Whirlpool laying off 1,200 U.S. workers (hello Mexico)

[IChing]

BENTON HARBOR, MI, United States (UPI) -- Whirlpool Corp. will lay off 1,200 U.S. workers and expand production at a Mexican factory.

The big Michigan appliance maker said Tuesday it would expand production of side-by-side refrigeration products at its Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, facility beginning in 2007.

Once that expansion is complete, some time around the first half of 2008, about 700 people at its Fort Smith, Ark., plant are expected to be laid off.

>>>>snip

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/business/article_1207796.php/Whirlpool_laying_off_1200_U.S._workers

[HughBeaumont]

1. STRONG AND GETTIN STRONGER.

So sayeth Grand Cyclops George II of our Corporation-first-and-only Reaganite economy, who never has to worry about a layoff, a coup, a scandal, a disaster, financial hardship, homelessness, etc.

[Megahurtz]

2. More jobless people,

More outsourcing. When will it ever stop?

[Tesha]

24. When the last job is gone. (NT)

[hippiechick]

3. Just what that area needs ...

... more unemployed, hopeless, beaten-down people. Sigh. And you know who's going to take the hit for this, right ? Governor Granholm, not Pretzeldunce Cokemonkey.

GODDAMMIT ANYWAY!!! :mad:

[acmejack]

6. The question is what are all these people going to do for a new job?

Computers? ahh, no...republiclown Michael Dell outsourced all of those jobs. Semiconductors? Nope, we exported the entire plants overseas. What are the jobs of the future? Bill collecting? Prison guarding? Prison inmate? I hear those prison industries are doing great!

We are going to be a nation of garbage pickers. All those empty houses, no one with enough money to afford to live in one of them. They'll get the Social Security away form us and the only ones that will have any money are the top ten percent and the retired Congressmen. A republiclown utopia.

[hippiechick]

7. BINGO!

Sad as it is, you hit the nail on the head. :(

[IChing]

9. "It's your hometown"

"Now main streets whitewashed windows and vacant stores
Seems like there aint nobody wants to come down here no more
Theyre closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they aint coming back to
Your hometown, your hometown, your hometown, your hometown"

"Last night me and kate we laid in bed talking about getting out
Packing up our bags maybe heading south
Im thirty-five we got a boy of our own now
Last night I sat him up behind the wheel and said son take a good
Look around"

"It's your hometown"

Bruce Springsteen

[Wickerman]

12. Whirlpool already annihilated my "hometown"

When they bought out Maytag this Spring they closed the operations there and eliminated nearly all the jobs. Newton Iowa went from prosperous middle class to struggling ghost town nearly overnight. Bruce said it well.

[HughBeaumont]

11. "But re-TRAYNIN'S TH' ANSWER, ANDY!"

That's another one of their lame cop-outs that miss the boat entirely. It's not fundamentally realistic to expect a factory worker to go to school for four more years and study a field which

a) he/she may not grasp
b) he/she may not have the time to devote to
c) he/she may not have adequate funding to continue (remember, laid-off people still have these things called BILLS. I should know, I used to BE one of them for half a year in 2001 and I was lucky it was that short a time period)
d) may follow its predecessor offshore

This is one of the VERY few things I agree with LaRouche on - you cannot consider yourself a strong economy if your manufacturing and industrial sectors are weak and overall poorly managed and cared for. These sectors were the only ones capable of employing ANY person, regardless of intelligence. Not everyone is meant for college and we don't need 130 million geophysicists or small business owners (especially when 9 out of 10 fail in their first year).

[Megahurtz]

18. "Retraining" hahaha!!!

I remember that one. That's hilarious!

Retraining for what???:think:

[acmejack]

21. Then they outsource that job.

Then what? I retrained, made less, ended up in a job I hated and then it went away (Thanks a lot Michael Dell)

[HughBeaumont]

26. And that's what point d) addresses . . .

Happens far too often. Not only that, but the new technologies (biotech, nanotech, advanced robotics, etc) are already getting a jump and funded . . . where? Anyone? Anyone? CHINA and INDIA.

[PurityOfEssence]

4. That great big sucking sound

Ross Perot, whacko that he is, predicted all of this.

[Acadia Blue]

17. I am really liberal but I voted for Perot because i have taken

economics courses in college and knew he was right. Clinton lobbied for NAFTA, helped the communications consolodate with his telacommunications act, dumped people off welfare without adequate jobs available. He was the best REPUBLICAN president we liberals ever had.

[aggiesal]

5. Statistically speaking, ...

600 of these laidoff employees voted to re-elect King George.
I really don't feel sorry for these 600.

I do feel sorry for the 600 who didn't vote for King George.
They deserve a better fate.

[brentspeak]

22. Er, I don't think your statistical reasoning makes sense

Things don't work that way.

[nealmhughes]

8. What exactly do we make in the United States now, besides gas guzzlers.

We invented refrigeration and air conditioning!

What next? What next?

A better question: how much longer?

[HughBeaumont]

14. What do we make?

More policies to enable the rich and sodomize the poor, that's what.

[Ezlivin]

20. We make the finest hi-tech weapons in the world, bar none

That's America's true "product" and it's sold worldwide to dictators, despots and the democratically elected.

When you think of America, think of bombs dropping, each proudly hand-made by skilled American workers.

[OhioChick]

10. Such a shame.......

MI is getting reamed bad, just as OH is.

[HughBeaumont]

13. Yet Duh HIGH AH still embraces Rethugs for some weird reason.

Thank God we're getting a new Governor that isn't a Puke, but I'm positively DUMBfounded the Brown/DeSwine race is as close as it is. DeWhine is nothing but a textbook, pro-war, anti-choice, anti-labor, pro-corporation, pro-rich, wally wussy, Bewsh rubber stamp. The last four should outweigh the first two. I mean, what's that Repuke vote . . . what's that cross going to do for you if you can't feed your kids or live in utter squalor?

[B3Nut]

15. If sending American jobs to Mexico isn't prosecutable

as treason, it damn well should be.

What's really ridiculous is that Big Business is destroying their own customer base for short-term profits. Classic American managerial myopia at its most damnable.

Todd in Beerbratistan

[Acadia Blue]

16. Bush outsources and then insources foreign labor...he hates Americans

[Vinca]

19. I think it's so sad - not to mention reprehensible - that all our

manufacturing jobs are gone. Yesterday I had to buy sheets for the bed and wound up with some made in Turkmenistan. Sheesh - I'd be hard pressed to find it on a map. This is just insane.

[brentspeak]

23. Hooray for globalization! Unrestricted free trade benefits everyone!

Yeah, right.

:thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown:

[Anakin Skywalker]

25. Don't You Dare Contradict Bush!

Whatchu talkin' 'bout? The economy is strong, man!

[gulfcoastliberal]

27. Thank the stars for NAFTA - our quality of living and jobs get better!

Wow, what a wonderful thing NAFTA, GATT, WTO, CAFTA has provided for the American worker and middle class. Amazing how it has lowered the prices of our goods so much, while spurring job growth in incredible levels!

hevay :sarcasm:

Thanks Clinton and all the DINO's in the house who wrote a letter to the repuke leadership demanding that CAFTA be brought the floor ASAP so they could vote yes on it. Disgusting.