Whirlpool: Mexican Workers Paid $70/Week Can't Buy Refrigerators

Omaha Steve

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Fri Feb-26-10 11:22 AM
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Whirlpool: Mexican Workers Paid $70/Week Can't Buy Refrigerators

http://ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010020826/whirlpool-mexican-workers-paid-70week-cant-buy-refrigerators

By Dave Johnson

February 26, 2010 - 10:25am ET

Whirlpool is closing a plant in Evansville, Indiana, and moving the jobs to Mexico, where the workers will be paid $70 per week. Our system is broken when "the market" encourages companies like Whirlpool to close factories, destroy the lives of American workers, devastate the surrounding communities and ultimately destroy the very economy that the Whirlpools depend on.

No one getting $70 per week is going to buy any refrigerators from Whirlpool. That is the bigger picture here. When American companies close down a factory and lay off workers they are also eliminating customers. Ultimately, as we are seeing, the economy breaks down.

There is a rally today in Evansville, Indiana supporting keeping jobs in America. At the rally AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will deliver over 65,000 petitions. 1500-3000 people are expected to attend in person. (Even brave workers threatened with loss of future employment opportunities.)

Trumka has an op-ed in Evansville's paper today:

COMMUNITY COMMENT: Time to fight for U.S. jobs

The fight for good American jobs is coming to Evansville today, and our message to Whirlpool will be loud and clear: Keep it made in America and save our jobs.

After more than 50 years, Whirlpool is turning its back on Evansville � shipping hundreds of good local jobs to Mexico despite the company's healthy profits and millions of taxpayer dollars in federal economic stimulus money.

We need jobs. And we can't stop in Evansville.

We have to take the fight to every company that wants to cut out on America's workers, to the big banks that ruined our economy and to elected officials who refuse to stand up for working families.

When companies such as Whirlpool choose cheaper labor and lax environmental standards over America's workers, consumers and communities, we're going to let them know we won't stand for it.

There's a lot at stake, both nationally and here in Evansville.

Rick and Carmen Beard are just two of more than 1,000 workers who will lose their jobs immediately if Whirlpool closes the Evansville plant.

Rick and Carmen have been loyal employees at the plant for 18 years. Their son, a U.S. Marine, risks his life every day to preserve the American dream. But as Whirlpool makes the decision to divest from Evansville, the Beards are watching that dream slip right through their fingers.

The Beards and their co-workers won't be the only ones affected by the closure � not by a long shot. It's the small businesses where the plant's workers go for lunch, for coffee, for groceries. It's the churches and community organizations that will see their support weaken. It's the local governments that will lose the revenue to continue vital services.

Clearly, this isn't just about jobs. An entire community hangs in the balance.

And what's happening in Evansville isn't the exception to the rule.

Thanks to major pitfalls in our country's trade, manufacturing, and energy policies, companies all over the nation are leaving America's working people in the lurch. Evansville is the rule.

For starters, Whirlpool received millions in recovery funds for research and development of energy-efficient appliances.

But because there's no requirement that this technology be developed here in the U.S., the company is free to send taxpayer dollars offshore, away from the working families � and the economy � they were intended to support. So much for creating good jobs here at home.

These loopholes don't just jeopardize American jobs. They're also a threat to American consumers and to the environment.

Here in the U.S., there are restrictions on materials used to manufacture appliances like those produced by Whirlpool, designed to protect the environment and the health and safety of consumers. But these restrictions are much less strict in Mexico. If we want to save American jobs, it's time for our energy and employment policies to work together. It's time to protect workers' rights with better trade agreements.

It's time to put an end to financial incentives that support offshoring, and replace them with tax policies that support investment and innovation right here in the U.S.

We can't afford more abandonment of America's workers and their communities by the companies they made profitable. We'll fight for the good jobs that will rebuild the middle class and strengthen our economy.

That's the message from working people across the country, and that will be our message when we rally in Evansville on Friday. We'll be calling on Whirlpool to reverse its decision to close the plant and eliminate good American jobs.

America invested in Whirlpool. Now it's time for Whirlpool to invest in America.

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