THE WORKING MAN'S PLIGHT
GM Employees Face News of Layoffs
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The Doraville Assembly Plant in Doraville, Ga., is one of nine plants in North America that General Motors plans to close by 2008..
Morning Edition, November 22, 2005 · General Motors has announced that it will cut 30,000 jobs by 2008 and stop production at nine assembly, power train and stamping plants.
Now, its workers are coming to grips with the idea that they may lose their jobs, and questions remain about how much the cuts will help the struggling automaker going forward.
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GM's big shakeup
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| NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - General Motors Corp. said Monday it would cut 30,000 hourly jobs and close or scale back operations at about a dozen U.S. and Canadian locations in a bid to save $7 billion a year and halt huge losses in its core North American auto operations.
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PAINFUL
Ford slashes 28% of its work force in sweeping bid to save itself
Bill Vlasic and Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News
Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News
"We will be making painful sacrifices to protect Ford's heritage and secure our future," says Ford Motor Co. Chairman and CEO Bill Ford Jr., center. He discusses the cuts with, from left, Mark Schulz, group vice president of Asia Pacific; Mark Fields, president of Ford's the Americas Division; Jim Padilla, president and chief operating officer; and Don Leclair, chief financial officer of Ford Motor Co. in America.
Michigan House Speaker Craig DeRoche, R-Novi, left, and Moe Leon, owner of Leon's Food and Spirits, talk on Monday at the restaurant as disheartened employees from the plant trickled in.
The 49-year-old Wixom plant will close next year. But UAW President Ron Gettelfinger predicts a showdown at the Big Three-UAW national contract talks in 2007 over the elimination of jobs and factories.
DEARBORN -- Ford Motor Co. is staking its future on the success of a gut-wrenching restructuring of its North American operations that will dramatically downsize the No. 2 U.S. automaker.
Mired in one of the deepest crises in its 102-year history, Ford on Monday unveiled its long-awaited "way forward" plan to slash up to 30,000 manufacturing jobs, cut 4,000 salaried employees and shutter 14 factories -- including its assembly plant in Wixom.
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Chrysler Restructuring Includes 13,000 Layoffs, Closing Of Plants
By Tom Granahan, Editor-In-Chief, Manufacturing.net
Manufacturing.Net - February 14, 2007
DaimlerChrysler Wednesday unveiled its eagerly anticipated restructuring program, announcing a reduction in employees of 13,000 over the next few years and the closing of it Newark Assembly Plant. The struggling automaker also said it will reduce total capacity by 400,000 units, and explore further strategic options with partners.
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Kraft To Lay Off 6,000, Close 20 Plants
Milwaukee Business Journal January, 2004
Kraft Foods Inc. said Tuesday that it will lay off 6,000 jobs, or 6 percent of its workforce, and close 20 plants worldwide following sluggish sales and earnings for the food company.
By my count that is eighty-three thousand jobs lost in this country. I did not add Fords 28 percent because I do not know their employee numbers but that only increases the number of people losing a job. And now our government wants to let an estimated twelve million illegal immigrants remain in this country, taking jobs away from Americans who have lived here their entire lives.
This government also wants to let another two hundred thousand more come in each year further depriving American citizens of jobs they will do.
They like to say that Americans will not do yard work but when I was in Texas the local city government had made it impossible for anyone to do it other than the illegal workers. Do you remember when a boy could take a lawn mower and make some money cutting lawns in his neighborhood? Well, they are not allowed to do that anymore in some Texas cities because they want the Mexicans to do it. The local governments told the kids they had to have a license and insurance if they wanted to mow lawns. How it works is like this, someone who is legal will get the license and insurance and then hire a bunch of illegals to do the work.I have seen illegal immigrants working at construction sites where homes are being built and they were framing the houses, doing the finish work on them, installing carpeting and hardwood, pouring the concrete slabs, and laying bricks. These are all jobs I have seen Americans do and do them with pride. What the government is telling you is a lie and they are doing it because the people who have large financial stakes in getting very low paid workers are working behind the scenes to get someone to work this cheaply for them with our government’s approval.
These types of corporations do not care about America or our future as long as they can make a bigger profit margin today.All I want to know is, what is it going to take for Americans to wake up to the fact that this government is selling out everything that our ancestors worked to give us to big business and foreign countries? Are we willing to just set by and let them do this?
I want to ask another question, Why is the illegal immigration from Mexico only an American responsibility? The millions of people who have broken our laws are thumbing their nose at us as they demand our government and country accommodate them. Why don’t they go back to Mexico and use the same energy there to demand their government provide jobs and end corruption as they use here to demand we let them break our laws and provide them a job?I am sick of hearing the argument that it is our responsibility to provide illegal immigrants jobs. It is Mexico ’s responsibility for that and it is not our place to accommodate those who would break our laws and yet demand access to our education system, health care, and jobs. We can’t even offer everyone in America good heath care and we want to give it to people who break our laws?!!! I am amazed that Americans are standing by and watching this happen.
If they want our advice on how to get some business going in Mexico let them ask but do not come here illegally and demand that we provide you a job because that is way over the line. But if you go back to the top of this article I am writing, you will see they may not want to ask about how to run a successful business from some in this country. The officers are talking about painful cuts to be experienced but I can safely say they will not feel that pain, it will be Joe Sixpack who feels it and when he tries to find another job he won’t be able to because there will be an illegal immigrant or a guest worker already doing it.
