Not A Warm Fuzzy Feeling

It's interesting that we can hardly find products to buy in this country that are made here, but the tear gas canisters found on the street in Cairo say "Made in USA." No wonder much of the world distrusts us, at best.

Widely reported, see here.

More US Jobs Moving To Mexico (Update)

Back on 08/31/2009, I posted about the decision of the Whirlpool Corporation to close an Indiana plant and move the operation to Mexico, with a loss of more than a thousand American jobs.   The closure date is now approaching and the AFL/CIO has a petition online to ask Whirlpool to reconsider:

The Whirlpool Corp. plans to start closing its refrigerator plant in Evansville, Ind., on March 26. The refrigerators now manufactured at this plant will be produced in Mexico, eliminating 1,100 local jobs. Meanwhile, Whirlpool--the world's largest home appliance maker--enjoys healthy profits and has received a $19 million economic matching grant that should be creating jobs here in America.

Join me and sign this important petition today and tell Whirlpool: Keep It Made in America.

More U.S. Jobs Lost

Well, another American company has decided to "reduce expenses" and is closing down a local call center in favor of outsourcing the operation.  Redbox is the outfit that maintains soda machine size vending machines all around the country, at which you can rent $1 videos.  The business model is killing Blockbuster and even attracting attention from Netflix. 

While news reports aren't specific about the plan, it's not a big stretch to conclude that "outsourcing" means "off-shoring."  The loss of Illinois jobs will be probably be matched by an increase of jobs in Manila, Bangalore, or Singapore.  The number of jobs involved isn't huge, about 200, but this is a company that is making money and planning expansion at the same time they're laying off employees. 

To those who say that this is "good business decision" and it's just "global economics," all I can say is that's baloney.   The global economy does not have to be the only game in town.   If we as Americans want to preserve jobs and livelihoods of Americans, we need to start complaining loudly when companies treat us like this.   Especially when the company, like Redbox, is making money.  At the very least, American workers (those that are still employed) should not be patronizing such businesses.  As long as we just take this abusive corporate behavior without complaint, the employment opportunities will just get worse.

If you'd like to express your lack of appreciation to Redbox, drop them an email.

More US Jobs Moving To Mexico

Refrigerator maker Whirlpool has decided to close a plant in Evansville, Indiana and move the operation to Mexico, eliminating 1,100 (US) jobs in the move. The plant produced top freezer models, which are apparently not as popular as in past years. The action was taken to "reduce costs" and the company pointed out it was no reflection on worker quality (which will be absolutely no consolation to the 1,100 workers):

Whirlpool spokeswoman Jill Saletta ..... said the plant closing had nothing to do with worker performance.

"This decision is around cost," she said. "We had to take a look at which plant we could get the best cost position in, and because top-mount refrigerators are not in the demand that they used to be and they're more of a commodity item, Mexico offers us the best cost platform to continue to produce (them)."

I don't have a clue how a top mount freezer is a "commodity item," and a bottom mount or side by side model is not a "commodity." What is it? I thought all appliances were commodities.

Buried within this decision is the clear implication that despite their "not bad" performance, the employees in Evansville are the root cause of the loss of their jobs: if it wasn't cheaper to produce these appliances in Mexico, the jobs might remain in Evansville, and the primary reason Mexico is cheaper is the employee pay.

Since Whirpool is technically an American company (based in Michigan), it's difficult to understand how they can justify moving jobs to Mexico (please don't tell me we're in a "global economy"-that terminology was a corporate creation for the benefit of corporations). I can understand that they wish to consolidate manufacturing and make better use of their larger plants (Evansville was a small factory by Whirlpool standards), but I just can't understand this decision.

I'd like to suggest that people looking for refrigerators look at Whirpool's competitors, but I have no idea if any of them are made in the US anymore. If anyone does know, leave a comment.

If I say that "we're all in this together" I mean that if your neighbor loses his or her job, it has an impact on you, whether or not you're prepared to acknowledge or recognize that fact. If you want to preserve US jobs, consumers have to start reading labels to find out where a product comes from and make decisions based on more than just price. We need to break out of the Wal-Mart mold.