America..........Not Hiring!

[1987 GN]

Just wondering if anyone else has run into this at their jobs. I work for a company that has begun offshoring jobs and I know it is a matter of time before it gets worse. They laid off 1800 people last year and managed to hire a bunch of associates from another country at a fraction of the cost. As more jobs leave the U.S. there will be more unemployed and then they will spend less and keep the economy down which forces other companies to layoff people and the downward spiral occurs. There has to be a way to prevent this and I was just wondering if anyone knew of any websites dedicated to listing just companies who use american labor, materials or both. I am really sick of this and don't want to give any more business to these companies that are taking the jobs out of the country and hurting my fellow Americans along with myself. I would vote to tax the he11 out of these companies using offshored labor to make the cost savings non-existent and keep the jobs here. Anyone else got any ideas or opinions?
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/careers/articles/0,15114,457284,00.html

 

[The Radius Kid]

Darned good idea!Tax the shmitt out of them.
Greedy morons think they can do business in one country and have their employees in another?
Not a good idea when the bulk of your business is in the first country.
To put it succinctly,don't expect to do business in Dollar$,and pay your employees in Pesos,Rupees,etc.
Ain't happening Bubba.Even the Japanese learned that one when they built their plants in N.A.

 

[Nashty]

http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=85664


If you are interested in Welding, Assembly or skilled trades, send me a note. Jobs are in the Midwest.

I just INSOURCED 2 jobs to our plant last year.

BUY AMERICAN !!! Get it?

 

[UNGN]

It's hard to feel sorry for a guy who can't find work when his last job paid $200K per year. People want to get paid like entrepeneurs, but don't want to act like them

I'm not worried an all about Jobs being outsourced to other countries. We are still WAYYYY more productive than all of western Europe in everything and in low volume/high skill manufacturing more productive than Japan, singapore, etc.

White collar jobs are being outsourced to India because they work for Peanuts and are a lot more intelligent that than the typical american performing the same job. Being intelligent, they also know that the US is a lot better than India and want nothing more to come over and become americans... Where they can create jobs for all the unemployed white collars workers that can't seem to do it for themselves.

 

[gn4u2c]

It's true due some research and buy only american products assembled in the US whenever possible. it will help if you get everyone on the bandwagon. no need to buy a chizmo tractor from china when you can buy an american unit that is better (if it cost more or not) it my save you or a close friend or family from losing there job in the near future.

need a tractor buy a deer
need a car buy a buick
exc.
all the way down to the local hardware store for a bolt.

 

[move_over]

Originally posted by gn4u2c
It's true due some research and buy only american products assembled in the US whenever possible. it will help if you get everyone on the bandwagon. no need to buy a chizmo tractor from china when you can buy an american unit that is better (if it cost more or not) it my save you or a close friend or family from losing there job in the near future.

need a tractor buy a deer
need a car buy a buick
exc.
all the way down to the local hardware store for a bolt.

In short, yes it's happening here in the Midwest. I work in the IT industry and have seen numerous people cut for these so called "highly skilled" people from India.. From my perspective, they are cheaper, but are no way highly skilled. Most can't work thru simple issues on their own. It seems strange the government would allow this, almost like signing your own out of business plan? Service sector is the largest part of the economy, why would the government want to give that to a foreign country?

 

[1987 GN]

Originally posted by Nashty
http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=85664


If you are interested in Welding, Assembly or skilled trades, send me a note. Jobs are in the Midwest.

I just INSOURCED 2 jobs to our plant last year.

BUY AMERICAN !!! Get it?

I understand the whole 'Buy American' thing, that is why I posted the thread, so I definitely do 'get it'. I appreciate the emplyment lead too, but I think you are misunderstanding what I meant by posting this thread. I should not have to move to another part of the country or switch careers because the company I work for can find someone to crunch numbers cheaper outside the country. If they found a new college graduate in America to do my exact job cheaper because they have equivalent skills and are willing to work for less then fine fire me. If I did a poor quality job and the only place these companies could turn for quality labor was outside the US then fine I deserve to be unemployed for doing poor quality work. But the reality of the situation is that people like myself are being replaced since these companies are getting away with paying lower salaries and no benefits in these cheap countries and selling the products and services back in America. I think if more of the public were aware of what was going on with these companies, there may be a public backlash financial impact to these companies but consumers have just become used to it now. It is unfortunate.

 

[gn4u2c]

write a letter to your congressman........it will help ! and they do get read by his assistants and if a trend developes you will get a responce. So get some people together write a 1 page letter with your info you point and a suggestion.Mail this to him or her once evey 30 day's . This has worked for me !!!
Why do you elect people?? to to stand up for you. yes some will say that the goverment in a big joke . they take side money or whatever but it's 100% true and it can work for you !! Yes it will not happen overnight but in 5-6 years you will get results.

 

[turboscott]

First of all, Rich that idea of taxing these companies that use other countries to do the work cheaper was brilliant. It sounded almost identical to the idea I emailed you a few minutes before you posted this thread.


UNGN, I see what you mean about not feeling bad for the guy making $200K year. But, do you feel bad for the men and women fighting for our freedom and getting crap from the people in these countries that we are supporting by giving them our tax dollars to help aid them? These people receive money hand over fist from the US and continue to bash us. Our billion dollar companies are providing them better jobs than they would ever have in their countries if we didn't send jobs to them and yet they continue to bash us for our policies.

Do you feel bad for the guy making $50K with 3 kids when he loses his job because some dude in India or Pakistan can do it cheaper? Because that is happening too. It isn't all just about the guys making $200K.

The Gov't won't do anything to stop this because they (politicians) are being paid off by these guys. John Kerry, who is running for President by the way, is married to a Hienz. As in Hienz Ketchup, relishes and other various condiments. Between he and his wife they are worth a couple billion. Anyone think he will pass legislation to tax his wife's company? Doubt it.

What people don't realize is all the tax relief packages giving families back a few hundred dollars won't do squat for our economy. We need jobs and lower unemployment. We need people to feel secure in their jobs so they start spending their money. That is what will get the economy going. How do you do that? By keeping these jobs in this country.

I don't think we need to just stop buying cars like Nissan, Toyota, BMW and Mercedes. Some of those companies actually put their cars together in this country. They are providing jobs. I have no problem supporting them if they are bringing jobs to us. We just need to compile a list of American companies sending jobs out and boycott them.

I would hate to see my friends work hard for the next 20 years to be able to afford retirement and be laid off only to send his job to some guy in India just cuz it can be done cheaper and then have another American say I don't feel bad for him cuz he made $200K year. I don't see the board of directors at these companies sending the CEO positions overseas to save money. Nope, the CEO's still get to keep their $10 million a year jobs.

 

[turboscott]

Nashty,

I do think John Deere is a good American company. Problem is, people shouldn't have to move to another part of the country. I live in MA and I would hate to have to uproot my family because my company sent my job to India.

 

[GNSCOTT]

2 things


1. NAFTA...who didn't see that coming. Oh yea..$3 an hour Mexican workers will now be able to afford to buy our products. That was a great though process. Soon all our products will be made down there anyways.

2. relaxed antitrust laws...example: 3 biggest cake companies in the world 5 years ago were Hostess cake, Drakes cake, and Dolly Madisaon (IBC) in that order. Back in the 80's Hostess bought Drakes and the government made them sell because they owned too much of the market and were making a monoploly. Flash foreward to the Clinton era (not saying its all his fault just like with NAFTA, he and republicans wanted it because they all have to promise big businesses stuff to get campaign contributions) Clinton relaxes antitrust laws and #3 Dolly Madison buys #1 Hostess merging, making both stocks go through the roof like every overvalued stock when it was hot. After that IBC (dolly madison and hostess cake) deceide to buy #2 Drakes, again making both stocks go even higher. We wait for the government to make them sell it and the damn thing is approved. Flash foreward to this week. Hostess and Drakes deceide they don't need 2 drivers, and two trucks delivering their products and they announce that they will be combining the two on the same truck (WTG teamsters) and there will be alot of layoffs.

This is what happened while everyone was watching their stock go up with all of these companies merging, no one stopped to think that in the process they were losing job security. Its only obvious that when 2 companies merge, they do not need 2 of everything.


Sorry to vent

 

[gr8regal]

Buy American

Went to Home Depot to buy a hammer.
Hard as hellllllll to find one made in AMERICA but I found one.
ESTWING only paid a few more but I wanted AMERICAN.
Even Stanley or Black and Decker - are not made in America.

Walmart was made by the Buy American Label, now try to find something made in america at walmart. People are hooked on the price.

 

[roz930]

Hooked on price. Exactly. I live in a town of around 13,000 people and own an auto parts store. Walmart opened a new store here 3 or 4 years ago and the litle guys have been getting sucked up ever since. I have not - nor will I ever set foot in the place strictly as a matter of principle. Even in my business I see the influence of foreign products. Wix Filters - seems more & more coming from India. Brake rotors, Canada & China etc. AND recently we acquired an Autozone... but thats another story... My these times are a changing, and not necessarily for the good. Keep Americans producing products in America and tax the hell out of the rest!

 

[Matt Weiser]

The bottom line is most people want the cheapest widget possible. They don't care about quality, who made it or where. Why? It's funny, I was just thinking about all this today...I'm guessing it's because our salaries haven't kept pace with the cost of living. Most of us have no choice but to buy whatever is cheapest. Why? Because corporations care more about enriching themselves and their shareholders than the well-being of their workers, and boosting the profit on every widget is part of this. They move where the labor is cheapest, make the widget for 50 cents instead of 75, sell it for 5 cents below the competition, and make a killing when we all rush to save 5 cents so we can keep food on the table.

After 9/11 I did some research into where all those American flags came from that everyone was waving around. Guess what? Most came from China, where workers have few of the freedoms our flag represents. It was hard for most flag-buyers to know this, as many retailers ignored federal laws that require country-of-origin labels. There are plenty of U.S. flag makers, and they managed to get a bill introduced in Congress to ban foreign-made flags, but it died a quiet death. ... Just one example...

My advice: support labor unions, buy domestic products, pay for quality, and invest your money carefully.

Do a Google search on "socially responsible investing." There are a lot of nonprofits and mutual funds out there that track the labor records, among other things, of big companies.

Another good starting point:
http://www.coopamerica.org/

Many of these sites also track the environmental records of corporations. If you don't like it, well, stick to the labor info they provide. But if you ask me, it all goes hand in hand: Many corporations leave because they care more about big profits than protecting America, so they go overseas and wreck somebody else's backyard. IMO, we all pay for it in the long run.

HTH, and sorry for ranting!

 

[TurboJunky]

Originally posted by 1987 GN
Just wondering if anyone else has run into this at their jobs. I work for a company that has begun offshoring jobs and I know it is a matter of time before it gets worse. They laid off 1800 people last year and managed to hire a bunch of associates from another country at a fraction of the cost.

Where were you during the 1980's when the American auto industry went to Japan? You can thank your fellow Americans for buying JAP cars. My GM family escaped the tens of thousands of layoffs and recently retired....I'll never own a foreign made vehicle as long as I can help it.

Buy AMERICAN!

 

[Little6pack]

John DEERE

Not all JD products are made here. I have a longshoreman friend who works the docks of baltimore. He has seen those BIG AZZED wheat choppers come here from Europe in JD paint.. Apperntly JD imports them here.

 

[J Banning]

I know how you feel. My company started a "offshore parntership" a few months back. The one thing that really gets me though is that a lot of the Indian IT guys are coming to the US instead of working overseas. They salary they are being paid is amazingly low. So low... that I can't imagine any domestic company being able to compete with. Additionally, I've heard talk of these tactics (of bringing the workers stateside) being somewhat "fishy". It has something to do with the types of visas being used/issued ("H-1B" and "L-1" I think), and how a lot of these foreign companies may be skirting around existing immigration laws.

IT Companies Send Jobs Overseas:
http://www.nbc30.com/nbc30/2190071/detail.html

Cigna Replacing 10 Local Workers With Foreign Hires:
http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_31927.asp

Special tech-worker visa is challenged:
http://news.com.com/2100-1028-1011452.html

H-1B visa info:
http://www.h1b.info/





Hope this helps.
-Banning.

 

[SHADOW]

Where do the big 3 automakers have their parts made? Everytime i go to the dealership i see a made in Canada or Mexico sticker on the parts. Are they really american made cars and parts? I used to work at a mold shop 2 years ago( layed off )and 90% of the molds for the automotive industry were from foreign companys. We lost alot of work due to jobs being moved south of the border and to China. IMO, most large companies don't give a crap about the american workers, only $$$.

 

[YGETV8]

Actually, the trend is here in the Midwest, too. My shop is a John Deere supplier with "Partner" status and in good with Case, too, and we have had major changes/less work and are about to sign a merger with another shop just to stay afloat. Saw ONE manufacturing job in the classifieds in an area of almost 300,000 people. I'm currently looking into renewing my RN license and get back to that. Should be more secure in that field... even people without jobs need health care!

I have heard of some "American made" products being partially machined or assembled out of country, then finished in the US and proudly stating "Made In America!" These are BIG companies that we are supposed to believe in! This is BS. The bottom line is that it will continue unless DRASTIC measures are taken. What politician is going to vote for huge taxes on imported American goods when those very same companies are supporting his campaign fund? What company ISN'T going to do this when the bottom line is keeping the shareholder happy... not employing the "little guy!"

I have this theory that companies don't NEED to show "record profits" every year. If they are making money, and keeping Americans employed, why ship jobs out of country just to make more money! That is the reason most of them do it, even though they are quote "losing money and just trying to remain competetive."

I seriously fear that in the not so distant future, the border guards are going to go to the Mexico side to keep those damn Americans from crossing the border illegally to find work.

FWIW, I'm one of those "little guys" who WAS working 55 hours a week to make WELL under $50K a year! Now, at 40 hours with no overtime, I took a 36% cut in pay. Ouch.

Sorry... I have NEVER entered into a discussion like this on the board, but this subject really hit home. Thanks for letting me vent!

 

[SHADOW]

I have heard of some "American made" products being partially machined or assembled out of country, then finished in the US and proudly stating "Made In America!" These are BIG companies that we are supposed to believe in! This is BS. The bottom line is that it will continue unless DRASTIC measures are taken. What politician is going to vote for huge taxes on imported American goods when those very same companies are supporting his campaign fund? What company ISN'T going to do this when the bottom line is keeping the shareholder happy... not employing the "little guy!"

I know for a fact that some do that. We did alot of small engine heads and such for a well known company. I'll refer to them as B&S. Right before the big layoff, we heard they had moved one of the plants down south. I'm guessing they machined and assembled the motors down south.

I'll never buy a new American car if you can call it that.