Obama says: “We think GE has something to teach businesses all over America.”

[brentspeak]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/22-7

Published on Saturday, January 22, 2011 by ThisCan'tBeHappening.net
Are GE and Jeffrey Immelt Really American?

by Dave Lindorff

Between 2005 and 2009, according to GE’s own 10-K financial reports, the company shed jobs in the US so fast, and added them abroad so fast, that the US employee share of GE’s total workforce dropped from 51% to 44%, a process of job destruction that has continued apace since then. In 2009 and 2010, according to information compiled by the United Electrical Workers (UE), GE closed down 29 manufacturing plants in North America, 28 of them in the US and one in Canada. A total of 3000 workers lost their jobs in those closings, with many of those jobs being added at GE facilities overseas in low-paying countries like China and India. But actually, the job losses were greater, as those shuttered facilities had until recently employed twice that many workers, UE reports.

Just last September, for example, GE announced that it was shutting down its last US lightbulb manufacturing plant and moving that operation to China. The 200 workers at the factory in Winchester, VA, who had been earning some $30 per hour making lightbulbs for the US market, were all added to the US jobless rolls. Why? Workers in China could make the new substitute fluorescent bulbs cheaper, and then GE could import them back into the US duty-free.

Meanwhile, (Jeffrey) Immelt recently told Forbes magazine about his company’s plans for expanding jobs...in India. As he put it to the magazine, the company’s approach to expanding its markets in the rest of the world is “to be ‘local’ in every sense of the word. That means migrating P&L (profit and loss) responsibility and major business functions (like R&D, manufacturing and marketing) from a centralized headquarters to an experienced in-country team.”

...

And yet, President Obama, in naming Immelt to his new post, said, “We think GE has something to teach businesses all over America.”

[begin_within]

1. I wish he would quit thinking about businesses and start thinking about citizens.

[Joe the Revelator]

2. If the goal is to make America start producing stuff in house, you have to look at businesses.

It's the jobs, stupid

[Autumn Colors]

6. & GE has something to teach them??? After outsourcing thousands of jobs to China? (nt)

[blm]

14. And more observant people would say 'It's the OUTSOURCING of jobs, stupid.' GE is one of the WORST

and pretending they are not is what got this country into the economic mess it has been in for over a decade.

[Joe the Revelator]

18. Point taken.

[phleshdef]

28. I wish people would stop pretending that the 2 are mutually exclusive.

[ProSense]

3. Well, if he does those things, no jobs will be created. Immelt in a speech Dec. 2009:

<...>

We should set a national goal to create high value added jobs and have manufacturing jobs be no less than 20 percent of total employment, about twice what it is today. And we should commit ourselves to compete and win with American exports.

link

Maybe the President will engage him along those lines.

[Supersedeas]

23. thanks for the link

[Odin2005]

30. *YAWN*

:eyes:

[Vinca]

4. That's a frightening statement.

If anything, he'll teach business how to outsource jobs.

[ProSense]

7. "If anything, he'll teach business how to outsource jobs."

Then President Obama will have the worst job record of any President. Do you think that's the plan?

[Laelth]

11. Given Obama's pushing Bush's free trade agreement with South Korea?

Yes. Many of us fear that is the plan.

-Laelth

[ProSense]

12. "Yes. Many of us fear that is the plan."

So you believe the President's plan is to sabbotage the economy, not create jobs, but ship them overseas?

OK.

[Laelth]

16. That is exactly what he appears to be doing.

Here's why I think he's doing it, if you're interested: http://laelth.blogspot.com/2010/12/kissing-butt-and-taking-names-obamas.html

-Laelth

[Odin2005]

31. I have suspicions about that poster and I don't think he will ever change his tune.

For the same reason paid spokespeople don't change their tune.

[Hardrada]

24. The reason discussions go around you with no heeed of your remarks is that you are ignored

and irelevant.

[Laelth]

32. Indeed.

If you would care to take a look at the essay to which I linked, above, you would find that I argued that the American people, generally speaking, and liberals like me, in particular, are ignored and irrelevant to the President's plan to get re-elected.

I could not agree with you more.

-Laelth

[polmaven]

26. You forgot

eliminating Social Security!:crazy:

[Jack Rabbit]

5. Like what? Better ways to dodge taxes?

Just wondering.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[DrDan]

9. like how to get rid of those pesky evening talk hosts. . . .

[Laelth]

10. What? How to send all our jobs to China? n/t

-Laelth

[Beacool]

13. Wasn't Immelt the CEO who told his executives to think of China, China, China?

x(

[crazylikafox]

15. yes

[Beacool]

20. Thanks!!

:)

[Laelth]

17. Yep. That's our guy. n/t

-Laelth

[Beacool]

19. Sounds like a great pick.............

:eyes:

[Jakes Progress]

21. What discussion is there? We've been had.

[Brickbat]

22. Don't be so glum, people! There has to be some sort of explanation for all this! Clearly, Obama

sees something in Immelt that the rest of us can't possibly see. Oh sure, you can look at Immelt's record of closing almost 30 U.S. factories in two years, and this whole "create a job for every job outsourced" idea he has doesn't have a whole lot of accountability or anything, but there simply MUST be SOME kind of MULTI-LEVEL reason as to why this man is where he is today, giving the president ideas about job "creation"! Just wait...the endgame will come soon....soon enough...

[w4rma]

25. And he was just promoting Walmart, last week. (nt)

[pnorman]

27. Is there a primary source for that quote?

“We think GE has something to teach businesses all over America.”

So far, Google comes up short.

[Armstead]

34. Try the damn White House Website

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/01/21/remarks-president-economy-schenectady-new-york



".....And I am so proud and pleased that Jeff has agreed to chair this panel -- my Council on Jobs and Competitiveness -- because we think GE has something to teach businesses all across America. (Applause.)"

[olegramps]

36. I totally agree with President Obama.

GE definitely has something to teach all American businesses. If you want to maximize profits, then you outsourced the jobs and can the overpaid American workers while you lobby Congress to not impose tariffs on your products so that you can put them on the market duty free. Simple enough even a cave man can understand it.

[Odin2005]

29. Obama to Americans: DROP DEAD.

[Skidmore]

33. There was a time when the GE brand was synonymous with quality

for appliances, large and small. When it comes to purchasing quality, GE, and RCA, right now are at the bottom of my list for consideration. You know the quality of a leader by the output and policies they implement in their companies, and this guy should not be there.

[Armstead]

35. My fathwer worked for GE and he stopped buying their products at the company store

My father worked for GE for many years, and could buy GE products at a steep discount at the GE employees store.

But during the Age of Jack Welch, he stopped buying there because their products had become so shitty.