Thread: N.C.: Auto workers blame NAFTA for layoffs

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Auto workers blame NAFTA for layoffs
By: David Kernodle
5/2/2009



GASTONIA, N.C. – Local officials of the United Auto Workers said dozens of workers will be getting pink slips by the end of May as more Freightliner layoffs are expected in Gaston County.

It’s the latest round of company layoffs, adding to the county’s soaring unemployment rate.

Freightliner executives have been cutting production in all its North Carolina facilities and systematically laying off waves of workers.

In a company statement, they cited lessening consumer demand.

Former Freightliner employees protested Saturday, saying the company is building plants in Mexico for cheaper labor. They partially blame the relocation on the North American Free Trade Agreement.

But they also put the blame squarely on the shoulders of local leaders, saying representatives like Sue Myrick aren’t doing enough to make free trade fair.

“Free trade is something I always believe in from the standpoint we have to trade with different people,â€

Tax imports doubles Americans, do not BUY imported goods. Shop second stores, go to yard sales, grow your own food, recycle everything you can think of, and share with your American neighbors.

Congresswoman Myrick the natives are not like how Congress is doing their JOB Forget the other countries, think AMERICAN - Congress.

Right On! I haven't bought a new thing for myself or my house or a new car or gifts or anything in almost 4 years. I only pay the bills and buy food and household supplies, gas, etc. We're do for some updates around here, that's for sure, but I don't care, I'll outlast them, I refuse to consume until our government fixes our country, our companies who want to sell to the American market trot their asses back to the United States and these stupid politicians realize that Free Trade isn't free when it costs us our industrial base, our jobs base, our economy, our government and soon it will cost us our sovereignty.

Sure we can trade with different people, of course we can still have lots of international trade with countries who need our things and I'm sure they have things we need, but not at their parity level, at ours, not when they carry trade surpluses and we fund trade deficits. Tthis is supposed to be a race to the top, not the bottom.

Wake Up America! Unions, tell it like it really is! You've been sold out by the very people you thought were there to help you. They stabbed you in the back like all phony friends and treasonous politicians will ultimately do. Align with people who have been fighting for workers rights for generations, the people who freed the slaves, the people who fought for the first 40 hour work week in our country, who fought for over-time pay for our workers, who fought for the first minimum wage, who fought for OSHA to ensure safe working conditions, who fought for protectionism to protect our industries to protect your jobs, who fought for anti-trust legislation to protect our businesses, consumers and free enterprise system from the tyranny of monopolies. If you don't know who those people are, then don't you think it's time you did some research and found out? We're still here, still fighting, the 7th generation of us.

We be your fellow Americans.

Here in Ohio and the surrounding states, we've been watching this happen for decades now. All the local states here have become hellholes thanks to thousands upon thousands of famiies being thrown out of work. Our tax base is gone, so streets don't get repaired and city services are almost a thing of the past, except for the bare necessities.

I too stopped shopping for the most part, and when I do I check the labels and buy American when I can.

I read sometime back that now that we've lost our manufacturing base, we can't even make the weapons we need to defend ourselves when China attacks as they have already told us they would be more than happy to do. There's a tank plant in Cleveland that worked overtime during past wars...it's not even open now.

Families are barely hanging onto their homes, and these aren't McMansions...they're older two story homes. They only hang on, when they do, by working 3 and 4 jobs between 2 parents. They're selling off all but the bare necessities.

The thing that really smokes my cookies is I never heard a peep out of anyone but people around here until it was their IT jobs that got shipped out. Most Americans didn't give a fat baby's behind as long as it was only a "lowly factory job" on the line. Construction workers didn't care...until the illegals started underbidding them for their jobs. NO ONE cared until it was their jobs on the auction block. Then they all expected us to get up and protest with them when it was their "important white collar IT job" or their high paying construction jobs on the line... while they drove their japanese cars to the protest.

They moved those jobs to the southeast portion of our nation first, because very few people there believed in unions or the right to fight for decent wages and treatment; then when the people there started to stand up for themselves or the company figured out China or mexico was even cheaper, they did and are doing the same thing to the southeast part of our nation they did to us decades ago.

And on a side note, if anyone has a store called Menard's in their area, you might want to give it a shot. I got a flyer from them a week or so ago and all their American made products are marked as such in their circulars. I was a tiny bit encouraged but unless Americans go to stores such as that and start making some demands of our own, it won't last long and it won't get any better. It's a great thing to come to sites like this and let off steam but if this is the only place you're voicing your opinion, it does no good.

Store managers need to hear it...they have meetings with their bosses and sooner or later, the ivory tower guys get the message. Companies need to be called and you need to voice your anger in no uncertain terms. It does absolutely no good to boycott a company unless the powers that be know you're boycotting them and why.

Sorry about the rant...no I'm not, but I'm sorry if I offended anyone. This has been a pet peeve of mine for decades and I feel like I'm in the fight almost alone.

We be your fellow Americans.

We Are your fellow Americans . Sorry I just could not understand what you were trying to say .

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