i do wonder about other companies who don't NEED to cut back and do it anyway because they can blame it on the recession, getting rid of people to pad profits and not because they needed to.
i know they're in business to make money but they need to remember that those people help them make that money, too.
The only excuse the publicly traded companies think they need is "We have an obligation to our shareholders" and they've been using that one for years. Yes they're getting rid of people to pad profits, maybe moreso now than before but it is because they're as uncertain as we are IMO. They also seem determined to push their stock prices up despite what the market as a whole is experiencing, sometimes to the extent that they throw out the baby with the bath water.
The flip side of the closings is that the folks in the plants that are still open are worked to the bone picking up the production from the plants that closed. They can't stand up against it because they feel lucky to have a job. It is wrong for corporations to be paying out so much overtime when there are good, competent folks in their community needing a good job. Companies do have a moral obligation to contribute to their surrounding communities. They're falling down on that one.
They'll tell you and I that "If we don't remain competetive, you won't have a job at all" but to me that is just a "race to the bottom". They'll work it like a big pyramid scheme for as long as they can make money and then move on to something else, leaving us as collateral damage. Pretty optomistic aren't I?
I've been a peon in manufacturing since '87 and have seen companies go from building infrastructure for future growth to the paradigm of "If it won't make a quick buck, we won't fund it". What are we leaving our kids?
Curtis
