More than 2,200 workers at the Toledo Jeep Assembly complex will be laid off for nearly two months because of dismal sales of the Jeep Liberty and Dodge Nitro, United Auto Workers officials said yesterday.
The seven-week layoff will immediately follow a one-week model changeover shutdown that was to begin July 4. It will last through at least Aug. 25. Second-shift workers at the plant may be sidelined as early as Monday, said Dan Henneman, UAW Local 12 leader at Toledo Jeep.
"It's not a pretty picture," he said.
The Jeep plant is Toledo's largest manufacturer.
The extended shutdown, which does not affect the neighboring factories making Jeep Wranglers, is needed because too many Liberty and Nitro vehicles are sitting on dealer lots and staging areas nationwide. Typically, about 32,000 vehicles would be made during a seven-week period.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080627/BUSINESS02/80...
Some FACTS about oil, gas, unions and Democrats
1) Union membership is predominately Democratic
ARE YOU A UNION MEMBER?
TOTAL Democrat Republican
Yes (14%) 68% 30%
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/results/states/US/H/00/epolls.0.h...
2) Cars run on Oil and oil is needed to MANUFACTURE hundreds of other Union Made goods including but not limited to: Telephones, Enamel, Transparent tape, Antiseptics, Vacuum bottles, Deodorant, Pantyhose, Rubbing Alcohol, Carpets, Epoxy paint, Oil filters, Upholstery, Hearing Aids, Car sound insulation, Cassettes, Motorcycle helmets, Pillows, Shower doors,Shoes AND HUNDREDS OF OTHER ITEMS made in American Factories by American UNION members.
http://www.anwr.org/features/oiluses.htm
3) Democrats in Congress have REPEATEDLY blocked attempts at any new oil drilling
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-fladrilling0625s...
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/politics/21cnd-congress.html
4) Oil is at record highs due to short supply etc.
http://www.oilnergy.com/
Conclusion:
The Democratic Party is shooting themselves in the foot. Democrats and Union members are giving up their own jobs instead of allowing oil drilling in ANWR and the obscene lease agreements which REQUIRE oil drilling companies to FORK OVER 37% OF ALL PROFITS from off-shore drilling lease agreements, including profits on equipment purchases etc, are going to put hundreds of thousands of American Union workers OUT OF WORK.
http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/whatsnew/newsreal/2008/080527.pdf
So get used to being laid off, American Democrats and Union members.
Your party is selling you out in favor of caribou somewhere. If your leaders in Congress truly wanted to keep you working, THEY WOULD BE LEADING THE CHARGE to open ANWR and be doing everything that they could to find more oil.
The biggest factors into the current price of oil are not supply and demand. What are the big factors in the price of oil?
1 - Bush’s weak dollar policy. Oil is traded in American dollars and Bush as complete trashed its value. As the value of the dollar goes down, the price of oil goes up. They are directly tied together.
2 - Speculation! Unregulated energy market as the everyone pulling there money out of the stock market and putting into comities. Go and google the Enron loophole…
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS236US236&sa=X&oi=spel...
Don't they still get something like 85% of their pay when they are laid off?
I'm not sure how much they get if the plant closes due to NO SALES of Jeeps since Jeeps run off of gasoline.
And no oil means no gas. No gas means no Jeeps. No Jeeps means no need for a Jeep Plant. No Jeep Plant means the factory closes.
Meanwhile Americans who still have money will continue to buy a Toyota Prius. Further proof that Democrats in Congress are selling American Union jobs to Japan and to Toyota.
http://www.toyota.com/prius-hybrid/index.html
Wow. Really? It's the Democrats in Congress' fault that American automakers didn't see the writing on the wall years ago and develop cars with hybrid technology that Americans' want? Somehow the Democrats are responsible for that? And not the Automakers themselves? Folks have been saying for YEARS that these days of uber-high gas prices were coming, do something LONGTERM about it, and now that they are here people seem to act surprised and want to run around and look for short fixes.
And I do believe that Toyota also has plants in the US, as do many 'foreign' automakers. I owned an Acura Integra a few years back, and it was WHOLLY BUILT in the US, something many American cars cannot claim. And it didn't break down on me every other month, something I can't say for the two American cars I owned before it.
BTW, during the first years of Bush's presidency, before 9/11, during a Republican-led Congress, dollars for researching alternative fuel technologies were slashed big-time from the budget. At the time it was noted as a post-election concession to the oil-industry, a big supporter of Bush. That would not seem to be the Democrats' fault, though, would it?
The American auto makers thought there would be an endless supply of oil. Shame on them.
And the "Big Three" are going to pay for their mistake by FIRING YOU WHEN THEY GO OUT OF BUSINESS.
Either way, Toyota wins. That is unless the price of oil comes down enough that Americans can afford to buy 17mpg SUVs and American cars.
Maybe then you will have a job long enough for a viable alternate energy car to be designed and built in America.
Meanwhile, high oil=high gas=no SUV sales= JEEP CLOSES.
Its a tad hypocritical to think that the democrat party had no role in this high oil price business.
I think that both sides have an equal stake in how FUBAR the whole situation is with the current economy, oil prices not withstanding. And, it would be entirely ridiculous to think that one party or another has absolutely no responsibility towards this ever increasing problem.
At this point, don't you think it would be entirely necessary to end the bickering and actually do something that will actually relieve the economic pressure?
I agree...Although I never said the demo party had no role? Just a response to "it's the democrats' fault".
The U.S. leadership learned nothing what so ever from the gas rationing and embargo of the 70's, nothing.
Wish I worked there. These guys work hard but they also get a ton of time off. They look forward to shut downs. They plan on them just like paid vacations. By tacking on to the front and back half of layoffs. Disappearing from the site for months at a time.
That must make for a high quality product ? Never around, always on the learning curve, being retrained just to get up to speed. Is it no wonder the Liberty and Commander lines are always under recall ? The union and the workers would think twice and fight harder to keep working if they didn't have their negotiated unemployment package. They got a sweet deal going so the company is willing to drop layoffs easier since they will face no complaints from their workers.
I think if the state and the feds were not footing most of the bill for this added summer vacation they may actually keep them working. Make bettter cars. And sell more of them.
Really! The democrats are to blame for high oil prices. Bush had Republican control of the Senate for the first 4 years of his term and the House for the first 6 years. The Republicans still have enough votes (49) in the Senate to block any legislation they disagree with and the President with Republican support can veto any bill and make it stand.
I think the blame is shared by all of us. Elected officials that were unable to see the end of cheap oil and implement forward thinking policy. Oil companies that currently reinvest a fraction of their profits into drilling and refineries but instead buy their stock back. Exemptions for energy speculators from US regulation who make trades electronically , the Enron loophole, that many believe is responsible for as much as $25 -30 per barrel of the current price. The loophole was included in the 2000 energy bill by Republican senator Phil Gramm. Americans for not seeing the end of cheap energy and changing their habits (they sure are now). And we could go on.
This subject is much more complicated than blaming Republicans, unions....
I think the tirades of Libscanblowme against Democrats are hypocritical as they always ignore any Republican responsibility for where we are today - and this given that Republicans have controlled the House for more than a decade until recently and the White House for 7 years now.
There is plenty of blame to go around and Republicans shoulder their share of the burden!
This energy crisis falls squarely on the shoulders of Dick Cheney and that farce energy meeting he had with the leaders of all those energy companies (ie: Enron).
However, according to media reports at the time, energy industry executives participated in the Task Force. In particular, those identified as having been involved included then-Enron President and Chairman Kenneth Lay and lobbyists Haley Barbour and Marc Racicot.
Hasn't been such market manipulation and/or energy crisis (ala California and their rolling blackouts) before that meeting.
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,338580,00.html
"But Enron's cozy relationship with Washington didn't start there. Documents obtained by TIME show the energy giant enjoyed much closer ties with Clinton Administration regulators than was generally known. ****Long before Cheney's task force met with Enron officials and included their ideas in Bush's energy plan, Clinton's energy team was doing much the same thing.**** Drafting a 1995 plan to help facilitate cash flow and credit for energy producers, it asked for Enron's input and listened. The staff was directed to "rework the proposal to take into account the specific comments and suggestions you made," Clinton Deputy Energy Secretary Bill White wrote an Enron official.
Clinton officials also made efforts to help Enron get business overseas. Clinton Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary included Enron officials on trade missions to India, China, Pakistan and South Africa. White, returning from a 1994 trip to Mexico, wrote chairman Lay that "much opportunity" existed there for natural gas, and he sent a copy of Mexico's energy plans. To persuade an Enron senior vice president to join a mission to Pakistan, White wrote, "I have strong personal relationships with the existing government."
Enron showed its gratitude. At Christmas 1995, documents show, it donated an unknown sum of cash in O'Leary's name to a charity called "I Have a Dream." And when Clinton ran for re-election a year later, the company made its largest single contribution ever $100,000 to the President's party."
but as a heads up, liberal, my voter's card reads "non-affiliated".
I just go with what I know.
And shit didn't start sliding until after this "Cheney Retreat", regardless who was blowing whom in 1992.
And collective work forces, we miss the bigger picture.
Layoffs at once dominant industry or business effects us all. But then the question could become, what are we doing to diversify.
"Consider recent announcements:
•Toledo's Dana said this week that it will temporarily lay off 95 workers at its Matzinger Road facility where it assembles axle modules and driveshafts for the Liberty and Nitro.
•About 150 workers at Woodbridge Corp. in Fremont will lose their jobs this month, according to a state notice that plant manager M. Jared Young filed. The company makes seating foam products for the auto industry.
•About 175 workers at the Kongsberg Driveline Systems plant in Van Wert, Ohio, will be permanently laid off this month after their company relocated shifter-cable and extrusion work.
•Continental Structural Plastics Inc. has begun shutting down its plant in North Baltimore, Ohio. Approximately 270 employees will be permanently laid off in phases between now and the end of the year."
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080702/BUSINESS02/80...
... isn't the prudent move to REDUCE the spending at all levels in society?
That's the bigger picture. And we're not doing it.
You're right that it has a trickle down effect.
I predict there are going to be some big healthcare layoffs soon too, as a result of the population and job losses here in Toledo. None of the local hospitals are seeing the same patient volume as they used to...I bet it will happen before the end of the summer.
Would hospital emergency rooms experience an increase as I have heard people use that as their primary means of healthcare rather than seeing a doctor and paying a copay? Does anyone have first hand experience of this?
It happens.
And one huge problem with that is that the care largely goes uncompensated. Perhaps I should amend my earlier statement to say that hospitals are losing drastic numbers of "paying customers."
Once the staffing cutbacks start, it will affect the quality of care and service that everyone receives. Its one big vicious circle.
Well here they go;
"St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center began staffing changes yesterday that will affect about 80 employees and could result in the layoffs of 30 to 40 after union job “bumping,” attrition, and job eliminations are completed, a spokesman said."
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080703/BUSINESS03/48...
The spending will come down as those loosing the jobs, labeled as permanent lay offs, will have a difficult time finding employment with the same level of pay and benefits.