Hundreds of people worked their final shifts Friday at a Whirlpool Corp. refrigerator factory in southern Indiana that has been the site of protests over its closure.
The Evansville plant's production line was shutting down after turning out refrigerators for 54 years, meaning the loss of some 600 jobs. About 450 other workers were laid off in March when Whirlpool ended its second production shift.
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The company announced last year that it would shut down the factory and move production to Mexico. Whirlpool will still have a presence in the city, with 300 employees at its refrigeration design center.
Months of protests over the closing plans didn't change the decision, which executives of the Benton Harbor, Mich.-based company said was needed to reduce costs and streamline its operations.Some 1,500 people joined AFL-CIO national President Richard Trumka for march outside the factory in February protesting the decision, which some workers attributed to corporate greed.
Out of curiosity, I wonder how many of the 1500 protesters bought one product over the other because of the price?
Would they consider themselves greedy for that?
More......
1 comment:
I feel bad for the rank and file. They ARE the victims of corporate greed---union corporations. You see, I consider large unions to be coprorations and they are subject to tendencies of greed as much as any institution they fight.
One major flaw in the design of today's unions, particularly in manufacturing, is the inability to recognize that their employer must do well in order for the rank and file to be sustained for the long term.
When times are good, they hook into long term contracts that are unsustainable in lean times. Then when the lean times come, they are inflexible. This is what ran GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy. Had the taxpayers not been forced by Obama to bail out those companies, every union rank and file would be out of a job and every pensioner would have no income.
I suspect the same thing has happened on a smaller scale with Whirlpool. But they are not big enough to get the bailout so their jobs just go away.
Had they not moved manufacturing to mexico, I wonder if even the design department would have kept their jobs. And I wonder if the design dept is even unionized. Probably not. But I bet that they were asked to take consessions, and they probably did so. Frustrating for them, sure. But when individuals are allowed to make their own choices most would decide to take a pay cut than have no job at all. Live to fight another day, maybe switch to a more healthy company, wait for the economy and still draw some pay, if not the same pay.
Here unions have forced people out of a job completely. Maybe not by direct intent, but by failure to recognize reality.
And I have one major action to take for anyone who thinks that whirlpool is making too much profit: buy stock in the company!!! Don't just sit on the sidelines complaining that the world isn't fair. Participate man! Then you can make money when the corpooration makes money. In this country, a bum on the street can own a piece of corporate america. In the case of Whirlpool they make refrigerators; one of the most useful and important of consumer goods. What is more american than owning a piece of such a company?
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