘optimists’, including those who have lots of commercial transactions with China, involve themselves in pollyannish discussions about how the Chinese are going to be a benign trading partner and will ultimately be a cooperative member of the Western economic community, and will not be a belligerent with respect to security issues. It’s rubbish.
“The problem is neither one of those ‘hopes’ - and that’s all they are is ‘hopes’ - are being realized. The Red Chinese are hitting us with a sledge hammer in terms of taking our manufacturing base away from us. They are not interested in realistically valuating their currency. They are maintaining a major advantage in trade as a result of that. And they are maintaining their value added tax which they use to subsidize their own exports to us and to penalize our exports to them.
“And with the new found cash which they are receiving from the United States, they’re purchasing sophisticated military equipment from the Russians and they are making lots of making lots of military equipment themselves.
“Red China is fast becoming a military superpower and every now and then we get jolted back to reality as we did when that American aircraft was forced down and they pried open the cockpit with bayonets. These folks are tough. They’re brutal. They’re communists. They brutalize their own people. And they are not necessarily an extremely stable government.
I support these union workers. Lots of freepers are too stupid to see the difference between them and gubbermint unions. They just lump all unions together so as not to stress their minds too much. Outsourcing...not a big deal to them. These union workers are tax payers not tax eaters
Its nice to live on a cloud
All unions are enemies of economic freedom. You are correct that government unions are even more onerous because taxpayers have no representative to offset the excess demands of labor cartels. The excesses of public sector unions do not diminish the evils of private sector unions.
Labor cartels exist solely to control the supply and price of labor. They obtain this power through government with favorable laws that compel employers to deal with labor cartels and compel individuals to join labor cartels.
Labor cartels alone are not the reason for outsourcing but they are a major cause. Their onerous demands on compensation and work rules make firms non competitive. Government policies involving taxes and regulations also encourage outsourcing although labor cartels support most of these policies. Labor cartels are vigorously supporting legislation that will enhance their power at the expense of consumers and taxpayers. The only alternative is to outsource production and employment.
“They took our jerbs!”
Bombardier Canadian company. So...folks in Wichita are protesting against a Canadian company for outsourcing their outsourced jobs. Huh?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.