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| Carrier/United Technologies hamhandedly announces their firing 1,400 workers so they can get cheaper labor in Mexico and then wonders why everybody is mad. |
In it, Carrier Air Conditioning which is part of United Technologies, is announcing to employees that they're moving to Mexico for the cheap labor and screw you expensive American assholes.
Well, they didn't exactly say it like that, but you get my drift.
Yes, I know that Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are worlds apart politically. Not very alike AT ALL.
But one of the extremely few things the two have in common is they're attracting a lot of people who are fed up with the "system."
It's the system in which that dreaded 1% we hear about calls the shots, mucks with peoples' lives and is totally aided and abetted by the established political system. Or so the thinking goes.
Donald Trump is among the so-called one percent, but his message of blaming our ills on everything but him, but especially the political establishment, Mexicans and Muslims, draws a lot of fans.
Bernie Sanders rails against the one percent so often that if I had a penny for every time he railed against that one percent, I'd BE part of that one percent.
It isn't as if United Technologies is desperate and the only way to save them from bankruptcy is moving to Mexico.
The company and its CEO are flush with cash. They just want more. If they make a bunch of people in Indiana unemployed, it's not their problem. They should just figure out a way to get rich on their own, is apparently the "logic"
Zach Carter writes in Huffington Post, in an article about the Carrier/United Technologies video of them telling employees of the Mexico move. The title of the article is, accurately, "Watch Corporate America Turn a Room Full of Workers Into Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump Supporters"
"The contractor does billions of dollars a ear in business with the federal government. CEO Gregory Hayes pulled down nearly $10 million in 2014 and over $20 million the year before. On Thursday, the company reported $7.6 billion in profits, up from $6.2 billion the year before and $5.7 billion the year before that."
And, sorry, it's not the just the wonderful work Hayes is doing to keep the company so profitable. It's also the workers who are making all those air conditioners that are doing it. The ones that are being thrown on the garbage heap here.
I'm sure it wasn't a big leap for the people in the video who were learning they'd soon lose their jobs that the political and economic system is stacked against them and they need to find better leaders to run this country.
This might not be totally fair to the Powers That Be. And there are a lot of complex reasons why a company bails out of the United States in search of cheaper labor elsewhere.
But the employees in the below video understand that it's all a race to the bottom. A handful of powerful and rich people are amassing wealth, while making the rest of us worse and worse off.
Which is why they're looking for a new direction.
Wanna know why so many people (me included!) are so angry at the way American politics is run? The video at the bottom of the post is one, but Carter in Huffington Post sums it up:
"The answer is pretty simple. Both Republicans and Democrats have consistently backed economic policies over the past 35 years that have systematically gutted the American middle class. For decades, Congress has listened to corporate lobbyists who told our representatives that if they could just cut this one tax rate, or just ease this one regulation, there would be a renaissance of prosperity. The renaissance has happened for the rich. Everyone else has been left behind."
And there you have Trump and Sanders' appeal. Trump is largely self funding his campaign. Sanders is relying on milions of Americans making small donations to his campaign, and he has eschewed PACs and big corporate contributions.
The rest of the presidential campaigns have PACS run by the corporations and the elite. See why everyone's mad?
For what it's worth, Trump posted the following on Facebook:
"1,400 workers in Indianapolis are informerd their company is moving to Mexico. WE cannot allw this to keep happening! It WILL NOT happen under my watch! We need to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!"
This is a ready made campaign issue for Sanders, and I expect him to comment on this, very forcefully, any minute now.
I don't have a a decent prescription on how to fix this. Expecially since I'm surely oversimplifying everything.
Still, videos like the one below make me angry, and makes me understand why the rest of the country is so angry.
What I don't understand is why corporate America, and the politicians they pay off, are so bewildered by the fact that everyone is so pissed off.
But then, cluelessness is their forte.
I love/hate how the guy announcing the layoffs explains things. As if the 1,400 he's discarding should just be happy the company is "rescuing" its financial well being.
From theblaze.com, we start with the company rep making the announcement:
"'The best way to stay competitive and protect the business longterm is to move production from our facility in Indianapolis to Monterrey, Mexico,' te representative says as the employees begin booing and shouting.
The representative goes on to share details that the company doesn't intend to fully close the facility's doors until mid-2017, and encourages employees to 'remain committed to manufacturing the same quality products' until then."
Yeah, like the employees are going to do that to a corporate who thinks their garbage. Pro tip: I wouldn't buy any Carrier air conditioning products going forward.
Theblaze.com then continues with the reaction from the workers:
"'Yeah, fuck you!' one person shouts back.
Later, another one says, 'How long will it take before people start tearing shit up?'
The representative then tells employees how 'extremely difficult' a decision this was to make.
'It was made most difficult because I understand it will have an impact on all of you, your families, and the community,' he said."
Oh, please, this decision was NOT difficult for United Technologies. Anything to maximize profits, right?
Here's the video:
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