There was a time when American businesses actually took pride in being American businesses, employing Americans. Now that The World Is Flat, companies are in a constant game of musical chairs, seeking out the cheapest possible foreign locations to bump the price of stocks.
Even if a federal subsidy helped them bump up their first quarter profits:
NEW YORK (AP) -- Federal rebates for energy-efficient appliances pulled shoppers back into stores, helping Whirlpool Corp.'s revenue rise and its first-quarter profit more than double, the company said.
Guess how Whirlpool is repaying American taxpayers for their support:
Whirlpool Corporation is shutting down a refrigerator plant in Evansville, Indiana that will put 1100 people out of work. Are they having trouble selling refrigerators in these bad economic times? No. Whirlpool is profitable and still selling plenty of refrigerators here. But they want to ship these jobs to Mexico where they can produce them cheaper and without having to respect U.S. labor and environmental regulations.
Whirlpool took $19 million in economic recovery money and now instead of helping our economy recover, it’s destroying 1100 good American jobs. The AFL-CIO has started an online petition drive telling Whirlpool to “Keep It Made In America” to save our jobs. You can find it at unionvoice.org/campaign/Evansville.
The AFL-CIO says Whirlpool should reverse its decision to keep these 1100 jobs in the U.S. and help our economic recovery. The labor federation says taxpayer economic recovery money should be used to create jobs in America, not ship them to cheap labor markets in other countries.
I know if I ever buy another refrigerator, it won't be a Whirlpool.
