As Factory Jobs Disappear, Workers Have Few Options

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/13/national/13JOBS.html?hp

<snip>
Ask laid-off workers what is to blame for the woes, and they point to imports, low wages in China, the strong dollar, production moving overseas, President Bill Clinton for embracing the North American Free Trade Agreement and President Bush for focusing only recently on the crisis.

Robert White, a laid-off steelworker who voted for Mr. Bush three years ago, said: "He's slowly getting his eyes awakened to what's going on. The air has been going out of the balloon for a long time, and he's trying to stop it. But the air is almost out of the balloon."

<snip>

Some Ohioans predict that the state could swing to the Democrats in the election next year.

"This is a fairly conservative state," Professor Russo said, "and last time, it went 3 percent for Bush. But I think there will be an electoral response to all these jobs losses, and Bush gets beat here."

[cherryperry]

1. This is exactly

what Kucinich was talking about!

I certainly hope this does cause Ohio to vote democratic, but what a terrible price to pay before they've perhaps awakened, eh?

[jburton]

2. Ohio not a 'red' state in 2004

"In three years, Ohio has lost more than 160,000 factory jobs, representing one-sixth of its total.

Robert White, a laid-off steelworker who voted for Mr. Bush three years ago, said: "He's slowly getting his eyes awakened to what's going on. The air has been going out of the balloon for a long time, and he's trying to stop it. But the air is almost out of the balloon." "

[PurityOfEssence]

3. Jobless recovery: Junior checks into Betty Ford in late January 2005

Aren't these ingrates supposed to be buying lots of stuff to show our resolution in the face of the terr-ists?

But the markets are coming back. But...but...

[Dover]

4. What angers me is that the government KNEW this was going to happen

so why weren't transitional programs put into place for retraining, re-education, etc.??
You can't just cut people's legs out from under them and have no options available to them! If they don't think this will lead to a major civilian uprising, I think they have miscalculated.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

5. Misplaced workers

I teach at a community college; one that takes pride in teaching new skills and finding jobs for displaced workers such as these.
Usually, we do a fairly decent job, execpt lately we haven't had the money to offer classes that these folks need at a time they can take them.
Our budget problem is bad. I live in a state where we have had over 20% loses from the manufacturing sector this year alone statewide, over 50% in some counties. These people have homes to pay for and families to feed and clothe. Who thinks of them? How can we help them if we don't have the money to pay teachers and keep classes open to accomodate them?
Certainly not Bush.

[Dover]

6. Welcome to DU BlackVelvetElvis! Exactly. There are NO funds, NO

programs, NO safety nets, NO JOBS!!

Should they all move to India and China to find work?

[lcordero]

7. Welcome to DU, BlackVelvetElvis

Sorry to hear that

[madrchsod]

10. hello ..great name

things aren`t good where i`m at..and if you`re over 55 forget it. the only thing keeping me afloat is my wife has a good job and we have good savings.i would go to the local college for the older worker placement but there`s guys that are alot worse than i am. but it still sucks not being able to at least to get a chance at finding another job in what i`ve done all my life.i`ve been thru this crap since 73 but this is the worse i`ve seen..there is no hope that the leadership has a clue or cares......

[jiacinto]

8. Unfortunately factory jobs have been "disappearing" for

years. This is nothing new.

[madrchsod]

11. but what is new

is that bush doesn`t give a shit if people are working or not. at least during the 70`s thru 90`s there was a sence that there was a chance of getting a job and the economy would pick up,not this time,remember this guy has lost more jobs since the depression and by and large those jobs are gone and there is no investment for new jobs. what new tech. will produce the new jobs? the country is losing investment to china..if you had a billion to invest would you invest in the usa or china ,esp if bush is in another 4 yrs?

[Whoa_Nelly]

28. While not being new

the unemployment rate, factories closing has escalated at an alarming rate since Bush went into action to rape the economy.

[w4rma]

9. I like this idea, except tie it to retail prices rather than quantity

…
Many workers embraced protectionism, with some suggesting a law to bar the United States from importing more goods than it exports.
…
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/13/national/13JOBS.html?pagewanted=2&hp

Note, Democrats need to remember that although we will likely gain votes from this, we had better be ready to implement a plan to stop the exporting of American manufacturing jobs or the Democratic Party will see yet another 1994 once we are back in power long enough that folks feel we've had enough time to fix the problem.

[teryang]

12. US tax law rewards companies

...who move jobs overseas. Corporate tax revenues have been declining for years as jobs are not only shifted overseas but profits from US sales are shifted offshore in sham transactions.

Meanwhile, these multi-national corporations benefit from the advanced infrastructure of the American market supported by the individual taxpayer.

The multinationals support politicians who are turning the nation into a banana republic.

[sandnsea]

13. Clinton, NAFTA & Chinese trade

Yeah, that's the ticket. The jobs going overseas and the unemployment is all Clinton's fault. Bush solves another campaign crisis.

[UpInArms]

16. well, if this was

Clinton's fault, explain this paragraph to me:

Factory unemployment has snowballed into a huge social and political issue across the Midwest, after manufacturing in the region boomed in the 1990's. President Bush gave a speech about manufacturing losses on Labor Day in Ohio, and the Democratic presidential candidates are pressing the issue.

NAFTA and GATTS were written during Reagan/Bush and NAFTA was implemented with Clinton signing it - and I will add that I despise the way it was written and believe it should be changed - but the pubs were so behind this in a very big way -

I believe it should be changed and I believe that "Free" trade agreements are deceptive and destructive. There should be "fair" trade agreements, not "free" trade agreements.

[Jackpine Radical]

19. Ninny.

That boom in the 90's was Raygun's brilliant economic strategery and tinkle-down economics paying off, but Klintoon went an tried ta grab the credit for it. Now we're seeing the cost of Klintoons libberul economic policies an St. George is getting blamed for the mess.

OK--really--NAFTA really IS a nightmare that's partly the fault of DLC types including Clinton. I like Dean's thinking on the issue, personally.

[UpInArms]

20. Ninny??

Is that the best you can do?

I have been called many more creative words than that :)

I know that I have fallen away from the proper way of thinking :crazy: but what can I say?

I know that when you piss gold on the top of the mountain, the entire mountain will quickly become one solid mass of gold /sarcasm off

[bluestateguy]

14. Clark or Dean can win Ohio

Both support gun owners rights, which is also important to blue collar voters and rural voters. I can even see a scenario where Ohio votes Democratic and Florida votes--narrowly--for Bush.

[are_we_united_yet]

15. Robert White

Sounds like his "eyes aint ever gonna get awakened".

What the hell is Bush trying to do?

[saigon68]

17. OPTION #1 FOR WORKERS-- GET A SYROFOAM CUP--- GO TO MASS TRANSIT STATION

Ask people "man do you have some spare change" -- G. W. Bush

[snippy]

18. Workers always have the option of voting for the democrat.

Republican presidents are always, always, always bad for job creation. Since the 1920's, the annual rate of job creation under republican presidents has always been lower than under democratic presidents.

Since the depression, no republican president has had a better rate of job creation than any democratic president. The highest rate of job growth under a republican was 2.2% per year during Nixon's time in office. The lowest rate of job growth under a democrat was 2.3% per year during Kennedy's time in office. Bush has a -0.7% annual rate which is the first negative number since the depression.

Since WWII ended, a total of 57.51 million jobs were created during the terms of democratic presidents which is an average of 2.054 million jobs per year. During the terms of republican presidents a total of 31.11 million jobs were created which is an average of 1.003 million jobs per year.

I think the better rate of job creation under democratic presidents may be because of the complete and total ownership of republican presidents by business interests which are always lobbying to the detriment of working class Americans. Democratic presidents are only partially owned by business interests and almost always compromise in ways that support workers and unions. I also think that the better job creation numbers for democrats may explain in part why the stock market performs consistently better under democratic presidents than under republican presidents.

I find the consistency of the better job creation numbers under democratic presidents persuasive. The DNC should make sure that every American is familiar with this information.

[InkAddict]

21. Best take wilderness survival classes

Don't fall for those radio/TV ads for electronics/hi-tech, because there are no steady jobs in that American sector either. Of course, if one is welfare-to-work, it might make a difference versus those persons who are self-reliant but naive enough to actually work to pay "retail" for school while dealing with the conflicts between the educational institution and their bosses for their time and energy. An absent worker on a school field trip/preparing busy work assignments for class cuts into productivity and $$. Then, after receiving that "sheepskin" the paying student is undercut by the welfare queen in the job market by government incentives to employers. Just guess what the next step is in playing the system, yup, maternity leave - cycle repeat but now need more/better child care/housing, etc... Will those in the 55-67 year range even get a chance to rise above entry level?

REMAINING TAXPAYERS BETTER GET READY TO PICK UP THE TAB - OH WAIT, EXECUTIVE CEOs (private and govermnent) HAVE SOME OF DARPAs BETTER GENOCIDE/EUTHANASIA GUIDELINES IN THE WORKS. How about a fully-paid condo on Vanatu?

Short-term IT contract jobs offer "attractive competitive(?)" benefits no workers will ever collect on. One needs a bloody lawyer just to obtain the information necessary to learn the terms under which one will be working on one of these stellar "opportunities."

Note: recruiters are trying to get committments from workers to sign on to wish-list projects planned to start months in the future even prior to reading/writing the RFPs or winning the contract-
huh, do I hear bidding wars and eventual offshore hiring anyway?

OH YES, KEEP YOUR HOBO SACK PACKED FOR EASE OF TRANSITION TO THAT NEXT "OPPORTUNITY" ACROSS THE COUNTRY. RIDE THE RAILS?, AMTRAKs/GREYHOUNDs SCARIER THAN THE PLANES (Gee, are hobos coded the correct CAPS color?)

These contractors are also quite busy sending both jobs and profits offshore to India, China, Cayman, etc. In addition, the profits wind up funding the military/industrial complex as we unwittingly fund the waste and duplicity of Cheney's greed and despicable ethics.

I've heard of persons laid off from a puny little dot.com places run by elitists with friends in high places that, only after accepting employment, was it learned that the contract was a cozy little no-bid "handshake" deal with some American general in Europe. Now just where does a General hide these types of expenditures without assistance from their greed-friendly GAO/Executive/Legislative (Committee)rubber stampers?

Then, there's the time a group of fellas sat around for a month without so much as a terminal while the contractor charged the government client "billing rate." Wonder what cost center was CREATIVELY adjusted. Good gracious, hired just to do nothing to speak of while the "contractor" reaped plenty from the client who got nothing at all (even that's questionable).

I THOUGHT THAT WAS CALLED FRAUD.

Tech companies are not even bothering training their own employees in the finer points of new products/hardware they may want to use in their businesses, even when these outfits have their own RONALD McDONALD UNIVERSITY.

BOTTOM LINE: Software/database are products also, open source or not, albeit intellectual product, so one can reasonably add the American IT worker singing the "manufactuering blues."

[Mairead]

22. This is one of the reasons everyone should support Kucinich

He's the only one planning to re-establish our manufacturing base from the ground up. Without the ability to manufacture everything we need here at home, we're totally vulnerable.

Support Kucinich. Donate today www.kucinich.us

[PROGRESSIVE1]

23. According to "Fux News Channel".......

the market is doing well and the job market is not as bad as people say it is! Remember, if Faux says it is so then it's pure S H I T!!!

[SuffragetteSal]

25. exactly...our local news

here in Oregon only yesterday said 'look we are doing better down to 8% unemployment instead of August's 8.2%! Hahaha...

but they kept insisting on telling us it is bad but not as bad as people say it is...what the heck? It is bad, plain bad. Our 8% is not accurate at all, since it doesn't even count those people that are done collecting unemployment insurance or like my husband and i who don't qualify for even being counted, but I will tell you we are INDEED unemployed!

[slappypan]

24. The Bush administration will be creating plenty of jobs soon ...

lady's maid, stableboy, second footman, cook ...

[study_war_no_more]

26. undertaker soldier soup kitchen administrator

This ain't Camelot baby!

[cherryperry]

27. Camelot

wasn't even Camelot!!!


Support Kucinich; I'm telling you - he is the only hope for the working class. I'm dubious about his getting the nomination because I'm realistic about the Democratic party; but, he is still the only hope for the working class anyway.

:bounce:


:hi: