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BMW layoffs exemplify the evisceration of the middle class

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BDBoop

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BMW, Teamsters: BMW layoffs exemplify the evisceration of the middle class - latimes.com

Every working American should be dismayed by — and afraid of — what BMW is doing.
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It's okay though, because the rich people who have the lowest tax rate ever will be creating new jobs. I read it right here, folks.

By all accounts, BMW's parts distribution warehouse in Ontario was one of the jewels of the company's system.

Supplying dealer service departments throughout Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, it received gold medals from BMW for its efficiency and employed several of the top-ranked workers in the country. In the roughly 40 years its workers had been represented by the Teamsters union, there had never been a labor stoppage.

Times being what they are, when a Teamsters committee came to the plant in early June to open negotiations over a new contract to start Sept. 1, they thought they might be asked to accept minuscule wage increases and maybe some givebacks on health coverage.

They were stunned by what they heard instead: As of Aug. 31, the plant would be outsourced to an unidentified third-party logistics company and all but three of its 71 employees laid off.
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I wish the author had printed more facts and less feelings.

He says the workers made $25/hour -- probably an average, I suppose. What about their 401K's? How much did the company contribute? How much did the company pay for their health/disability/etc insurance? Really. I would be nice to know that.

So I'll make one up since you can't dispute me and the article was fatally flawed in respect to truth...

Benefits may have run as high as $25/hour on top of wages...so you've got warehouse workers earning $50/hour x 40 hours = $100,000 a year.

Sometimes (often) unions price themselves right out of the ballpark. Could be that's what happened here...but we'll never know since the bleeding-heart author chose to appeal to emotion rather than fact. ;)
 
The one thing we do know is that if we would have taxed the hell out of the doctors and lawyers and other such rich people bmw would have never laid these people off.
 
You will all be to young to remember this...but at one time my generation was scared to death of "AUTOMATION" it was said it was going to put most of america out of work.
It did put many people out of work and ended alot of good jobs....but it wasnt done by the companies out of "GREED" to screw their workers, it was modernization and progress and those two things no one can find fault with...today, its driven by neither of those two its driven by pure "GREED"
 
lpast said:
You will all be to young to remember this...but at one time my generation was scared to death of "AUTOMATION" it was said it was going to put most of america out of work.
It did put many people out of work and ended alot of good jobs....but it wasnt done by the companies out of "GREED" to screw their workers, it was modernization and progress and those two things no one can find fault with...today, its driven by neither of those two its driven by pure "GREED"
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I'm not sure I do remember; I'm 53. It sounds familiar, though.
 
MaggieD said:
I wish the author had printed more facts and less feelings.

He says the workers made $25/hour -- probably an average, I suppose. What about their 401K's? How much did the company contribute? How much did the company pay for their health/disability/etc insurance? Really. I would be nice to know that.

So I'll make one up since you can't dispute me and the article was fatally flawed in respect to truth...

Benefits may have run as high as $25/hour on top of wages...so you've got warehouse workers earning $50/hour x 40 hours = $100,000 a year.

Sometimes (often) unions price themselves right out of the ballpark. Could be that's what happened here...but we'll never know since the bleeding-heart author chose to appeal to emotion rather than fact. ;)
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that explains why it was posted. Factual information isn't as fun as heart string pulling, emotionalism.
 
MrVicchio said:
that explains why it was posted. Factual information isn't as fun as heart string pulling, emotionalism.
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And obviously, a stab at negotiations isn't as much fun as outsourcing. Dollars to donuts the local execs and office staff here are spared and BMW totally covers all relocation expenses.
 
MrVicchio said:
that explains why it was posted. Factual information isn't as fun as heart string pulling, emotionalism.
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Nobody needs to pull a heart string. Hearing that somebody lost a job they had for over 30 years ago should hurt. That was a Good Worker. He showed up, he did his job, he was loyal. And now he's unemployed.
 
BDBoop said:
Nobody needs to pull a heart string. Hearing that somebody lost a job they had for over 30 years ago should hurt. That was a Good Worker. He showed up, he did his job, he was loyal. And now he's unemployed.
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LIFE ISN'T FAIR BDBOOP.

They had highly costly jobs, that, thanks to their Union Demands priced them out of the market. I don't GIVE A RATS ASS that BMW made record profits. That's the stupidest freaking argument to make. Maybe BMW as a WHOLE did, but what about the other things we don't know about? Do you know what's going on behind the scenes? What if their parts and supply system was actually taking a loss, and were forced to make cuts? Obviously BMW looked at the system as a whole, saw a problem, in costs and chose to correct it.

I say BRAVO BMW.

Do I feel for folks out of the job? Yes, it sucks, and I hope they can find new work, and are able to make a happy adjustment. But I'm not gonna get all outraged because a company made changes to increase profitability. That's what companies do. That's how the world works. I think the biggest problem here is that you don't understand how the world works, you just like getting outraged when it doesn't meet your fantasy version of life.
 
Record profits, but the labor was too expensive.

...

Ok then.
 
Perfect solution...the Unions should competitvely bid for the outsourced jobs!

Or better yet...unions should go into business where they are actually producing something, hiring people, doing more than just leeching off the work of others. I would LOVE to see a union plant...a place where Unions have decided to build, manufacture, hire, everything from the ground up. Lets see what that actually looks like.
 
apdst said:
How are tax hikes on rich people going to prevent layoffs at BMW?
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I am going to go out on a limb here and say that this isn't what was intended by what was written.
 
VanceMack said:
Or better yet...unions should go into business where they are actually producing something, hiring people, doing more than just leeching off the work of others. I would LOVE to see a union plant...a place where Unions have decided to build, manufacture, hire, everything from the ground up. Lets see what that actually looks like.
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Idk about unions, but there are a number of worker owned companies doing quite well.

I have often wondered if Marx would approve of employee owned operations functioning in a capitalist-like environment.
 
Simon W. Moon said:
Idk about unions, but there are a number of worker owned companies doing quite well.

I have often wondered if Marx would approve of employee owned operations functioning in a capitalist-like environment.
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Worker owned is great...but lets see what happens when a union has to invest its own capital, create industry, build a product and hire iemployees instead of continuing to be nothing more than parasites and leeches on the hard work and investment of others.
 
MrVicchio said:
More proof you really don't have any clue how business works.
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No, I know exactly how business works. How business works is the problem.
 
Truckstop said:
The one thing we do know is that if we would have taxed the hell out of the doctors and lawyers and other such rich people bmw would have never laid these people off.
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Yep, maybe you are actually beginning to understand how the economy really works. Had kept marginal income tax rates where they were in 2000, we would have relied less on payroll taxes to pay for our wars and other adventures of the last decade. Moreover, with a higher tax rate on high wage earners, people would be less inclined to payout corporate profits but rather re-invest in plant, equipment and labor.

With the overall tax burden less on the middle class and more money paid in wages, the overall economy might have been stronger. With strong middle class demand for goods and services, retail and manufacturing would prosper and enough money would trickle up to the capitalists to maintain strong demand for BMWs.
 
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Harry Guerrilla said:
Record profits isn't always indicative of expanding business.

Many companies have been reducing inefficiency to increase or stabilize profits, phasing out old things, introducing new things.
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No, many companies have been cutting workers, making the remaining workers work hard for flat to inflation adjusted decreasing wages... and paying the additional profits out in the form of executive bonuses..... This is way we are bifurcating our society into the haves and the broken back working class. We are creating a Mexican economy in the US. This would occur much less if the taxes on earned income were stiffer.
 
upsideguy said:
No, many companies have been cutting workers, making the remaining workers work hard for flat to inflation adjusted decreasing wages... and paying the additional profits out in the form of executive bonuses..... This is way we are bifurcating our society into the haves and the broken back working class. We are creating a Mexican economy in the US. This would occur much less if the taxes on earned income were stiffer.
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So a company should continue to employ workers when, they have nothing for them to do and/or when there are cheaper alternatives?
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
So a company should continue to employ workers when, they have nothing for them to do and/or when there are cheaper alternatives?
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Why do they have nothing for them to do? Per the article:

They were stunned by what they heard instead: As of Aug. 31, the plant would be outsourced to an unidentified third-party logistics company and all but three of its 71 employees laid off.
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BDBoop said:
BMW, Teamsters: BMW layoffs exemplify the evisceration of the middle class - latimes.com



It's okay though, because the rich people who have the lowest tax rate ever will be creating new jobs. I read it right here, folks.
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The other night, Rachel Maddow documented many corporations that are paying an effective tax rate fractionally less than the middle class, on the old trickle down thinking they will create jobs while the reality is they have been laying off people year after year. We can no longer afford to continue to give corporations and rich folks tax breaks just because they are rich, regardless of whether they are creating jobs or not.
 
upsideguy said:
No, many companies have been cutting workers, making the remaining workers work hard for flat to inflation adjusted decreasing wages... and paying the additional profits out in the form of executive bonuses..... This is way we are bifurcating our society into the haves and the broken back working class. We are creating a Mexican economy in the US. This would occur much less if the taxes on earned income were stiffer.
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I can't respect anybody who reads your post and says "Yeah. And?"
 
Catawba said:
The other night, Rachel Maddow documented many corporations that are paying an effective tax rate fractionally less than the middle class, on the old trickle down thinking they will create jobs while the reality is they have been laying off people year after year. We can no longer afford to continue to give corporations and rich folks tax breaks just because they are rich, regardless of whether they are creating jobs or not.
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EXACTLY. I laughed my ass off earlier today (Yeah. I wish) because I read some tantrum of an article. You know what? You CAN'T threaten to not create any jobs, when you already haven't been. That's what I've been saying for weeks now. The rich will leave? CYA! Bunch of life-sucking parasites. **** you. Go. It's like an angry wife telling her husband he's not getting any tonight. Gee, honey. I haven't been laid since 2008. That horse done already left the building.
 
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