Saturday, April 3rd Update
We at Local 5 wish a happy Easter Holiday to all our members and their families as well as the regular visitors to our site.
We look forward to our first contract negotiations on the 7th and we are having a pre negotiations meeting at 3:00 on Monday, April 5th to get suggestions for things we need to ask for in our contract. We know the economy is still weak but it seems to be about to turn the corner into an upswing. The shortage in jobs has been felt by members of all locals in our International. Some of the locals that were lucky enough to settle on a good contract prior to the downturn in the economy have been asked to give back some of the gains they had made. We have been stuck where we are since 2007 with no good news in the economy for a long time. Now Detroit has announced a surge in the purchasing of American made vehicles and that could be a result of the problems Toyota is having with the sudden acceleration of their vehicles making them unsafe to drive. We never should have been buying Toyotas in the first place. I remember a time when there were no foreign cars allowed on any union construction site and the people driving these cars were told to buy American built cars or find a job elsewhere. We need to get back to buying American made vehicles and start reading the labels on all our products we buy and make a better attempt at buying American made products. We wonder why we have very little work going on here at home and you can start looking on the labels of what you buy and the answer will be clear. N.A.F.T.A. was the first big stepping stone that allowed our manufacturers to move out of the U.S. and make their products using cheep labor and still sell their products here in the U.S. Just because a vacuum cleaner has the name, Eureka does not mean it is still made in Bloomington, Illinois. They closed that plant and moved all their operations to Mexico. Did we see a drop in their prices since the move? The answer is no. The biggest recipient of the cash for clunkers program was Toyota. If we as Americans do not wake up soon and take control of our own destiny, we deserve what we get. Next time you think about the piss poor jobs situation, take a look in your driveway or garage and count the number of foreign cars in the parking lots on your job or count the number of foreign cars in any parking lot as apposed to the number of American made cars you see. It is an eye opener.
These are just my observations. Take a look around and see if I am right or prove me wrong.
We look forward to our first contract negotiations on the 7th and we are having a pre negotiations meeting at 3:00 on Monday, April 5th to get suggestions for things we need to ask for in our contract. We know the economy is still weak but it seems to be about to turn the corner into an upswing. The shortage in jobs has been felt by members of all locals in our International. Some of the locals that were lucky enough to settle on a good contract prior to the downturn in the economy have been asked to give back some of the gains they had made. We have been stuck where we are since 2007 with no good news in the economy for a long time. Now Detroit has announced a surge in the purchasing of American made vehicles and that could be a result of the problems Toyota is having with the sudden acceleration of their vehicles making them unsafe to drive. We never should have been buying Toyotas in the first place. I remember a time when there were no foreign cars allowed on any union construction site and the people driving these cars were told to buy American built cars or find a job elsewhere. We need to get back to buying American made vehicles and start reading the labels on all our products we buy and make a better attempt at buying American made products. We wonder why we have very little work going on here at home and you can start looking on the labels of what you buy and the answer will be clear. N.A.F.T.A. was the first big stepping stone that allowed our manufacturers to move out of the U.S. and make their products using cheep labor and still sell their products here in the U.S. Just because a vacuum cleaner has the name, Eureka does not mean it is still made in Bloomington, Illinois. They closed that plant and moved all their operations to Mexico. Did we see a drop in their prices since the move? The answer is no. The biggest recipient of the cash for clunkers program was Toyota. If we as Americans do not wake up soon and take control of our own destiny, we deserve what we get. Next time you think about the piss poor jobs situation, take a look in your driveway or garage and count the number of foreign cars in the parking lots on your job or count the number of foreign cars in any parking lot as apposed to the number of American made cars you see. It is an eye opener.
These are just my observations. Take a look around and see if I am right or prove me wrong.
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