Manufacturing in the USA
 

So last year I read an article(can't remember where) that Manufacturing jobs here in the USA were coming back. Not long after that my dad informed me that the manufacturing job he had was being moved to Guadalajara, Mexico. He was told that it would be ending at the end of March of 2014. He has worked for IBM for 31 years. He started with them in Tucson, AZ. In 1989 they closed the manufacturing plant down in Tucson. My dad ended up transfering to Rochester, MN to stick with IBM. As I've said, after 31 years of service with them, they are moving his department to Mexico. He applied for a couple other jobs, but got turned down.

What gets to me, is that I had just heard that manufacturing was returning to the USA, then I find out my dad's manufacturing job was going to Mexico.

Oh, just a bit of information. In 1983(when I was born), the CEO of IBM gave my dad a silver spoon, with my name engraved on it. I still have that. According to my dad, they haven't done that in years.

Companies as a rule expect 100% loyalty from an employee but show little back. They expect the payment for services rendered to be enough.

Sad to hear but happens all to often.



Barney

May have been in the Atlantic magazine as they did have an article on GE bringing back appliance manufacturing.

After that many years surely they offered him the chance to take his pension. I heard that Lenovo was trying to buy their server operation.

He is getting a severance package. Not sure exactly what all it entails, but it is based upon his years of service. Money plus reimbursment for retraining.

Soon the only manufacturing left will be large corporations that need a token plant in the US to be an "American" company, or the relatively small manufacturers that don't have the means to go international. I work for the latter and we still use (as much as possible) steel, parts, and accessories that are manufactured in the USA.

Sounds like your Dad has, until now, had a great career working for a company that still adhered to the "Old School" way of doing things. Now, we're all told we're little more than a piece of equipment and that we should just happily accept being treated as such. Trust me, some of these up and coming managers don't even bother to hide it any more. They have no shame or sense of decency at all. If they need to make their numbers look better, God help you.

I'm told this way is better. I have my doubts.

Dave

Some companies are honest, Bell Canada has paid my pension for 30 years and did give a COLA for 2014. I still have $45,000 available in healthcare (drugs, dental, eyeglasses).

Sorry about your dad. I hope the package is a good one!

My grandmother worked for IBM, she said she was lucky to do so.

We actually manufacture a higher dollar value than we used to, but as it's expensive stuff the volume isn't the same. We are still the 2nd largest manufacturer in the world.

Pete

It will never be like before.

Then what ever is?

Im sorry about your Dad. That is hard to deal with.
Unfortunately we aren't getting the real story. The US economy must create between 130,000 and 150,000 new jobs a month just to keep up with population growth. Using the lower number we would have to be creating 1,560,000 new jobs a year just to keep unemployment from rising. Over 10 yrs that would require close to 16 million jobs. The BLS reports that between 2001 and 2011 we lost 2,141,000 jobs and leaves a deficit on 17.7 million jobs.
You cant believe what the MSM presstitutes write in the headline.