We Are Steelworkers

My Last Whirlpool Refrigerator

The last two refrigerators we had were manufactured by Whirlpool, here in the United States.

The South Bend Tribune this morning reports that Whirlpool will be shutting down their Whirlpool refrigerator plant in Evansville, Indiana in 2010 which will cut 1,100 production jobs.

Whirlpool is moving this refrigerator production plant to Mexico. They're doing this not for productivity, but simply for cheap labor.

Whirlpool has provided me with my last refrigerator. In my opinion, Whirlpool has become a rotten, disloyal, unpatriotic company.

Rally to Save American Jobs

Click on the flyer above to enlarge

Suggested transportation:

§ CTA Blue Line comes right to Federal Building

§ South Shore train from N.W. Indiana to Van Buren Station arrives at 1:17 p.m. and cost is $11.00 roundtrip, $5.50 for Seniors.

§ Van Buren train station is 5 blocks from Federal Plaza.

Corporate Greed Finally Breaks the Economy

The American Worker is Under Assault with:

• Attacks on Unions
• Job-Killing Trade Deals
• Skyrocketing CEO Pay
• Anti-Family Policies
• Global Race to the Bottom
• No Oversight for Corporations
• Right-to-Work (for less) Laws
• Out-of-Reach Health Care
• Retirement Insecurity
• Corporate Greed
• Millions of Lost Jobs
• Risky Stock Schemes

The economic crisis we are now in is the result of unchecked corporate greed and decades of attacks on workers. The last thirty years have seen the biggest shift of wealth in American history where the richest 1% of all Americans owns 40% of all wealth. The USW has warned again and again that this economic inequality would eventually result in disaster and now that time has come.

The following are some of the guiding economic principles in place over the last thirty years that have crippled our economy and left American workers under assault like never before:

Deregulation – The anti-worker economy and its practitioners reduced and eliminated rules for how corporations carry out their business operations and worked to institute these policies at the global scale through the World Trade Organization and free trade agreements.

De-unionization – They trampled workers’ rights to form a union, leaving them on their own to overcome employer harassment, intimidation and even illegal firings. They allowed corporations to run roughshod over contracts and retiree benefits. And, they made sure global trade agreements fail to protect workers anywhere.

Globalization – They pushed policies that leave corporations unaccountable – to their
workers, to the environment and even to the governments that allow them to operate. They’ve delivered unprecedented amounts of power to these companies, who in turn leave the U.S. and our workforce behind in a global race to find the lowest wages, no benefits and no unions.

Privatization – Through turning over government services to private entities they’ve left our government vulnerable at all levels to corporations, unaccountable to taxpayers and oftentimes in situations where we wind up with greater costs.

Now it’s up to us to turn our economy around and WE HAVE A PLAN!

Watch for an upcoming InfoAlert that lays out the USW plan for economic recovery.

Source: USW Rapid Response (412) 562-2291 http://www.uswrr.org