By Mark William Darus
Wasn’t this the same kind of corporate behavior, perhaps even nonviolent psychopathic in nature with its lack of remorse, emotion and regret, that caused Unions to develop in the United States many decades ago? Lack of Job security, threat of you being replaced for cheaper labor? I am not saying that Unions are the end-all and be-all, but before the Reagan Admin crushed them , they did mean something. Of course, this didn’t stop GM from trashing Flint, Pontiac and other great cities of Michigan to build plants in Mexico. Sure, we’re not stupid. This move looked real good to those that clutched GM stock, didn’t it?
Didn’t our steel companies get sold out? Didn’t few, like Dennis Kucinich lobby Washington to bail out the Steel industrial power of the United States? I think, the steel industry was looking for a bail-out of like 700 million. I could be wrong on this figure. Sorry, but didn’t Dennis and others get tossed out and even laughed out of Washington DC?
Yet, through the BUSH II administration, we bailed out the Airlines for the second time for billions? Same administration: didn’t we bail out the banks for 7 billion dollars?
Through the Obama admin, we saved GM, Chrysler. Why did we allow this? Just about half of GM products are made and assembled in other countries, and most of those parts that make the vehicles were and are still manufactured on foreign soil.
When GM got the bail out bucks, didn’t they shut down dealerships across the country? Why is that relevant? Well, anyone that bought a GM product will most likely have to drive a heap ‘o miles further down the road for warranty service. Sure, to those of us that live in big, or excuse me, shrinking industrial cities, that may not mean a great deal. One the other hand, this could amount to many miles in the Heartland of the very country that gave billions in tax dollars to sustain them.
Major thanks to the FORD MOTOR company for not accepting nor wanting any part of that madness. They survived many recessions and the big depression in the United States.
Keep this in mind: The American Steel Industry: One of the of the few remaining things that can proudly state: Made in America, has comeback from hibernation. Areclor Mittal Steel. Founder: Lakshmi Mittal, India.
Honda: American plants beginning in Marysville. Japan based.
More recently: KIA motors. South Korea. Plant in Georgia, USA 2009. Currently heading toward their phase II, expanding beyond their Sorento and Optima, they expect to have most of their vehicles made here. Funny how the percentage of KIA vehicle parts are double that of so-called American car parts.
Let’s look at the vast array of jobs in the USA. Service sector, phone work, retail stores, dying malls, online sales, shrinking government employment, State, county, city jobs getting cut or phased out.
As the US’s economy went ‘Kerplunk’, didn’t Wall street get a bit antsy? Didn’t the share holders call, and still do, the shots companies would follow to maintain confidence?
It was like Elitist, On-High board members said: SHIT? What are we gonna do? Our stock is tanking?
Some smart junior exec said: I have a solution! Let’s hire a butt load of people just above minimum wage and train them. Yeah, this will cost in the short-fall, but build confidence in the 12 month stretch. We spin it like this: “We’ve hired X-thousand employees in the last 12 months!”
Grumpy, last decades CEO asks: “how’s that going to do anything but cost us more?”
Beaming, looking for either huge bonus or a senior exec spot says firmly: “As the newbies get trained fully, we just find ways of terminating employees of long standing and high pay and do not make this known to public. We can learn from such financial disasters like Circuit City, cutting tenured yet offering placement a month from chucking them. Perception is reality: We hired this many! No one ever asks how many we shit-canned. We can get two for one in today. Perhaps take this further with part-time help that won’t qualify for health care! Think about it!”
Most on the board smiling at this, agree at the suggestion. They implement this.
And a snowball grows across the United States as our economy goes further downhill.
Yes, I believe it started that simply. Like a virus, it spread out in profound proportions. It continues to do so. It will continue until some radical event occurs in our country.
It is my belief this ‘radical event’ will not occur, but it is my sincere hopes it does.
Just some statistics of the lands of this Earth….
How long have these recognized countries been around?
China: 211 BC. 2233 years in existence.
Ukraine: 882 AD, with villages going back to 4500 BC.
Japan: 660 BC. 2672 years in existence.
Germany: 962 years
Canada: 447 years.
Rome: 753 BC. 2765 years in existence.
India: 7000 BC.
South America: 990 BC.
Mexico: 7000 BC
Russia: first Tsar: 862.
Iceland 874 AD.
Ireland 1606 AD
United States of America: 1776 AD. 236 years if you do not include the Native American Indians time before Christopher Columbus landed here.
In the scheme of things, we in the United States are but a group of angst filled teenagers. Heaving about with protruding chests and an armed ability to waste the globe with our military power.
Should we as a people be proud? Absolutely!
Should we disregard other nations and their opinions as they differ from ours? We SHOULD NOT though we often do. We like to buy our friends and preach to them to wonders of freedom and Capitalism.
The very same Capitalism that has been embraced by our government and fueled by Wallsreet as it further infests and propels our economic structure to ship more jobs overseas.
Statistics lie America. When we talk of unemployment, know this: When you lose your unemployment benefits you are no longer part of unemployment statistics. This means your lack of working, feeding yourself and family DO NOT COUNT and are not recognized.
How many of you have lost jobs that you have had tenure, years with, because of either plants moving out of the United States or them finding reasons to terminate your employment as they hire many to cover your position as a fraction of the wage you earned?
My investigation begins.
Mark William Darus 08192012
Be glad to comment..... seeing as I am 36 years into one of the industries that has taken a big hit: the steel industry.
ReplyDeleteThere is a one word answer that explains it all: GREED. It is the material equivalent to the term immediate gratification, which in the manufacturing/business/any sector means five years or less.
People blame the union workers, the greedy autoworkers, steelworkers, iron workers, brick layers, and other unionized trades and crafts. In the service area, you have the communication workers, nurses, food service workers, etc., while in the public sector you have firefighters, police, and teachers. On the latter, I think it is a crying shame that those responsible for education the next generation make so little compared to the athletes who get paid to sit on their asses for breaching their contracts (Kellen Winslow), doing drugs (too many to mention), raping (Kobe Bryant), and beating their wives.
As a third generation steelworker, it saddens me that the largest steel company in the world is owned by an Indian. We are under negotiations now for a new contract. We are the lowest man-hour per ton producer of steel in the WORLD, with no government subsidies and a shitload of pollution control devices (which generate no money whatsoever).
The electronics industry will rue the day that they farmed out all their chip production to China, the biggest perpetrator of industrial espionage and computer spying in the world. All who use computers with these foreign-made chips (and that includes the US government) will shit when they realize that there is a spy in the machine.
Too few remember what happened in Cuba when Castro nationalized all the companies. No more private industry there. It could happen again in any of hundreds of third-world countries and emerging markets.
You mention all the auto jobs that were shipped to Mexico and yet there are millions of illegal immigrants in this country working under the radar. Seems to me that shipping jobs south of the border didn't do much for the Mexican economy either. I can't help but wonder how much of this was created by the auto execs who decided to shutter US plants in search of bigger profits.
In closing, I would like to state this emphatically: IT IS NOT THE UNION WORKERS WHO CREATED THIS PROBLEM AND I, FOR ONE, AM TIRED OF BEING BASHED, CALLED GREEDY AND SELFISH. We have no decision-making power in the companies that employ us. Unions were born out of management's inability to manage fairly; injury and death on the job, unequal wages, and inhuman working conditions all played a role in their birth.
I challenge anyone to work the hours we do (24/7), weekends, holidays, in 100+ degree heat and bone-numbing cold, in dust and grime, and the ever-present dangers present in almost any industrial plant. You think we're overpaid and under worked? Walk in our steel toed work boots and then decide.
thank you, Holly: USA USW
ReplyDeleteHolly: You are so right. Greed. you mention athletes making huge dollars. Mark has stated the United States places more emphasis on them they would daycare workers. Sure, scream outrage as a sportsplayers gets only a few million yet those that watch children get zilch. You are a thinking woman, smart and expressive.
ReplyDeleteMark: As you have always done since you started P:AL, you have a mind and are not afraid to use it. Bravo!
-Tabitha.