Yesterday, we posted a notice about the UAW press conference and town hall meeting with local officials for the workers being laid off at TRW. Their jobs are, apparently, heading for Mexico. The Winona Daily News reports in TRW workers fear more job losses after layoffs:
Workers at Winona’s TRW Automotive plant said Monday that they fear for their jobs after corporate officials announced plans to lay off at least 80 from the facility.
. . . Hovell said workers at the plant — one of three TRW facilities in Winona that, combined, employ nearly 700 — have been getting increasingly nervous since the closure of TRW’s Rushford, Minn., plant in 2006. . . .
Lawmakers and others on hand Monday said the layoffs underscore the need to reform global trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Some of the laid-off jobs in Winona were shifted to an existing TRW facility in Mexico, while others were eliminated altogether, TRW officials told Rep. Tim Walz, DFL-Minn. TRW leaders have declined interview requests from the Daily News, though they told Walz that the layoffs were a response to slumping domestic auto sales.
Workday Minnesota reports in TRW layoffs raise concerns in Winona:
At the meeting, participants discussed the effects of the layoffs on the community and the factors – such as unfair trade agreements – that contribute to the movement of jobs overseas.
Job opportunities are not plentiful in Winona, nor can laidoff workers easily find other employment with the good wages and benefits provided under their union contract at TRW.
"This is generating a lot of concern," said McKenzie.
In a news release issued before Monday's meeting, local labor leaders said the TRW layoffs should cause lawmakers like U.S. Senator Norm Coleman and candidates such as Republican Brian Davis to re-evaluate their support for free trade.
"Here is just one more example of how the Bush-McCain-Coleman-Davis Free Trade policy comes back to bite working families right here in Southeast Minnesota," said Russell Hess, financial-secretary of the Southeast Area Labor Council, AFL-CIO. . . .
Davis supporters complain about the Walz campaign receiving contributions from labor PACs--and would like people to think that somehow none of those unions represent workers in Southern Minnesota. On the contrary, union members and their families living in the district contribute to the area's economic and civic well-being. We grew up in a union household, for instance, as our late father was a member of the IAM, and several of our uncles were members of other unions in the Mankato area.
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