layoffs in maine what are people going to do?? (China: for sale, lease) - (ME) - City-Data Forum

RANGER.101ST · 01-22-2009, 12:56 PM

i just got some news from work today that me and 5 other people will be layed off in the comeing weeks.im not to worried right now becouse i have some thing to fall back on.but what about the people who dont have .what are they going to do?we are getting layed off becouse some of our work has been out sourced to a comp over seas.how many ppl have to be out of work befor the govt wakes up and pay attention.

Elcarim · 01-22-2009, 01:08 PM

I'm sorry to hear that, but glad you have a plan! That must be very comforting for your family. I've been reading that many people being layed off right now are actually happy to have the opportunity to start a new career.

Same thing happened to my hubby a few years back. He'd been a manager for the Best Buy tech service center for several years when they closed the center and offered him a lateral move that would have taken us to Dallas. Unfortunately, Dallas is worse than Houston! No stinkin' way was my quick response. He could have gone into a local retail store as a department manager for a huge pay cut and continued in the high stress position he already hated. No way! He opted to take a nice severance package and floundered for a year or so before deciding it was time to pursue his dream career.

He's now the happiest I've ever seen him as an EMT/Firefighter. I've also wondered many times why the hell we didn't move to Maine on that severance package and start over right then, since we were already dreaming of it and doing our research. I guess it just wasn't the right time.

tcrackly · 01-22-2009, 01:18 PM

I feel for you , Ranger. We're in the same boat. I'm receiving unemployment benefits now and hubby will sign up soon after he concludes some short term contract work. We've been getting by on beneficiary savings that were slated for a possible land purchase. Thank God we had that to fall back on.

Times are truly hard. It's a real test of our frugality.

RANGER.101ST · 01-22-2009, 01:27 PM

i think if big govt took a good look at the NAFTA agreement and started thinking about what it has done to the US work force.they might feel guilty.or not.for the past month or so i have been thinking on buying another truck.if i would have known that the fuel price was going to drop as far as it did i wouldnt have sold my old truck.

RANGER.101ST · 01-22-2009, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tcrackly

I feel for you , Ranger. We're in the same boat. I'm receiving unemployment benefits now and hubby will sign up soon after he concludes some short term contract work. We've been getting by on beneficiary savings that were slated for a possible land purchase. Thank God we had that to fall back on.

Times are truly hard. It's a real test of our frugality.

i have seen more people useing their life saveings to get by that sux.

tankratt · 01-22-2009, 02:58 PM

Hey Ranger sorry to hear the bad news for you, glad you have a plan, I was in your shoes last year, and was able to do some self employment, selling firewood and such and then was hired by my new employer last week. So for those out there laid off keep the faith, and good things will eventually happen,

Elcarim · 01-22-2009, 03:02 PM

Great news on the new job!

Nor'Eastah · 01-22-2009, 03:08 PM

About 30 years ago I found myself unemployed suddenly. I had a wife and 2 small children. I had a pickup, also. 2 other guys I worked with had pickups, and the 3 of us decided to start our own company. At first it was very informal, and we did landscape work in summer, and snow plowing in winter.

Then I found an old dump truck. I got it for little more than towing it away. At our country place at the time, we had an old metal building, like a Quonset hut (rounded) and we had the dump truck towed into it. The 3 of us and some friends worked a lot on the dump truck - the hydraulics, new brakes and linings, new clutch and throw-out, and some retread tires. We got 'er running very well, and were in the dump business. You name it, we hauled it - sand, gravel, topsoil, rip-rap, manure, rolled sods. We made some decent money before that old truck gave up the ghost.

Of the 3 of us, I am the only one left running this company. I have 5-6 other guys who work with me as they can or want to. Got a newer dump truck, then another. We got municipal and state contracts to help with road and bridge construction. When the environmental movement really got going in the 90's, we made money hand over fist, "protecting wetlands". Whatever they called it, we hauled it, lifted it, dumped it, moved it, smoothed it. Those were the fattest times for my little company.

Today business is down some, but those of us left and our trucks are well-known. We move into every niche we can find, and we find lots. Right now we lease a moving truck and hire part-time movers at day rates. We clean out vacant industrial and business buildings. Sometimes we even move people's households. Whatever it takes. You may have to reinvent yourself many times during the course of a career.

I have not gone back to work for anybody else during the last 30 years. It's too risky. As long as I have my fleet of trucks, I feel I have security. Something, somewhere, always needs moving, and I can do it.

Hang in there, Mainers! Just need to use a little imagination, that's all.

RANGER.101ST · 01-22-2009, 03:57 PM

its bad all over the state.LP in houlton just layed off a bunch of ppl.SAS shoe in pittsfield just closed its doors.

Acadianlion · 01-22-2009, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RANGER.101ST

i think if big govt took a good look at the NAFTA agreement and started thinking about what it has done to the US work force.they might feel guilty.or not.for the past month or so i have been thinking on buying another truck.if i would have known that the fuel price was going to drop as far as it did i wouldnt have sold my old truck.

Oh, I quite agree. But it goes far beyond NAFTA. It began more than a generation ago when we decided that we should become a "service economy" and that the end goal for every young person was to become a "manager". We made it national policy that all young people should go to college and get some sort of liberal arts degree, equipping them with an education that enabled them to do very little. We ended the age when there true value being added to the economy by the manufacture of durable good, and with every television that was imported from Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan or China, so went out a little bit of the value of America.

I think a part of the "restoration of America" needs to be a return to basic materials harvesting and basic product development and manufacturing. I think that any company producing any product for sale in America must produce it on the same basis that it would be produced here. If their labor costs are lower than our labor costs, well and good for them, but if they want to sell that product here, then it must have the same basis that a similar product will cost if it was made here. That means that we should protect American industry, and the future of American workers. That means a return to tariffs on good coming in to this country from whereever.

It also means that we need to restore the dignity of working for a living with hands and trade skills. We need to change the orientation of our educational system to reward accomplishment and concentrate on teaching our young people to know their culture, their history and know how to accomplish tasks, not just to feel good about themselves.

It is time for the government...the senators and representatives who work for us (write that down: THEY work for US), to protect America and American industry instead of trying to make all the rest of the world our beneficiary by giving them the basic tools that helped to create this country. Helping other nations to grow and develop is one thing. Destroying our own in the process is quite another.