Energy Conversion Devices to lay off 140 (green jobs going to Mexico)

[Bozita]

Source: Detroit Free Press

Posted: 12:39 p.m. Aug. 11, 2010
Energy Conversion Devices to lay off 140
By KATHERINE YUNG
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER


Energy Conversion Devices said this morning that it plans to layoff 140 employees at one of its solar panel plants in Auburn Hills.

The layoffs are likely to occur in October when the Rochester Hills-based company plans to move some final assembly work to one of its underutilized plants in Tijuana, Mexico.

The affected Auburn Hills plant will not be idled and will employ 140 workers after the layoffs. But to reduce costs, only the first three steps in the thin film solar panel manufacturing process will occur there, said Martha Duggan, ECD’s vice president of government and regulatory affairs.

“We are aggressively reducing our cost structure to operate more effectively in the highly competitive, global solar market, and, through these actions, we will better utilize our existing capacity in Tijuana, without any additional capital costs,” Mark Morelli, ECD’s CEO and president, said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20100811/BUSINESS06/100811041/1320/Energy-Conversion-Devices-to-lay-off-140#ixzz0wKGkYIjA

[Brickbat]

1. Yeah, I keep saying that I'll embrace "green technology" as a way to pull ourselves out of this

recession just as soon as someone can show me a way that these jobs won't be outsourced like other jobs.

[mike r]

2. We need an anti-offshoring legal provision in every taxpayer-funded green project

to prevent this kind of crap.

[No Elephants]

8. +1

[fasttense]

3. So much for Green Technology jobs lifting us out of this depression.

The corporations will set up dummy corporations here and ship the jobs to wherever the labor is cheap and starving.

[HughBeaumont]

4. SIIIIIGGGGHHH . . .

Keep on doing this, Corporate America! Serfs and Lords! Oh yeah, be sure to blame it on those mean ol' Taxocrats, OK? Assholes.

[amandabeech]

5. Mr. Gibbs, this is another reason why we liberals are upset with the Obama administration.

The green jobs that were supposed to life us out of our joblessness according to the President have gone to China and now are going to Mexico.

I expect that more will go to South Korea when the President gets his "free" trade agreement with that country.

Social Security would not need to touch its trust fund right now if the unemloyed had jobs!

If you want to do something for Social Security and Medicare, do something about jobs!

Now, where do I report for my blood test, assuming you're paying.

Signed,

Very P.O.'d Michigan Ex-Pat

[Hulk]

6. Bring back tariffs

When are we going to protect jobs at home? Give me a break. It all comes down to profit...the bottom line. Hire slave labor for a dollar a day...and run the American worker off to the unemployment lines. NO conscience....none whatsoever. AND WE DO NOTHING!!!

[Plucketeer]

7. I worked in industry for a number of years.

When I was working, I insisted on using the best US-Made tools for my craft. Not always the most expensive, but US made for sure. I was a devotee for Milwaukee brand electrical tools - especially their hand drills. Tho I've been away from that world for almost 20 years now, I still do things at home with my tools.
Recently, I decided I'd treat myself to a new Milwaukee drill motor - I felt sure that THEY were still building their stuff IN the USA. LOL! I was fooling myself to think that. Ya hafta really LOOK on the box to find it, but there on one timy corner it says: Contents Made in China. OK, so at least it's a situation where I don't HAVE TO HAVE a new drill. I'll make doo with the vintage ones I have. Ane there's only ONE reason they have them made in China. That's because that's where all the other AMERICAN brands are made now too. Sickening.
Any person with half a damned brain could have forseen us becoming a third world country once we waded into the "Global Economy" arena. I got news for any fool who still thinks that fantasy "American Dream" is landable. That dream went "Ppfffffffffffffffffffffffffft!" when glorius Ronnie took the oval office.

[No Elephants]

9. Sadly, Republicans were not the only ones to betray American workers.

Our Party needs to remember its history. Once, if you saw an ethnic, religious or racial minority, or a woman who was not content to be a Barbie, or a working person--especially a union member--you could pretty much bet your life you were with a fellow Democrat, even if you were not a bettor. Maybe farmers, too, before factory farming.

There were good reasons for that. Democrats served every constituency other than blueblooded WASPs who were unwilling to share fairly --and that gave us a Democratic Congress for a very long time, even if America seemed to like an aristocratic President (be he an FDR or a Republican)).

I would be very content with that scenario, provided we could trim back the unitary executive and Congress would be strong and do its job, instead of being so freaked by terrorism that it rolls over at the very mention. But, tv ads today are very expensive and so is everything else, so Democraticc politicians climbed into bed with the corporations, too.

We have to find a new way to be Democrats because a choice between only Pubs and Pub Lites will kill every living thing, with the possible exception of cockroaches.

[Plucketeer]

10. How DO you tell the difference between a cockroach and Republican?

You can't! :yoiks::rofl:

[w4rma]

11. 'Free' trade is one-sided. It was implemented to destroy and pillage the American workforce.

I seem to remember Obama saying that he would "renegotiate" NAFTA, etc. But, that was two years ago and a DLC administration in between.

Professional Liar.

[Pavulon]

12. However Indian Point and Sharon Harris Plants

continue to pay 60k your first day and many plants have good working relationships with unions. Cant outsource that.