Thread: Kraft closes factory, jobs go to China

Just another example of American and Australian jobs being stolen and sent to communist china! The plant in Hoover Alabama is also being shut down! Chinese Oreos!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Kra ... 36150.html

Kraft closes factory, jobs go to China

January 11, 2006 - 7:14PM

China has bitten off another section of Australia'smanufacturing industry as Kraft Foods announced it is closing one of itstwo Melbourne factories, making 151 workers redundant.

The food giant said in a statement on Wednesday it was closing itsBroadmeadows biscuit plant because "manufacturing costs remain too high forthe facility to remain sustainable within the highly competitive biscuitscategory".

But union leaders representing workers at the factory slammed the companyfor not reinvesting in the country - Australia - that bought its productsand supplied its profits.

The multinational will shift production of its dry biscuit brands to "aregional facility in China" while distribution within Australia will becontracted to a "third party logistics provider", it said.

The company has promised it will pay its workers all entitlements as wellas a redundancy package and provide "career transition" support.

Jane Farrell, assistant branch secretary of the Liquor Hospitality andMiscellaneous Union which covers production workers at the plant, saidKraft should have warned workers and made redundancy preparations wellbefore Wednesday's snap announcement.

The food giant had taken over local biscuit manufacturer Lanes whichpreviously owned the Broadmeadows operation.

But 12 months ago it began building a biscuit factory in China to replaceits Melbourne operation, she said.

"A very wealthy, large multi-national moves in, takes over in recent yearsand guts the place and puts everyone on the dole queue," she said.

"It's about recognising the contributions those workers make to the successof that company and the profits of that company and the pay packets ofthose bosses.

"The only reason it's cheaper to make it in China is they don't pay awardor minimum standards, there's poorer health and safety.

"We've got grave concerns about what conditions those people in China workunder."

Maintenance workers at the Broadmeadows factory are represented by theAustralian Manufacturing Workers Union. Its state president, ChrisSpindler, accused Kraft of abandoning its responsibility to "reinvest inthe society that buys their products".

"If we just fall into the argument of saying `Well, labour is cheaper inChina than Australia' well, we might as well pack up everything now," hesaid.

Instead governments - both state and federal - should show more support forthe manufacturing sector by investing in research, development andinfrastructure, just as the Chinese government did, he said.

Victoria's Acting Premier John Thwaites said his government would help theretrenched workers look for other manufacturing jobs in the area.

http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/13761660.htm

Posted on Wed, Feb. 01, 2006

Kraft stock falls on news more cuts are planned
The giant food company's earnings beat expectations, but shares fall 56
cents.

The Associated Press

CHICAGO - Shares of Kraft Foods Inc., the nation's biggest food company,
fell more than 3 percent Tuesday after disclosing plans to broaden the
cost-cutting effort it launched two years ago to boost profits.

The maker of Oreo cookies and DiGiorno pizza announced after the markets
closed on Monday a three-year plan to slash an additional 8,000 jobs, or 8
percent of its workers, and close 20 production plants worldwide.

The announcement came even as Kraft reported fourth quarter financial
results that surpassed Wall Street's expectations.

But in trading on Tuesday, Kraft shares fell 56 cents to close at $29.44 in
trading on the New York Stock Exchange, closer to the lower end of their
52-week range of $27.44 to $34.30.

Kraft is in the midst of a three-year cost-cutting program begun in early
2004 that has laid off 5,500 workers and shuttered 19 plants. The latest
moves would result in a total of about 13,500 layoffs and nearly 40 closed
facilities by the end of 2008.

Kraft said it would trim its product line by another 10 percent, atop a 20
percent cut since 2004. The company said it intends to shut plants in
Broadmeadows, Victoria in Australia and Hoover, Ala., but did not announce
the other facilities it plans to close.

A spokesman said Tuesday that it was too soon to say if there would be any
effect on the company's service center in the Hanover Industrial Estates.
More than 300 people work there, providing customer service, online sales
and financial services.

When complete, Kraft said the cuts should save $700 million annually,
bringing its total savings to $1.15 billion.

"Further cost reduction is a necessity in the current environment," Chief
Financial Officer Jim Dollive told analysts during a conference call.

Kraft is 86 percent owned by Altria Group Inc., the parent of tobacco
company Philip Morris. Altria has repeatedly stated it plans to spin off
Kraft once it settles outstanding litigation hanging over the tobacco
business.

Investors are still awaiting word on when Altria will split up its
businesses. But the company must first clear one high hurdle - the
appellate review of the $145 billion Engle tobacco liability case in
Florida. That state's Supreme Court is reviewing the punitive award in
the case that was overturned on appeal.

Just another example of American and Australian jobs being stolen and sent to communist china! The plant in Hoover Alabama is also being shut down! Chinese Oreos!

But is China actually "stealing" the jobs or are they just taking advantage of greedy American businessmen who would rather leave American workers out in the cold than line their own pockets.

I already check my food products pretty carefully. If it doesn't say it was made somewhere in the USA, I don't buy it. Period. And I even restrict some of my purchases to refrain from buying food products from businesses known to hire illegal aliens, such as Tyson foods. I have been doing this for quite some time. I can tell you that my list of products I CAN feel comfortable about buying is diminishing.

We are going to have to start growing our own food again before you know it.

Even cookies and biscuits aren't safe.

I won't even buy chewies for my dogs, if it doesn't say made in usa.

Has anyone ever found a bra, that is made here? I haven't.

Shock! Yesterday I saw a product in Wal-mart, made in Canada! WEll, at least it's not Chinese.

Did you know salmon is sent to China to be deboned and sent back here? It takes 2 weeks for the salmon to be shipped back here.

I think all meat should be marked what country it's from..I just don't understand this....why sell and buy meats from other countries.

EVen a tomato is marked what country it came from...and I do not buy them.

This is going to be the only way we can stop big business from sending our jobs overseas.

I think all meat should be marked what country it's from..I just don't understand this....why sell and buy meats from other countries.

I don't know about meat, unless it is in a sealed package or in a can, but I do know that if you buy frozen fish, it says on the package where it came from. Most shrimp in this area comes from Thialand, for example.

It makes me very angry because many of my long time friends are North Carolina's commercial fishermen. They are being put out of business by not only by unfair state and federal legislation but also by the importers. Read the packages. It's sure an education.

Yet.... those same firms will wail for military intervention if their foreign holdings are threatened. Who will be sent? The military that is primarily composed of people from the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid.

You will not see the sons and daughters of the CEOs and others from the "upper ranks" shedding their blood on foreign soil.

Meanwhile, those elites continue to amass wealth and power while we compete with millions of invaders who drive down wages and make rents rise ever higher.

In the past foreign countries have nationalized the holdings of American corporations within those countries. Cuba is one, when Castro rose to power. Mexico booted out American oil companies. And, at times, those American corporations were not reimbursed or were only partially reimbursed.

I hope and pray that every American corporation sending jobs overseas runs afoul of nationalization. I hope China gets very mad at the USA some day and ousts the American corporations while keeping all the infrastructure paid for by those corporations and reaping the rewards.

If we, the people, are gonna' be screwed it's only right for the elites to also be screwed.

I don't wanna' hear the propaganda about we, the people, owning stocks in those corporations and that we will loose, also. Do the research. Discover how 85% or so of all stocks are held by a VERY small percentage of American or foreigners..... the elites of other countries.

Here is a link that shows wealth distribution. This site has similar data to many other sources and I believe it is at least fairly accurate:

http://masonc.home.netcom.com/wealth.html

Here is another site showing how well the elite class is doing economically:

http://www.lcurve.org/

For 30 years now the lower classes of the USA have suffered economically. Stagnant or shrinking real income (adjusted for inflation). Interestingly, the downfall od America's working poor appears to coincide with the 1965 immigration legislation opening the door to the world's poor along with the federal governments desire for millions of illegls to flood in.

We, the common folks of the USA, the majority of the working force, is being spat upon by our elite class, "our" politicians, and foreign elites such as Vicente Fox. Yet, as I look around me, I see the masses complacent to the horrors awaiting them. Pleas to a government of for and by an elite class are apparently futile since I see no meaningful changes.

Prepare for the coming economic collapse, people. It is inevitable that gasoline will hit $5 and more dollars per gallon. Natural gas and other home heating fuels will soar ever higher. Costs of all goods will also soar to reflect the costs of energy. And, as the multi-million continue to flood in, popelling our population to a half-million then up up up to a possible billion, the shortages of critical items will result in HUGE price increases and a much-reduced lifestyle.

WE ARE HEADED FOR A 2nd- THEN A 3rd-WORLD LIFESTYLE while the small minority of elites will be reicher and more powerful than ever.

I can not envision anything to stop the trends. Well, I can, but I agreed to not write about what would prevent the fall of the USA.

Just another sign of how great and strong America'a economy is as President Bush runs around touting his hollow COVER-UP of giving away America with cooked up rosy growth numbers.

What is happening that can allow for Bush and global economists to state that the American economy is growing with more job creation IS that more poor illegal Aliens and Legal Immigrants keep pouring in to the U.S. where then products are being sold (economic numbers look good), but these jobs are all low-wage service,retail, hamburger-flipper jobs OR ILLEGAL cheap labor construction, hotel, landscaping jobs such that then these folks need lower prices so that they shop at China's Wal-Mart-----One big downward spiral---that is a gutting of U.S. prosperity to foreigners. More people means more products which means lower prices which means economic dependency.

What Americans are concerned about is the basic foundation of well-being of the United States that will be passed onto American children. Now as our Rights are being trampled by Eminent domain rulings, the Patriot Act and surveillance programs there is more concern. What in the hell are OUR U.S. Troops fighting for if when they return there is no more United States with NO freedom?? Witnessing, BEING CONCERNED about the DAMAGE being done is NOT ISOLATIONISM OR PROTECTIONISM as President Bush and his global masters fakely want to demonize any policy that is anti-globalism.

The United States has always been engaged globally without false bad "Free" Trade Agreements. The U.S. also gives the most in foreign aid, takes in the highest number of LEGAL immigrants than the World combined, and acted generously in good stead multiple times WITHOUT having to lose jobs, lose freedoms, without being apart of the UN or World Trade Organization, WITHOUT doing away with our Borders to have a 'North American Community', and WITHOUT Bush's policy of worst global detriment to the United States.

As the U.S. becomes more hollow and dependent, we will soon lose superpower status.

Bush-Cheney Admin. are pushed around and used like ragdolls by China and the Corporate controllers like Kraft, Microsoft & Bank of America.

Chinese oreos?? Can we trust this as China is where bird flu has been generated. China's bird flu has come from them eating anything -- rats, half-dead birds....

obop, I see what you are saying. And I have read these theories before. I see a lot of truth in it. However, I also believe that we still have the chance to reverse this downhill slide if we just get enough people interested in voting to vote the incumbents out of office and encourage new legislators to work with the American people under the threat of becoming a voted out incumbent.

Can we trust this as China is where bird flu has been generated. China's bird flu has come from them eating anything -- rats, half-dead birds....

Not only that but there are stowaway illegals on those shiploads of wares that come to our ports. Those stowaways, if they are sick, have the potential to make us all sick just by sneezing and coughing all over the stuff that will eventually end up on the store shelves.

I know I've been called a nut case by people who call that a far fetched possibility, but I still think it can happen.