XPost: alt.gossip.celebrities, alt.politics.democrats.d, alt.global-warming   
   XPost: alt.rush-limbaugh, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: webe@polaris.net   
      
   Trump hates the american worker.   
      
   Company That Trump Trashed For Offshoring Jobs Is Having Workers Train   
   Their Own Replacements   
   Rexnord Corporation apparently isn’t scared of a Trump tweet.   
   By Arthur Delaney   
   X   
      
   580   
   160   
   Brian Reed has known some of his co-workers for decades and considers them   
   friends, but he’s been very direct with the ones getting extra pay to   
   train their replacements.   
      
   “This place is shutting down and moving purely for corporate greed, and in   
   return you’re just as greedy as they are, because you’re chasing $4 an   
   hour,” Reed said. “In my eyes, all you’re doing is helping this company   
   succeed when this company has failed you.”   
      
   Reed has worked for Rexnord Corp. at its ball-bearing factory in   
   Indianapolis for 24 years. Although the company is profitable, it   
   announced last fall that it would be shuttering the plant, laying off 300   
   people and replacing them with workers in Mexico and Texas.   
      
   To get the new workers up to speed, Rexnord has flown groups of them to   
   Indiana to be trained by the soon-to-be-laid-off employees they’re   
   replacing. The company hashed out this arrangement after completing a   
   severance agreement with the local United Steelworkers union. The typical   
   hourly wage at the plant is about $25; employees who volunteer to train   
   can get an extra $4.   
      
   Workers have been protesting the move, which they argue is greedy because   
   the company is profitable and the plant is productive. President Donald   
   Trump criticized the company in a tweet in December, saying it was an   
   example of the kind of offshoring his administration would stop with new   
   trade deals.   
      
   But it’s unlikely that Trump could change U.S. trade policy fast enough to   
   have an effect on Rexnord’s decision, and the tweet hasn’t done the trick,   
   either. After all, Rexnord is just one of dozens of companies laying   
   people off and shipping their jobs abroad in any given month, even as   
   Trump dubiously claims to have forced firms like General Motors and Ford   
   to announce new capital investment in the U.S.   
      
   “To be a viable company that contributes to economic growth, we must meet   
   customers’ needs with high-quality products at competitive prices,”   
   Rexnord said in December. “We work diligently to do this while making   
   responsible decisions for the people and partners who depend on this   
   company and its long-term health.”   
      
   Trump did succeed in getting one company, Carrier Corporation, to cancel   
   its plans to close a factory in the U.S. ? a furnace factory in   
   Indianapolis about a mile from Rexnord’s bearings plant. Many Rexnord   
   workers, who are represented by the same chapter of the Steelworkers Union   
   as the Carrier Workers, hoped that Trump would turn his attention to their   
   plight. Those hopes faded slightly after Trump exaggerated the number of   
   Carrier jobs saved and then feuded with president of the union over it.   
      
   For all Rexnord workers know, Trump has already moved on to other things.   
   Meanwhile, bitterness over the replacement-training effort has been   
   simmering since last fall. Don Zering, president of the United   
   Steelworkers unit at Rexnord, says the atmosphere in the factory has been   
   tense. About 20 people volunteered to train.   
      
   “There’s a little bit of friction here between people, but we’re working   
   through it,” Zering said. “It’s more [complaints] than I thought it would   
   be.”   
      
   Tim Feltner is a longtime Rexnord machinist who compared participating in   
   the training to crossing a picket line.   
      
   “It’s a sellout,” he said. “I’m not mad at my union brothers, I just can’t   
   understand.”   
      
   Mark Elliott is one of the workers Reed says he chastised for volunteering   
   to train. Both men are assemblers who’ve worked for the company for over   
   two decades. Elliott said he’s not fazed by the criticism, though he   
   thinks his colleagues should direct their anger at the company, not him.   
      
   “I don’t blame them for being upset,” he said.   
      
   The shutdown agreement between Rexnord and the union gives employees a   
   week’s pay for every year they’ve been with the company ? but only if they   
   stay until the end. In the meantime, it requires everyone to “fully   
   cooperate” with the company’s phase-out of operations, including “allowing   
   themselves to be viewed while working” and answering questions about what   
   they’re doing.   
      
   According to a union official, after workers complained to the media about   
   having to train their replacements, the company started offering extra pay   
   for volunteers for hands-on training.   
      
   “Any associate who is involved in training opted in, and receives a   
   financial incentive over and above severance benefits,” a Rexnord   
   spokeswoman said in an email, adding that the training was not part of the   
   formal shutdown agreement with the union.   
      
   Several workers have said they resent that they can only get their   
   severance if they stay until the plant closes this spring. And some said   
   they don’t understand why Rexnord brought the replacement workers to   
   Indiana instead of sending people to Mexico or Texas to train them there ?   
   though the company is apparently planning to do that, too.   
      
   Arromoneo Baskin, 32, volunteered not only to train workers at the plant,   
   but to go to Monterrey, Mexico, in the coming weeks to help train workers   
   there for a few months. He says that if anyone has a problem with it, they   
   can pay his bills.   
      
   “At the end of the day, it’s corporate greed, but what are you going to do   
   about it?” Baskin said. “You got to make the best of the opportunity that   
   you have.”   
      
   He’s worked for Rexnord for four years as an assembler, and says he feels   
   bad for the older workers who might have a harder time getting new jobs   
   after the plant closes. Baskin is optimistic about his prospects; older   
   workers generally have longer spells of unemployment than younger ones.   
      
   Elliott and Reed are 52 and 45, respectively. Both men have families. Both   
   say they don’t know what they’re going to do when their jobs end in a few   
   months.   
      
   “When you get into those 50s, jobs are scarce,” Elliott said. “A lot of   
   people don’t want you because of your age. It’s a scary situation coming   
   up.”   
      
   It’s scary for them, and awkward for the trainees, who hail from Mexico   
   and Texas and will be paid less for their work.   
      
   “They’re a little nervous. They’re in a new place,” Elliott said. “And   
   then they’re surrounded by people who don’t even want to say good morning   
   to you or look at you in your face.”   
      
   Reed says he doesn’t resent the trainees, mad as he is at the company and   
   the workers training them.   
      
   “I’m sure they have families. I can see that,” he said. “It’s just hard to   
   separate them from this company, because now they work for this company.”   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)