Deere to *CLOSE* Welland, Ontario, factory and transfer production ...

[jdbower]

Hopefully everyone indignant at closing down factories will scrape together a few pennies and buy a share or two of Deere stock (ticker symbol DE). If enough of you get together and say you prefer to keep the jobs in the US or Canada than to make money off the stock then the jobs will stay. Until then, Deere is at the mercy of the other investors who say profit is more important - if they don't do this the investors fire them and hire someone who will. Sure, buying 100 shares or 10 or even 1 share isn't going to give YOU a meaningful voice in a big company, but if 1000 of you do this and then tell your friends and family to do it you can actually start to affect change. But until you buy into the company you get no vote.

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

Hopefully everyone indignant at closing down factories will scrape together a few pennies and buy a share or two of Deere stock (ticker symbol DE). If enough of you get together and say you prefer to keep the jobs in the US or Canada than to make money off the stock then the jobs will stay. Until then, Deere is at the mercy of the other investors who say profit is more important - if they don't do this the investors fire them and hire someone who will.

Sorry, this cannot be blamed on Investors. Blame it on all the consumers who will not pay the price for real or perceived JD quality. Whether it is JD, Vice Grip, GM, Ford or whoever, there are literly millions of individual consumers who just want to buy on price and think their individual purchase of off shore product makes no difference. They all have their rationalization and excuse why they should buy offshore or why, in their view, it makes no difference.

In the end, collectively it does make a difference. Just to name a few. Effectively there is no more NA textile industry, electronics industry. The auto industry is going down the tubes as are many other manufacturing sectors. Doesn't having offhsore companies manufacturing weapons for the USA seem like a scary idea - OH I forgot - it's cheaper - no problem.

 

[CurlyDave]

All they care about is profit. And it does not matter whose expense it comes at.

If the management of any company were to place anything in front of profit, they would rapidly go out of business. Then all of the jobs would be gone.

For my money, I will take moving some manufacturing jobs around now, over losing all of them in a few years.

 

[dmp437]

All they care about is profit. And it does not matter whose expense it comes at.

Actually, it's quality and cost that is looked at in these situations. (GM just came through our place a couple of weeks ago so it's still fresh.) And the Welland workers, being represented by the CAW, have the highest labor costs in North America. Consequently, they're the first to go. GM is closing Oshawa Truck Assembly in 2010 for the same reason. Also possibly (probably?) factored into the equation is the age of the facility. Welland opened in 1910 with an expansion in the 40's or 50's. Older plants are less energy efficient and more expensive to keep running.
This whole situation was probably accelerated by the run up in raw material costs. The price of steel has doubled in a short period, the cost of energy to run the plant has doubled (at least), and transportation costs have increased. Either the price is raised enough to cover or ways are found to minimize the increase. They are also getting four plants of production out of three, so there is a cost savings there as well.

Steering gear in Bay City

Saginaw Steering Systems is in Buena Vista Township and is getting some jobs back from Mexico.

 

[nmu98]

Saginaw Steering Systems is in Buena Vista Township and is getting some jobs back from Mexico.

Thats Delphi, not GM.... GM has a plant on woodside in Bay City, just off the river.

 

[sunspot]

We want to build a plant in America and you have to pay all sorts of taxes, fees, and fight to get anything put in. For example the company I work for, they have an offer from the Singapore government to build another fab there. They will give the land to the company, build the building (about 1 billion to put that up) and no taxes for the first 5 years. They will also pay for all of the training for the workers there and cover all worker costs for the first 2 years.

Singapore sounds like Alabama. The State falls all over itself offering incentives to bring in industries. We now have Mercedes, Hyundai and Honda. A large German steel company is coming but we lost the bid to have a Volkswagen plant here. We won the bid to have Northrop build Air Force tankers built here but Boeing whined about losing the bid so the Government is having the contract re-bid.

 

[EddieWalker]

Singapore sounds like Alabama. The State falls all over itself offering incentives to bring in industries. We now have Mercedes, Hyundai and Honda. A large German steel company is coming but we lost the bid to have a Volkswagen plant here. We won the bid to have Northrop build Air Force tankers built here but Boeing whined about losing the bid so the Government is having the contract re-bid.

I've noticed the same thing here where I live. The city and county go out of there way to provide incentives and tax breaks to new business that relocates to here. Carrier is the latest to do so because of the tax breaks, but also the labor pool that's available.

Recently I read an article comparing Alabama to Michigan that compared them in the auto market. The employees in both areas make about the same money, but the ones in Alabama have a much higher standard of living because of lower taxes and more affordable houseing. They are also building vehicles that people are buying, while the companies in Michigan are stuggling.

The article cited the Unions and the local Government as the reason why the auto makers are having so much trouble there. The union employee just doesn't have the same mindset as the non-union worker in Alabama. One is appreciative of his job, the other takes advantage of it. As a Union member for 13 years and shop steward for 8 years in the freight business, I've seen this mentality first hand, and I've seen how those who have it, will force others to come down to their level.

Add massive taxes, restrictions and delays to running the company, and it's no wonder they relocate to other areas.

Tyler Texas, which is where I live, has one of the best economies in the nation. Allot of this is because it's very business friendly. We don't have any sort of a recession and in fact, building is out of control, homes are selling and people are moving here at a record level. We're building new schools to handle the extra kids, which is started out with a new record level this year!!!

Michigan is the biggest example of how not to run a state, and how government policy can ruin the best and biggest of companies.

Sorry to hear about the Deere plant closing down, but if they don't make a profit, then there is no reason to be there.

Eddie

 

[nate_m]

The article cited the Unions and the local Government as the reason why the auto makers are having so much trouble there. The union employee just doesn't have the same mindset as the non-union worker in Alabama. One is appreciative of his job, the other takes advantage of it. As a Union member for 13 years and shop steward for 8 years in the freight business, I've seen this mentality first hand, and I've seen how those who have it, will force others to come down to their level.


Eddie

I agree. Kind of...
I have worked in automotive factories all over the country. Just because a factory is union-ized doesn't necessasarily make it bad. There are some really efficient, well-run union factories out there.

But, sadly, the majority are in-efficient and corrupt. When a guy (or girl) is getting paid $20 ~ $30 per hour to sit and read the newspaper or sleep all day, everyday then there is something seriously wrong with the system.
There was definately a time when unions were a necessity in this country. But now, they are their own worst enemy.
The few unions that are present in the new factories in the South are typicaly not the same unions that have dominated and destroyed the auto industry in the North.

I hope they don't follow the same trend...

 

[AKfish]

Noted an article in the newspaper the other day comparing the sales statistics of the major automakers.
Every one of the top 5 has had declining sales except Honda.

Seems that Honda has persisted in their philosophy that building a well made, reliable and lower polluting, more energy efficient car or truck would eventually win them "market share".
The other major manufacturers fell into the hole of bigger, faster and more gas!

Lot's of reason's that companies succeed or fail. Sometimes it's as simple as not "seeing where you're headed"!!

Union bashing as the cause of a companies relocating or going out of business is a knee jerk response that does not recognize the complexities of the marketplace and does little to provide for a solution except to establish a "race to the bottom" for workers.

So, instead of "driving down" U.S. and Canadian workers to the level of Chinese or Indian or (fill-in your favorite 3rd world country) workers; business and political leaders should be working to "level out" the playing field for goods and services that originate in those countries that don't have the the same costs of production as the domestic manufacturers.

AKfish

 

[mjncad]

So, instead of "driving down" U.S. and Canadian workers to the level of Chinese or Indian or (fill-in your favorite 3rd world country) workers; business and political leaders should be working to "level out" the playing field for goods and services that originate in those countries that don't have the the same costs of production as the domestic manufacturers.

AKfish

What a novel idea...fair trade instead of free trade, I like it.

Unfortunately USA & Canadian governments at all levels have become so bloated that the only way they feel they can lure businesses to locate to an area is via tax breaks, giveaways, etc. Had these governments provided just the essentials as the founding fathers intended; then people and companies would have plenty of money to open businesses and grow them instead of trying to feed the red tape machinery of government. It's no wonder companies offshore; yet it disgusts me that they do.