Some Iowa jobs go quietly

[suegeo]

State tries to document outsourcing better

BY RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press

published: 02/12/05

DES MOINES – Don’t try to tell Lu Kafer that no white-collar jobs in Iowa have been sent overseas.

The Waterloo woman is taking issue with the state’s first attempt to track outsourcing, which could not document in 2004 a single instance of companies sending white-collar jobs to countries with cheaper labor.

Kafer, 48, lost her job – along with 100 of her colleagues – at a debt collection agency in Cedar Falls last summer when parent company Intellirisk moved the work to India.
.....
Alexander Technologies, a 38-year-old Iowa company that makes electronics in Mason City, announced earlier this month it is eliminating 25 U.S. manufacturing jobs and sending the work to Malaysia.

“We just can’t be competitive here utilizing U.S. labor. It’s sad, but true, and I hate to see it. I was born and raised in Iowa,” said Jay Miller, vice president of the company, which makes battery packs and chargers. “In Malaysia, you can get between five and 10 workers for the price of one in Mason City. Typically, it’s closer to 10.”

http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050212/BUSINESS/50212007/1003

[wildmanj]

1. jobs

and i do suppose these malaysia workers are the people who will now be buying their products now

[Zeke]

2. I bet...

I bet the lady Lu Kafer also voted twice for Bush.

[Bluzmann57]

5. Don't know for sure about Ms. Kafer

Never met her, but I have been through two plant shutdowns, and I never ever want to go through that again. It sucks, no matter who a person voted for. For the record, I have never voted anything other than Democrat in my life, but still lost my damn job in "downsizing". I hate that word and it's the corporations who are dictating this stuff. They just happen to have an administration who encourages it. And again for the record, I still haven't forgiven Clinton for signing NAFTA into law and I liked him otherwise. But I do understand what you're saying, that if people who voted for bush lose their jobs, maybe they deserve it. But then again, maybe not. Nobody really deserves shit like that.

[nodictators]

3. The article forgot to mention that corporations can avoid US taxes...

...by off-shoring their labor. All they have to do is set up a subsidiary off shore, for instance the Cayman Islands or Bermuda, and let the profits accrue there, where taxes are very low.

Yet, they still have full and free access to the US markets.

Such a deal!

[pstans]

4. Maytag in Newton is laying more people off

not a good sign at all.

[Bluzmann57]

6. Maytag already moved a plant to Mexico

The plant was located in Galesburg, IL, about 50 miles from here. They had 1600 employees at one time and were Unionized. But now the plant is in Mexico so I say the Mexicans should buy the friggin products. But wait, they can't afford to because they make sub-standard wages. Screw Maytag. They will never get my business.

[rurallib]

7. WQAD in Moline had a great story on that Friday.

When I buy, I try and try to find those magic words "made in the USA" . Pretty hard anymore. But for companies that I know have moved good jobs out I have special disgust. Maytag is near the top of the list.