Timken to cut 500 jobs in automotive group. (Bush tax cut speech 2003)

[barbaraann]

July 28, 2005, 7:27 PM EDT

CANTON, Ohio -- The Timken Co. said on Thursday that it plans to cut up to 500 jobs in its automotive group amid worries about a slowdown in light vehicle production in North America and higher raw material costs.
...
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct--earns-timken0728jul28,0,6122594.story?coll=ny-region-apconnecticut


Some background:

June 19 / 20, 2004
Footsteps of a Fool
Bush and the Timken Plant, a Year Later
By CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI

I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. A. Lincoln, Letter to A.G. Hodges

Events conspire to make George Bush look foolish. It’s not that events are clever. It’s that Mr. Bush is not. His lack of cleverness, however, disturbs neither him nor members of his administration, a reflection on them all. A recent example involved the Timken Plant in Canton, Ohio.

On April 24, 2003, the president stood alongside W.R. "Tim" Timken in the Timken Company plant in Ohio and urged the employees to support his proposed tax cut for the rich. He didn’t use those words since that would have offended the hourly workers most of whom were not among the rich but many of whom were in the audience. If enacted, said Mr. Bush, the tax cut would spur economic growth assuring his audience of continued employment if not huge tax benefits. The only difference between the effect of the tax cut on the worker and the rich person was the rich person would get more money for doing nothing whereas the worker would get more money by remaining employed.

The tax cut passed in 2003. In that year Mr. Timken earned more than $2.6 million and reportedly received tax breaks of approximately $59,000. Timken workers had jobs throughout 2003 and, in addition enjoyed a tax reduction as well. Figures compiled by Citizens for Tax Justice suggest that 89% of Ohio residents among whom many of the Timken workers were certainly numbered, received tax cuts closer to $100 than to $59,000. The small amount of benefit received by ordinary workers from the tax cut was made up for by the fact that they still had jobs and were, therefore, earning money.
...
http://counterpunch.org/brauchli06192004.html


The Republicans are not going to rest until the Middle Class is gone.

[Joanne98]

1. Timken is Diebold.

[SpiralHawk]

2. BushCo to workers: WalMart is hiring

eom

[cmd]

3. A record setting sales year for Timken

http://www.timesreporter.com/left.php?ID=44053&r=1&Category=3

CANTON – Timken Co. will cut up to 500 jobs in its automotive business – the only part of the company that didn’t add to the bottom line in a record-setting second quarter.

Timken’s steel business had sales of $445.3 million, up 35 percent from $330.4 million last year, while its industrial group sales were $498.2 million, up 14 percent from $437.7 million last year.

(snip)
Timken earned a record $67.3 million, or 73 cents per share, up from $25.3 million, or 28 cents per share last year. Earnings easily beat the 61-cent estimate in a consensus of analysts by Thomson Financial.

Timken’s sales in the second quarter also set a record at $1.3 billion, up 17 percent compared with $1.1 billion in the same period last year.

[cmd]

4. And punishment for not approving the labor contract

http://www.timesreporter.com/left.php?ID=44054&r=0&Category=3


CANTON – Representatives of the Timken Co. and Steelworkers Local 1123 will meet Wednesday for the first time since union members turned down a new contract June 21.

Neither the company nor the union has had much to say about the contract since, but union officials have been holding meetings with members to work out a new proposal.

In May 2004, President and CEO James W. Griffith announced that three Canton bearing plants would close because products made here were “not globally competitive.” The move would eliminate about 1,100 jobs – more than 900 of them Steelworker production positions.

After a year of negotiations, Steelworkers turned down a contract – by an 1,129-895 vote – recommended by union leadership, with steel group employees saying the pact favored bearing workers too heavily.

The contract also has been criticized because it calls for union members to take on health-care costs with no pension increases during a time when the company is recording record earnings.

[Toots]

9. Just shows in detail the "Trickle Down" effect.

Proves Bush* a LIAR of the nth degree

[wellst0nev0ter]

5. Didn't They Already Cut Jobs Last Year?

I mean, how many times are people going to be hit on the head until they realize who's holding the bat?

[cmd]

7. They threatened to close three bearing plants

This was before their current contract ended. The proposed contract was written to keep the bearing plants open by the entire union making concessions, especially in health care. The contract was voted down.

In my opinion the bearing plants were never intended to be shut down. Their proposed closing was to get those concessions. Now the threat of layoffs is there again - right before they go back to the bargaining table. The key here is that Timken is making record profits. They can easily afford to pay their workers. The union voted down the last contract. I think they will vote down the next one if the company keeps up these stunts.

[Daphne08]

6. Capitalism is great! Unbridled capitalism is even better!

It creates jobs for Americans! :sarcasm:

[Deja Q]

8. So is wasteful resource use leading to higher prices...

thank you reaganomics for unregulating everything!

[hadrons]

10. that Bush vote worked out well, huh???