Whirlpool just announced that they were closing a refrigerator plant in Indiana and laying off 1100 workers. The announcement said that they would transfer the work to Mexico. Although they did not mention that high health care costs were the blame, I would bet that they are a big part of it.
In the past GM has said that health care costs add $2000 to the cost of every new car and truck. This no doubt plays a big part in any companies bottom line big or small. Now I wish that companies did not feel that that had to count every penny just to make the share holders happy. In fact I think that we need to stop paying attention to the wishes of share holders and get back to respecting the concerns of the workers.
Many years ago when I proudly told my former father in law that I had voted for Reagan he asked me what kind of a country to I want to live in. He said do you want to live in a country where someone goes out in the morning and cart away those who died in the night. Oh how I wish I and millions of others could take that vote back. So much has gone wrong because of Reagan. That is when all of this started. Thats when taxes were cut for the rich.
We cannot keep shipping jobs away from our country. This has to stop! In the past 20 years millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost to other countries. The lose of these well paying jobs have meant that billions of taxes have not been collected. At the same time the company owners have gotten much richer. In fact salaries for the CEO, CFO, and many others have gone into the millions and that does not include the perks that go along.
In Washington State there is a not for profit hospital where 15 people make over $500,000 per year. Two of these people make more that $1 million per year. The combined wages of those 15 is more than the wages of all the other workers. And yet again my health care costs went up 9% this year. The workers of this country are subsidizing the CEO' and CFO's of these companies.
It is time for a workers revolt!