'Real Kick in the Ass': Company to Make Move to Mexico Despite Prior Warnings From Trump

[DonViejo]

Source: Mediaite



by J.D. Durkin | 1:34 pm, February 8th, 2017

A company in Indianapolis is apparently prepared to deal with any repercussions that come in the form of a Twitter tirade by our President as it prepares to move forward with its announced plan to move manufacturing south of the border.

Rexnord Corporation (RXN) first earned the ire of President Donald Trump in December after he caught wind of the company’s plan to lay off 300 American workers in an effort to save $30 million a year in manufacturing costs:

Link to tweet

?

Despite the public shaming by the then-President-elect, the Milwaukee-based industrial bearings company is forging ahead with its planned move to Mexico, a process that will gut its American workforce in exchange for cheaper labor costs. And to add insult to injury, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that employees from the company’s new digs in Mexico have visited the Indianapolis plant as of late to receive training before the move.

One employee, Tim Mathis, said, “That’s a real kick in the ass to be asked to train your replacement, to train the man that’s going to eat your bread.” Mathis worked for Rexnord for 12 years. Employees were previously hopeful that the company might about-face given the public scrutiny that Trump put them under via his erratic and unpredictable Twitter account. Additionally, pressure from Trump on Carrier, also in Indianapolis, lead to that company adjusting its own plans to move some manufacturing efforts to Mexico.

Read more: http://www.mediaite.com/online/real-kick-in-the-ass-company-to-make-move-to-mexico-despite-prior-warnings-from-trump/

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[kimbutgar]

1. Wisconsin voted for chump, suffer the consequences

They can't blame this on President Obama.

[mobeau69]

8. It's Indianapolis but same difference.

[Javaman]

2. so are they leaving because of trump or in-spite of him?

sad to see the jobs go, but at the same time it clearly makes the point that trump is a very clueless and ineffectual leader.

[keithbvadu2]

3. Save those jobs, Donald! Spend state tax money to do it like you did for Carrier.

Save those jobs, Donald! Spend state tax money to do it like you did for Carrier.

[tenorly]

4. NAFTA: the gift that keeps on giving.

On top of giving us millions of unemployed/uneremployed, it gave Trump the White House. How?

They were able to lay blame for the hated trade pact on Bill Clinton, who merely signed it. The real blame should be with old man Bush, who proposed, negotiated, and sealed the deal; but all people remember is that Clinton signed it (much to his own regret)

[bucolic_frolic]

7. The Republican Congress insisted Clinton sign it

He would have been impeached again, as well as excoriated for refusing.
Their business contributors wanted NAFTA, to make money; free flow of
capital and all that.

[tenorly]

13. Which goes to show that as long as politics remains a pay-to-play game,

all is lost.

[Jose Garcia]

18. President Clinton signed NAFTA in 1993. Both chambers of Congress were controlled by Democrats

[TexasBushwhacker]

27. It was passed with bipartisan support in both houses

34 Republicans and 27 Democrats in the Senate. 132 Republicans and 102 Democrats in the House.

[TexasBushwhacker]

28. Job loss due to NAFTA was 600 to 700K

Our biggest job losses are to China and other countries in Asia. That's where the millions of manufacturing jobs have gone, not Mexico.

[delisen]

29. Explain why Obama actively supported The Trans Pacific Partnership. n/t

[tenorly]

31. Wall Street, and large corporations in general.

Obama is nothing if not pragmatic, and the last thing he wanted was to ruin the cordial relationship Democrats had built up with the Borg (for lack of a better term) since the Clinton years. Ultimately, as we all know, it backfired.

[tenorly]

33. That's right.

Politics, sadly, is still very much the art of the possible. And when it does change in any meaningful way, it's usually by way of a crisis.

Perhaps Trump is here for a higher purpose after all (ah, the irony).

[Mosby]

35. TARP was loans not a "bailout"

And it was all paid back with interest, which earned us a 15+ BILLION dollar profit.

[yallerdawg]

5. It was pointed out 95% of customers in the world...

live outside the USA.

I'm sure if the idiot in the White House screws up our cheap imports, keeps our wages flat lined, and increases wealth and opportunity around the world with his protectionist, isolationist policies - more and more capitalists will ignore this moron and just sell to the rest of the world!

Profits know no borders!

[justhanginon]

26. They will have to since republican policies will make the populace

of this country poor as the rich get richer. There will be no money left for the average worker to spend except on absolute basic necessities. Couple that with the coming destruction of the public school system by DeVoss so that lack of knowledge or any semblance of critical thinking will become the norm thus further weakening an already mostly uninformed voting citizenry. This will all make the right wing propagandists job easier and the downward spiral will continue.

[Mosby]

34. americans represent 27% of world comsumer spending

So your stat is completely wrong. The next closest country is China at 7%. Without American purchases the world economy would collapse, starting with China, Japan and Germany.

This country desperately needs fair trade policies, that and health care reform are the only way to save the middle class from collapse.

[yallerdawg]

36. Completely wrong?

4.3% of population in US.

As our borders are closed and policies enacted reducing our capacity to buy foreign products - the other 95% of customers in the world will become much more important.

I guess your stat will become increasingly irrelevant and out of date.

http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/

[Mosby]

37. Yeah, competely wrong

It's about houshold spending, not population.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_consumer_markets

This country needs tariffs to level the playing field, this used to be standard liberal thinking but the globalists have done an outstanding job fooling liberals and progressives.

Here is one progressive who gets it (or at least used to)


What about free trade?
A: We’ve gone the first mile. I don’t disagree with the premise of the free traders. But we need an emerging middle class in these countries, and we’re not getting one. So now is the time to have labor and environmental standards attached to trade agreements.
Q: What if they say no?
A: Then I’d say, “Fine, that’s the end of free trade.”
Q: What do you mean, that’s the end of free trade? Then we slap tariffs on these countries?
A: Yes.
Q: So you’d be in favor of tariffs at that point.
A: If necessary. Look, Jimmy Carter did this in foreign policy. If you can’t get people to observe human rights, and say that we’re going to accept products from countries that have kids working no overtime, no time and a half, no reasonable safety precautions-- I don’t think we ought to be buying those kinds of products in this country. We’re enabling that to happen.

http://www.ontheissues.org/2016/Howard_Dean_Free_Trade.htm

[yallerdawg]

38. You be sure and tell me what I'm talking about...

and THEN tell me I'm wrong.

I'll just say now.

[Mosby]

39. nothing personal

It's a complicated issue and there is a ton of bad info out there.

I wasn't intentionally trying to talk over you, sorry.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. Economists and politicians have pushed free trade

since the 1940s because they view trade barriers as helping enable the
rise of Nazi Germany, and because theoretically all are better off with
free trade. Make no mistake, many company leaders pushed hard for it,
capitalists always looking to reduce costs.

So this company's move should be no surprise, they've put planning
costs into it, and why should they stop because suddenly a politician
says so?

This about-face on everything that Trump is trying to pull is going to be
very expensive in the short run, and more so in the long run when some
of his policies are reversed again.

[Renew Deal]

9. Money talks and these guys are a B2B

[TacoD]

10. Trump's too busy worrying about Nordstrom and SNL to care now (nt)

[geek tragedy]

11. at this point, I'm rooting for Mexico and Mexican workers as opposed

to Trump and workers in Trump's America.

No Mexican ever ruined my country the way the dumbfuck Trumpers did.

[orwell]

12. That's the free market snowflake...

...you know, the system you keep telling everyone is the GREATEST WINNING AWESOME EXCEPTIONAL system in the world!

Isn't winning great?

[TeamPooka]

14. Funniest words? "No more" lol He keeps saying that and they keep leaving. nt

[dawnie51]

15. Been hearing this story....

for over 25 years. It's heartbreaking every time. But it's nothing new. It's the corporations MO.

[TeamPooka]

16. nothing like micro-managing for 300 jobs as a POTUS. Small timer looking for a victim he can bully

[wordpix]

17. hey fake pres: bring your own and Ivanka's clothes manufacturing back!

Fricking hypocrite

[rickford66]

19. Trump ! Bring your hotels back to the USA !!

[workinclasszero]

20. THANKS TRUMP!!!!!

[Doitnow]

21. As I read these posts and the conversations going on, criticism and resistance happening,

I'm wondering if Pence, if installed replacing tRump would be quite so much of a problem realizing the same would be applied to him. More people are waking up to the horrors of the reThug party. At least Pence would recognize what he would be up against. I don't think tRump will ever realize he's having problems.

[Tatiana]

22. BUT, BUT 45 said he was gonna slap a tariff on 'em!

And that would keep them from leaving. Right?

Ohhhhh they're still moving? 300 people will still be out of work?

Guess the pResident isn't the Great White Hope they thought he was...

[Xolodno]

23. Well....

...that's price you pay for cheaper goods.

Its a cluster-fuck. On one hand, yes people like buying iPhone's and Galaxy devices that are under a grand, avocados, tomatoes, etc. for a low price and at all times of the year.

But the obvious issue that is NEVER addressed is the allowing of free movement of labor and requiring wages equitable in the host country to equate to the standard of living of the nation they are exiting.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

24. This can't be. I saw a photo op of him today with stacks of paper on his desk.

Deals he is negotiating he told us.

Maybe he just hast gotten to this deal. Is it on the bottom of the stack?

Potemkin President.

[ck4829]

25. Kick

[Yonnie3]

30. I saw the export of jobs up close and personal.

At the last full time "permanent" job I had, the molding operations were moved to Mexico in 2003 and the packaging operations to Memphis. A major factor, besides the lower labor costs, was that waste we handled as hazardous was allowed to be discharged into the sewer in Mexico. The management asked machine operators to go to Mexico to train the new operators. This didn't go over so well with the rural Virginia employees.

Several years before this, top level management laid off most of the packaging machine operators. Many were rehired via a temporary employee agency for unskilled hand packaging work. The packaging supervisors, seeing these trained operators packing by hand, reassigned them to their old jobs. The machines then had the lowest up time ever recorded. My calculations (I was the responsible engineer for those machines) indicated that it now cost nearly 75% more to package product.

In the 80's many of the same people at a different factory lost jobs due to a joint venture with a Japanese company. Much of the manufacturing went to Asia.

Decades later I can imagine these rural Virginians voting for Trump on his American jobs bullshit, but that train left the station ages ago.