Posted on 10/24/2014 2:47:29 AM PDT by grundle
The California city of Palmdale was ready to roll out the red carpet this summer when a Japanese company agreed to build a $60 million factory on a city-owned, vacant parcel on the southwest side of town -- but now the company is taking its project out of state and critics say union greed is to blame.
As many as 300 people were slated to work at the 400,000-square-foot plant, painting and wiring light rail cars under a huge contract with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It was a coup for Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford, and a plan that seemed to suit Kinkisharyo International, which last year moved its U.S. headquarters from Boston to El Segundo, Calif.
"I believe this is just the beginning of a manufacturing renaissance here in the Antelope Valley,” crowed Ledford in June.
“We’ve been waiting for this day for a long time,” added Palmdale Economic Development Director Dave Walter. “So many people and organizations played huge roles in making this a reality."
But a newly formed environmental group -- which critics say is a front for a local union -- had other ideas.
The "Antelope Valley Residents for Responsible Development," a group backed by the International Brotherhood Workers Union Local 11, produced a 588-page appeal claiming that construction of the proposed factory would violate state environmental laws, by, among other things, kicking up spores. What the union really wanted, according to Kinkisharyo officials, was clearance to organize the plant without any interference from the company. When Kinkisharyo officials balked, the project suddenly became a potential environmental hazard.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
You might ask the former union employees at the Maytag plant in Newton, Iowa. When the company ran into trouble, they didn’t do jack to help.
The plant is gone now.
but now the company is taking its project out of state and critics say union greed is to blame.>>>>>>>
Good for them.
Only if you assume that the plant would have unionized. IMHO the union’s demand/ultimatum for unfettered access to organize us a good indicator that the plant probably wouldn’t.
Iow those workers were probably never going to unionize anyway. So the union didn’t lose anything in that regard. What it gained was a better appreciation, particularly by the political class (who wanted the jobs, regardless of whether they were unionized or not), that it can be dangerous and is a powerful force to be reckoned with.
Kicking up what??? I bet a city in Texas would welcome 300 jobs...
What a shock. The union screws America workers again...
The Japanese company was not very smart in choosing California for their plant. Go South and receive less taxation (maybe none), less regulation, minimum union interference, fewer social problems, and greater profits. Plus rednecks make great employees.
The unions don’t care about jobs that don’t generate union dues. In fact they don’t want them.
Evidently you did not get the memo not to argue with FR's only Dem moderator.
nope, didn’t get that memo
These nations subsidize and have extensive public transport which allows them to export. In the case of these rail cars they provide a few piddling assembly jobs at the destination. Which allows you to argue about the crumbs
Your loyalty is to your ideology, not jobs.
We export passenger aircraft and the Ex-Im bank benefits the US manufacturers. But the ideological purists want to do away with ExIm.
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