Electrolux opens its new plant in Mexico (2,700 US jobs lost)

[UpInArms]

http://www.thedailynews.cc/articles/2005/07/09/news/news01.txt

GREENVILLE -- The calm before the storm is drawing to an end for employees at Greenville's Electrolux Home Products plant as two significant events have occurred during recent days.

On July 1, Electrolux opened its new plant in Juarez, Mexico. It is one of two plants expected to take over production when the company closes the world's largest refrigerator factory in Greenville early next year. The other is in Anderson, S.C.
Electrolux's shutdown of the Greenville plant at 635 W. Charles St. will leave more than 2,700 people without jobs.

The Juarez plant is about 1.6 million square feet in size and currently employs 800 workers. It is expected to be at full employment of 3,000 workers by sometime in 2006.

...more...

[Poppyseedman]

1. Electrolux produces just about every Frig except for Maytag and GE

Guess my next Frig will be a Maytag instead of a Kenmore.

[Strelnikov_]

5. You Had Better Hurry Then

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05147/511691.stm

Faced with larger rivals employing cheaper labor overseas, Maytag agreed to go private last week in a $1.13 billion deal. The buyer: Ripplewood Holdings LLC, a New York private-equity firm. Maytag has warned the United Auto Workers union, which represents many production workers here, that if the two can't find ways to cut costs fast, doom could await the Newton factory. Roughly 12 percent of Maytag's production comes from low-cost labor overseas, a much smaller proportion than that of U.S. rivals including appliance-industry leader Whirlpool Corp.

(Note: The following deals with a plant that closed a few years ago)

Maytag Closes Plant, Moving 1,600 Jobs To Mexico To Cut Costs

1,600 workers in Galesburg, Illinois can no longer depend upon Maytag, AKA "The Dependability People," after the company announced a plant closing, thus spurring a boycott.

Maytag plans to consolidate its operations with its Amana, IA facility as well as to move many jobs to Mexico as part of a cost cutting effort, according to a Maytag press release. This was a major shock to employees, many of whom have worked for Maytag for years, some expecting to retire from the company as their only employer.

. . .

Three Days later Galesburg and the Maytag employees was dealt a slap in the face - Maytag announced a 48% increase of its profits even though Maytag cited decreased profits as its need to move to Mexico.

[ozymandius]

2. I am sure this will reflect positively in next week's employment figures.

After all, it is the Federal Department of Labor that tells us that unemployment is at a four-year low.

UIA, I recall a thread you started some days ago about corporate layoffs being at a three- or four-year high.

[UpInArms]

6. Planned Job Cuts Are Highest in 17 Months

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-rup7.4jul07,1,4496630.story?coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true

The number of job cuts announced by U.S. employers in June rose to the highest monthly level since January 2004, according to a survey by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

The 110,996 job cuts announced last month were 73% more than in the same month a year earlier and represented a 35% increase from May's total.

The firm's data are not adjusted for seasonal variations.

Another Mediocre Jobs Report

http://www.smartmoney.com/theeconomy/index.cfm?story=20050708

ANOTHER MONTH, ANOTHER disappointing jobs report. But it could have been much worse.

Payrolls rose by about 146,000 in June, below analysts' estimates of 195,000 and just about the number needed merely to keep up with population growth.

But there were some bits of good news in the report, released by the Labor Department on Friday. The May number was revised upward, to 104,000 from 78,000. And the unemployment rate dipped slightly to 5.0%, its lowest point since September 2001. That was better than analysts' estimates of 5.1%, which was also the rate in May. Unemployment has fallen each month since February and is now 1.3 percentage points lower than the previous peak in June 2003.

"The trend in payrolls has been amazingly stable for the last year and a half now, which is perfectly sufficient to keep the consumer spending and the unemployment rate on a downward track," says Ted Wieseman, a vice president and economist at Morgan Stanley. "A 5% unemployment rate is pretty much in the range of what most people would consider close to full employment."

<snip>

The bad news appeared to be concentrated in the manufacturing sector, which lost 24,000 jobs. The bulk of that loss, about 18,000 jobs, came from the ailing auto industry, which has continued to lose ground to international markets. Last month, General Motors (GM) pledged to cut 25,000 jobs, or 17% of its domestic workforce, by 2008. Ford Motor (F) also announced 2,700 job cuts in separate announcements made in June and April.

...more...

What we now have is shrinking labor force - the disillusioned and the under-employed. (personal knowledge of a computer engineer now taking tickets at a movie theater).

So many people are no longer even in the employment pool that is counted and no one seems to notice them. Longterm unemployment and underemployment will have hideous social side-effects. :(

[Old and In the Way]

10. Unemployment stats are 20th Century.

It's now productivity that's tracked. And it keeps going up, up, up! American workers are now the most productive in the world...there just happens to be a lot fewer of them.

[SpiralHawk]

3. That sucks

somebody had to say it

[are_we_united_yet]

9. *snort*

But it does metaphorically underline the sound of jobs leaving the US.

Have we turned that corner yet?

[Number9Dream]

4. Alcoa said they were laying off 6,500...

No matter how many good-paying manuf. jobs are lost, Bushco reports positive employment numbers, and the media just passes them along (no questions asked). And many of the people who get laid off keep voting Republican... Mind-boggling.

[UpInArms]

7. Welcome to DU Number9Dream!

:hi:

[madaboutharry]

8. I find the history of this brand name very sad

Back in the mid-twentieth century, Electrolux was a superior company with products manufactured in Europe. It has long been bought out by American companies and its products have turned into your basic piece of crap.

[WhiteTara]

11. but but jobless numbers are DOWN

how come you keep talking about all these people losing their job? Why do you hate amurika?
:hi:

[Chomskyite]

12. Let me guess

Electrolux and its executives probably give heavily to the Republican party.



Check:

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?NumOfThou=0&txtName=&txtState=%28all+states%29&txtZip=&txtEmploy=electrolux&txtCand=&txt2004=Y&txt2002=Y&Order=A

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.