Thread: Miramar Workers Lose Jobs To Mexico

http://cbs4.com/business/Orthopedic.Com ... 73535.html

Miramar Workers Lose Jobs To Mexico
German Owner Axes 163 Employees
Company Was Started In Hialeah, Then Moved To Miramar Reporting
Gary Nelson
HIALEAH (CBS4) ―

FLA Orthopedics, a Miramar medical device manufacturing company, is shutting down its South Florida operations and relocating scores of jobs to a plant in Mexico. The company, founded 34 years ago in Hialeah, will lay off 163 employees, starting next month.

At the plant that manufactures orthopedic braces, splints and bandages, workers were angry Wednesday. "Four weeks severance. That's what they're giving me after 18 years of service," said one worker who declined to give her name.

"We feel sad. We have families, we have bills to pay," said Cecilia Cosorino as she pondered impending joblessness on her lunch break outside the plant on Premier Parkway. "We have to look for jobs and Miami's got no jobs."

A German company, BSN Medical, acquired FLA Orthopedics about a year ago. A company spokesman told CBS4 News Wednesday that closing the Miramar plant and moving the jobs to Reynosa, Mexico, is part of an effort to "consolidate operations."

Some soon to be jobless workers at the Miramar plant Wednesday offered sarcastic cheers of "viva, Mexico!" as they gathered around a lunch wagon in the parking lot. Some were angry with U.S. leaders. "The company is moving to Mexico and Washington is doing nothing about it," said Oresto Rizo. "A lot of the people here are old. Where are they going to go, what are they going to do?"

One employee of FLA Orthopedics said Wednesday that the government – Medicare and Medicaid – is among the company's biggest customers. "I'm losing my job to Mexico," he said, "And losing my tax dollars, too."

Labor advocates say an environment that makes exporting U.S. jobs to other countries attractive to business has been created by lopsided free trade agreements and a lack of incentives for companies to keep jobs at home.

"N.A.F.T.A. has failed the American worker," said South Florida AFL-CIO president Fred Frost. "It has sent 2.5 million jobs (overseas)." Frost said free trade agreements have failed to require health care, environmental safety rules, wage and hour standards and other benefits for workers in Mexico and other countries, making it cheaper for companies to operate there. "The playing field is not level," Frost said, adding that businesses need economic incentives to keep jobs in America. "They need tax breaks, tax incentives to keep jobs here for local people," Frost said.

President Barack Obama suggested the same in his campaign for the Whitehouse, saying that businesses should not be rewarded for exporting U.S. jobs. The Obama administration has not yet proposed specific legislation, however.

Mr. Obama was in London Wednesday at the G-20 summit of world economic leaders. Thousands of protestors jammed downtown London streets, many of them critical of an emerging global economy that they feel benefits corporations and the wealthy at the expense of the working and middle class.

Related:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-151929.html