Layoffs by major employer leave Tecumseh reeling (340 jobs)

[UpInArms]

http://www.mlive.com/business/aanews/index.ssf?/base/business-2/1085755718251970.xml

(Ann Arbor, Michigan)

The community in Tecumseh is reeling after Tecumseh Products Co. announced recently that it will eliminate hundreds of local jobs.

"It's been our major manufacturer for many, many years. We still refer to ourselves as the refrigeration capital of the world," said Mayor Harvey Schmidt of this Lenawee County community of 8,600.

Among the company's main products are industrial components like compressors, motors and small engines, including ones used in refrigerators.

"Anytime you lose one job, it has a ripple effect. We've always had a good relationship (with Tecumseh Products), and we (expect) to maintain good relations even though we go through hard times," he said.

The company has said that elimination of 340 jobs is part of its global restructuring strategy to curb production costs and deal with foreign competition. A spokesman for the firm did not return calls for comment on this article.

...more...

[phillybri]

1. Life in the Bush economy...

It would really be nice if one fucking day could go by w/o another thread like this...Thanks, W.:grr:

[UpInArms]

5. perhaps we are not the only ones that are getting pissed off

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a7cvZRQzkyTg&refer=news_index

Bush Support Among Factory Owners Wanes as China Imports Rise

May 25 (Bloomberg) -- Some owners of U.S. factories that employ less than 400 workers say their support for President George W. Bush is waning because he hasn't done enough to help them compete against cheaper manufactured goods from China.

``This administration has somewhere and at some point along the way lost touch with the manufacturing base of this country,'' said Jim Chesnutt, 62, president of National Spinning Co., which has six plants in North Carolina. ``I can't support this administration,'' he said, after voting for Bush in 2000.

James Zawacki, the chairman of GR Spring & Stamping Inc. in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and a donor of $2,000 to Bush's campaign last year, said he agreed with proposals Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has made to block Chinese imports, file a World Trade Organization case for China to revalue its currency and restore government funds for a manufacturing program.

``I can't say how I'll vote,'' said Zawacki, 61. ``I'm very conservative, but I wish something would happen to make me want to vote for Bush.''

...more...

(note: I take absolutely no pleasure in posting the layoff notices on a daily basis - I do it because the policies of this mal-administration can too easily be overlooked if no one is watching. :sigh:

[malachi]

11. Souless Corp America

Their only allegience is to the bottom line. Not really Americans at all when you think of it. They sell that God bless America shit so that we can send our sons and daughters to protect their assets in foreign lands. By the way, do you think we could trade Kevin Millwood for a couple of lap dances at Cheerleaders? One lap dance? Free admission?

[phillybri]

12. When was he abducted by aliens and forced to suck???

Hell, I'd take a lap dance at 7th Heaven in Conshohocken for his sorry ass!

[mhr]

2. When Will It End? Does Anyone Know? Maybe Frodo Knows?

eom

[meow2u3]

3. Curse, anyone?

Will Tecumseh's curse take effect, now that Bush is enabling craportations to lay off workers in the town named for him?

Place your bets.

[Bandit]

8. Is that the twenty year curse?

The one that says every twenty years or the years ending in zero that a president is elected will either be assassinated or die in office. That could really be a nightmare scenerio if Cheney were to become CIC. Apparently he has a brain just no heart or soul.

[Andy_Stephenson]

4. And in other news...

Tecumseh Products announces a strategic relationship with Bangpo motor factory Bangpo, China.

[keithyboy]

6. It's the way the neocons have planned it: "Haves" and "have-nots"

No more middle class. Just an elite class having every whim and want and need served and serviced by the working poor. Folks, the "American Dream" as it was is no more. there just aren't enough service jobs for the masses to feed their families. The tax cuts to the rich make absolutely no sense for boosting the economy...rich folks already have bought everything they need and want; they won't be buying more, just hoarding more, passing it on to their ingrate, idle children. So where does that leave most of us?

[Ann Arbor Dem]

7. Fucking Todd Herrick (Pres. and CEO of Tecumseh Products)

I've met him several times over the years and never, never came away with even a glimmer of a positive impression of him. The Herrick Foundation gives a lot of money to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a conservative think-tank. Not surprising.

OT: I absolutely abhor those idiots for co-opting the name, Mackinac, but that's a personal issue.

[JayS]

9. Tecumseh is still manufacturing in the U.S.? I thought they...

...took everything to Mexico years ago. Or is that Briggs & Stratton?

[74dodgedart]

10. Clearly we need to give rich people more tax-breaks <eom>