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LI lost most of it's manufacturing back in the early 90's. The once thriving Hauppauge and Bohemia industrial parks were like ghost towns for many years and it took a long time for things to come back.
Been to the Hauppauge industrial park lately? I estimate at least 30% of space is vacant..probably more.
Unfortunately, NY is a very unfriendly state for business. Make sure that you voice your displeasure in the next election by not voting for any incumbents.
It's just cheaper elsewhere... I work for a top global IT company with ridiculous profits every year yet our jobs are threatened every single quarter for the past few years. The latest is they're threatening to force us to move to Iowa of all places. Nobody is going to do that even if it means their job because relocation is not covered and many would sell their homes for a loss. And it's Iowa. It's basically a forced resignation if the company goes through with it. Workers don't matter to big companies. Best of luck to you but you can't take it personally when it comes to corporations. The only thing I can say is improve yourself for when/if they do show you the door. Time for a new tradeskill perhaps... I've been thinking about it.
And once Iowa is not cheap enough, then it's India. It's a race to the bottom in terms of what wages they have to pay.
If only they could get IT workers in the Amazon Rain Forest or in New Guinea to work for sticks and shiny bits of rock!
our concerns over the recent rumors surrounding our company GE Aviation. These rumors have indicated that GE has decided to move the business off of Long Island to Vandalia Ohio.
There are 275 employees here that will have no income, no medical benefits and will be left standing on the unemployment line if this move happens. We have tried to get answers from our Human Resources department and from the General Manager to no avail. Their answer is that these are just rumors and they know just as much as we do and it is up to us as supervisors to "keep the people focused on their jobs and put all else in the back of their minds." This is becoming increasingly more difficult to do. They are bringing people into the building at 1:00 in the morning to look at our Manufacturing operations. If there was nothing going on why would they feel the need to sneak around? There was also a letter published in the Dayton (Vandalia) Business Journal on May 11th stating that a GE New York based company could create 130 new jobs in Ohio. We are the only GE Long Island based company. We are an $80 million dollar electronics company whose profits were over $20 million dollars last year. We are expecting to grow to $110 million dollars next year with a potential of 20 new jobs to be added. We have been in Bohemia foe over 40 years and have a reputation that speaks for itself.
The impact of the company leaving Long Island not only affects the employees but also our local vendors,( we spend over $5 million with local companies) LIPA and New York State in taxes. We face the prospect of not being able to find jobs and worse having to foreclose on our homes.
There was a meeting held on July 29th at our facility with Mike Chanatry,Senoir Executive Business Operations, where we were allowed to ask questions. He basically told us we were 1 of 6 companies that GE was looking to "consolidate". We asked why they would consider such a profitable company and he told us there were other factors such as the cost of doing business on Long Island. We do not want to become another OSI. We need to keep businesses here on Long Island ,especially highly profitable businesses and we need your help to do it.
Some one has to know someonw to get some answers , I have emailed all the congress and town people with no help
Thank you
LIGAL
If you look at the amount of jobs (275 in NY and 110 potentially in Ohio), if they are not going to downsize the new facility, perhaps they will offer to take people with them. Go if you can.
Actually moving to OHIO USA is a surprising move for anything GE-related. Sadly, GE, because of its greedy legendary (infamous) former head honcho Jack Welch, is one of the biggest traitors to American workers when it came to firing them and outsourcing to India. They are notorious for that, so perhaps they can't afford the screw ups and incompetence when it comes to your division, so that is why it is even staying ANYWHERE in the USA.
Things could be worse. How about IBM? They laid off a lot of Americans and Canadians and told them they could transfer to India or China but would be paid the AVERAGE WAGE (translation: near poverty wages in the "scooter and bicycle" economies) over there. Considering how in the 3rd world they think all Americans are rich and the people moving there would be routinely charged 3-5x the real price for everything, this would not work. From http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_ibm-layoffs-in-us-may-create-jobs-in-india_1242801: (broken link)
DNA reported in February that IBM had also launched a programme called Project Match to help laid-off American and Canadian workers find jobs in India, China, and other low-wage countries where it is still hiring. Americans who leap at the vacancies across the Atlantic will have to move for local wages instead of generous expat salaries.
If LI's politicians want companies (and residents eventually) to stay here, they have to analyze where the tax dollars are going going and make some steep, painful cuts. We just lost a major company that went to Westchester and the Newsday editorials are like "we must find out what happened so it doesn't happen again etc..." Frankly, we are all a bunch of idiots. It's just a question of how much like California do we want to be before we are forced to face reality? We are overtaxed and have promised out unsustainable benefits to state workers. Now half of us are out of work!
Unless we change *NOW* - LI will be inhabited by seniors with paid off houses and healthcare workers/teachers/cops. People know this is true and that's why every third house is for sale!
If LI's politicians want companies (and residents eventually) to stay here, they have to analyze where the tax dollars are going going and make some steep, painful cuts. We just lost a major company that went to Westchester and the Newsday editorials are like "we must find out what happened so it doesn't happen again etc..." Frankly, we are all a bunch of idiots. It's just a question of how much like California do we want to be before we are forced to face reality? We are overtaxed and have promised out unsustainable benefits to state workers. Now half of us are out of work!
Unless we change *NOW* - LI will be inhabited by seniors with paid off houses and healthcare workers/teachers/cops. People know this is true and that's why every third house is for sale!
Can't argue with you. If I wasn't married to a teacher, I'd be off LI in a heartbeat. My salary is fine, but I could take a 20% pay cut and still live much better in many other parts of the country. And who knows how long my company will stick it out here with massive tax bills, congestion surcharges, plus the demands for higher wages that people who work here have vs. someone in North Carolina..or India.
What, in terms of how much money it saves a company, or how many jobs it costs localities like Long Island?
For the first point, I know a guy who works for Motorola, and he says that even though every piece of junk they sell is built in China and is therefore dirt cheap to manufacture, he and a team of other guys have to constantly travel there to monitor quality, which builds in added expense.
What, in terms of how much money it saves a company, or how many jobs it costs localities like Long Island?
For the first point, I know a guy who works for Motorola, and he says that even though every piece of junk they sell is built in China and is therefore dirt cheap to manufacture, he and a team of other guys have to constantly travel there to monitor quality, which builds in added expense.
For a moment, step into the shoes of the owners of the businesses. If they can make better profits by outsourcing (means getting work done by people with lower wages, and lower cost of operating, which translates into higher profits) then as the owner I am just as likely to explore that option as you are when you compare buying the tomatoes at stop and shop for $3.99 per lb vs a mexican store where you can get it for $1.99 per lb. From a purely financial aspect we all know what makes more sense. If you tell me with the additional expenses (travel to China and monitoring etc) the $1.99 tomatoes end up costing me $3.99 anyway, then I agree with you that its not a good idea to outsource.
We agree New York is not business friendly, so businesses are moving out of state.... its the same concept.... the US in general is unfriendly because of which businesses are moving out (a.k.a outsourcing).
Think of it this way.... the businesses having a hard time may be related to why we enjoy the high standard of living in this country, as some of the state and federal expenses towards the citizens has to come out of the owners pocket.
So while we are bashing outsourcing.... we also are happy to own the stock of the company that is giving you good dividends by outsourcing its work... yeah .... way to go !!
For a moment, step into the shoes of the owners of the businesses. If they can make better profits by outsourcing (means getting work done by people with lower wages, and lower cost of operating, which translates into higher profits) then as the owner I am just as likely to explore that option as you are when you compare buying the tomatoes at stop and shop for $3.99 per lb vs a mexican store where you can get it for $1.99 per lb. From a purely financial aspect we all know what makes more sense. If you tell me with the additional expenses (travel to China and monitoring etc) the $1.99 tomatoes end up costing me $3.99 anyway, then I agree with you that its not a good idea to outsource.
We agree New York is not business friendly, so businesses are moving out of state.... its the same concept.... the US in general is unfriendly because of which businesses are moving out (a.k.a outsourcing).
Think of it this way.... the businesses having a hard time may be related to why we enjoy the high standard of living in this country, as some of the state and federal expenses towards the citizens has to come out of the owners pocket.
So while we are bashing outsourcing.... we also are happy to own the stock of the company that is giving you good dividends by outsourcing its work... yeah .... way to go !!
Well, not to get to political, but what happened is the "owners" decided that greed was more important than the strength of their own country. The high standard of living..high wages, benefits, education, health care, are what made our country what it is.
Then, some guys with MBA's started crunching numbers and said "wait, I made 500K last year..I can make 2 million if I lay everyone in Ohio off and send the jobs to China". Now, of course the pure numbers tell you, send the jobs to China, if ethics don't play any roll.
Pure numbers also tell you to use cheap lead based paint in childrens toys. It doesn't kill the customer, just makes them sick. Yeah, sure, 10 years from now, someone will find out that there is a ton of lead in toys, but 10 years form now I'll have 3 houses and be retired, so I don't even really care if it hurts kids..or the company in the long run, I'll be long gone.
So yes, if you look at raw numbers, you should build everything as cheaply as possible, treat labor as a disposable commodity, and look to make short term gains so that you can cash out early. Do you think that companies weren't making profits in the 50's and 60's when benefits and wages were at their relative highest in the US? Of course they were...but some people at those companies wanted MORE and MORE. You can't ignore the ballooning of executive compensation. Look up the stats.
Now, is that what's happening on LI? Here, as much of the burden comes from taxation as from employee wage pressure. When you have cops getting lottery tickets upon hire, and teachers pulling disproportionate compensation to private workers, and layer upon layer of corruption and waste up and down the bureaucracies, and that all comes out of the pockets of workers and their companies, you have a pretty tough environment. It's a double whammy for employers...workers need high wages to afford the burden of taxation, plus the employers have the same burden of taxation on their backs.
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