The town that NAFTA killed

[Lefty48197]

http://www.freep.com/news/mich/fridge17_20040117.htm

Electrolux AB has announced that they are closing their plant in Greenville, Michigan, and moving their manufacturing operations to Mexico. The plant manufactures Frigidaire refridgerators and Eureka vacuum cleaners. The Greenville plant closing will result in a loss of 2700 jobs in a community of 8000 people.
The move comes despite the fact that the state of Michigan has offered 120 million dollars in incentives to keep the plant in Michigan. Greenville has offered land and a new building worth 30 million, and the UAW has offered 31 million dollars in annual concessions.
The company has chosen to move their facility to Mexico anyways.

"Nationwide, there are now just 14.5 million manufacturing jobs, down nearly 10% since the beginning of the recession in March 2001".

It's past time to wake up America. Our very lifestyles are at stake. Even if our jobs don't move to Mexico (or China), our neighbors' jobs will. Our friends' jobs will. Our family members' jobs will.

What do you think is going to happen to our jobs, when all of the people around us are unemployed?

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

1. who gets the "freedom" from these "free trade" agreements?

It seems like the only people with the "freedom" to trade jobs back and forth to get the cheapest labor is the rich - the investors and CEOs and stockholders. Has it done any good for the rest of us (you know, the majority of people that work for a living).

[Deja Q]

3. Did Clinton know what he was doing when he signed NAFTA into being?

Bush certainly knows and has openly supported it while openly attacking US workers...

Bush is an insulting little babboon...

But Clinton may or may not be as 'left' as everybody thinks him to be. :-(

[Deja Q]

2. Well, some will get into retail - which is the current economic boom,

apart from the fucking war.

Those who can't get into retail because of those godawful insipid personality profiling forms will be homeless or worse.

And remember, look up which Dem candidates support NAFTA, CAFTA, and the FTAA. I can think of at least one...

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. I was born in Greenville in '51

it was a nice little town then. I heard something on NPR about this, and heard a guy say "I didn't vote in 2000. I didn't know my job was at stake. I'm voting this time."

Folks, we all have to vote. Not only jobs, but our very freedom is at stake. America as we know it, with Constitutional protections, will disappear, and we'll have an authortarian state with strong right-wing Christian overtones.

[madrchsod]

5. what really fuck`n pisses

me off is that the price of any of these products won`t drop one fuck`n penny. fuck over the us worker and their towns. 14.5 million jobs left in manufacturing , i wonder how many will be left by the time politions wake up and do something. i wouldn`t bet the farm that they ever will..

[lovedems]

9. Right, Now that Levi's are solely made overseas, have you seen a drop

in the price? I haven't. They are still just as expensive as any other pair of name brand jeans.

It isn't cost cutting, it is profit gaining.

[kalian]

11. Yup...

and what about automobiles...?
Where are the "economies of scale" that were to be reached by
trimming down the one controllable variable: salaries and wages...?
:shrug:

[Fire]

15. I'd say

this pretty much crosses party lines. Politicians, both democratic and republican won't do anything about it as long as the people paying for their elections are benefiting from it.

[Fovea]

6. I think maybe

everyone in the town should take their old electrolux vacs, and burn them in the town square. Then go buy another brand.

[yankeeinlouisiana]

7. Oreck (sp?) vacuum cleaners

are still made in Louisiana. And you get a free cordless iron!

[Systematic Chaos]

8. Nice to know they include a free cordless iron with their $500 vacuum.

Now, I know Oreck's are supposed to be good, but when I get a new vacuum it will be one for around $150 at Target... not an Oreck.

[mars_clover]

12. Your attitude...

"Now, I know Oreck's are supposed to be good, but when I get a new vacuum it will be one for around $150 at Target... not an Oreck."

Why do you think the American made version costs $500 and the Target version costs $150?

Your attitude is precisely why jobs are fleeing this country. People won't pay the $500 needed to support an American wage and benefit package when they can spend $150 to support a Chineese wage and "benefit package".

We, as a country, are screwed. About the only way I can see us being able to compete globally is if someone took a magical sword and cut all wages and costs by 75% - just magically deflated the entire U.S. Economy by 75%. Of course the guys holding your home and car notes aren't going to be willing to blow off 75% of what you owe them, so that will never happen.

Clover

[Township75]

13. I sure hope I won't hear you complaining about the US jobs issue then...

no offense, but your approach is exactly why that company packed up and went to Mexico. They realize enough people just want the lowest price, and don't consider who makes them, and more importantly for the US, who does not.

I will pay more money for US products, provided they don't have a reputation of breaking easily. Essentially, I recover some of the money I spend, because it goes to US workers who make a decent wage, get their income taxed and some of which I will see in good roads, hospitals, schools and so forth.

[kalian]

10. What will happen to those unemployed....?

they'll all be drafted into the new imperial army...
Any questions...?

[InkAddict]

14. For proper prospective

isn't *Selected supposed to offer the same $$ for job re-training at community colleges across all 50 states, and Michigan alone tried to save American jobs with that $ figure all by themselves?