Amy Goodman: Workers Feel the Pain of Bain

[marmar]

from truthdig:


Workers Feel the Pain of Bain

Posted on Aug 29, 2012
By Amy Goodman


TAMPA, Fla.—Four hardy souls from rural Illinois joined tens of thousands of people undeterred by threats of Hurricane Isaac during this week’s Republican National Convention. They weren’t among the almost 2,400 delegates to the convention, though, nor were they from the press corps, said to number 15,000. They weren’t part of the massive police force assembled here, more than 3,000 strong, all paid for with $50 million of U.S. taxpayer money. These four were about to join a much larger group: the more than 2.4 million people in the past decade whose U.S. jobs have been shipped to China. In their case, the company laying them off and sending their jobs overseas is Bain Capital, co-founded by the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney.

We met the group at Romneyville, a tent city on the outskirts of downtown Tampa, established by the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign in the spirit of the Hoovervilles of the Great Depression. A couple hundred people gathered before the makeshift stage to hear speakers and musicians, under intermittent downpours and the noise of three police helicopters drowning out the voices of the anti-poverty activists. Scores of police on bicycles occupied the surrounding streets.

Cheryl Randecker was one of those four we met at Romneyville whose Bain jobs are among the 170 slated to be off-shored. They build transmission sensors for many cars and trucks made in the United States. Cheryl was sent to China to train workers there, not knowing that the company was about to be sold and the jobs she was training people for included her own. I asked her how it felt to be training her own replacements after working at the same company for 33 years:

“Knowing that you’re going to be completely out of a job and there’s no hope for any job in our area, it was gut-wrenching, because you don’t know where the next point is going to be. I’m 52 years old. What are we going to do? To start over at this point in my life is extremely scary.” ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/workers_feel_the_pain_of_bain_20120829/?ln

[goodword]

1. There Will Be A Lot of People

losing jobs in the near future.

Predictions have it that it won't matter who is elected president, next year is slated for a global depression. Millions of people worldwide will be without work. In many countries there will be food shortages. America probably won't be one of them, but the price of food may be like nothing we've ever seen before. Not to mention the price of gas and utilities.

I have a very bad feeling about the coming few years. I don't consider myself a doomsayer; I'm more a realist, and, like many other people outside the Wall Street and corporate and political world (world not pluralized deliberately), I watch from the outside. America, if not a good portion of the world) looks like a Jenga game that has gone on too long. Shaky, swaying, just waiting for the next block to be added before everything falls down.

We've been teetering on the brink of economic collapse for the last 5 years. We've been the victims of stubborn and controlling politicians who refuse to work for the betterment of the country. Instead they close ranks and declare a cold war that has left us all, save the wealthiest among us, vulnerable to losing everything.

I may sound crazy, but for the last few years I have not invested any money other than what is in my employer 401k program. I won't even put money is a savings account. I've created several checking accounts and have spread money throughout them. I'd rather lose a small bit of interest than trust it to a government that may or may not be able hold up THEIR end of a bargain. And I do not trust Wall Street with my retirement at all right now. I know investment firms WILL screw me out of money if they go belly-up.

This year I've begun stockpiling food. No, not for the zombie apocolypse, but I am sure food prices are going to skyrocket next year. I am taking advantage of BOGO's and sale prices. I'm buying vegetables and freezing them. We don't eat a lot of meat, but I'm buying extra and putting it away in my freezer.

I've never done anything like this before. I've never felt this way before; like something unpleasant lies ahead. If all goes well and we're suddenly all happy and prosperous, then I've lost nothing. We can always eat the food. But....I want to be prepared for bad times if they happen.

[truth2power]

3. Food prices are already a lot higher, in the absolute sense, than anyone likes to admit. But

in addition, packaging continues to shrink even smaller than the "smaller" sizes of a few years ago.

Last week I was looking at the boxes of Rice-a-Roni on the grocery shelves and I thought maybe there was something wrong with my eyes. I swear the packaging has been reduced yet again. Cereal boxes are about as tall as they've always been, but if you turn them sideways they're nearly thin enough to fit into a picture frame.

I hate this, because it's nothing but gross manipulation of the consumer by the manufacturers. It's a significant increase in price masked by tinkering with the packaging. Do they think we don't notice?

I'd almost feel better if they'd just increase the prices accordingly and write "screw you" on the outside of the box.

[xchrom]

2. Du rec. Nt