Posted on 09/04/2011 9:37:04 AM PDT by mdittmar
President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters James P. Hoffa criticized the patriotism of American corporations who are sitting on assets and holding back from employing more American workers.
Hoffa called American businesses "unpatriotic" for opening factories and stores overseas instead of helping boost employment at home on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday. He singled out Apple Inc., saying “every time they do something, they do it in China, they do it somewhere else.”
Hoffa suggested that too much attention has been paid to what the president and lawmakers can do to boost the economy and called for increased pressure on business to contribute to the effort.
“What obligation does American business have?” he asked. He called on corporations to “start spending some of that money here in America.”
“We’ve lost 8 million jobs since ‘08 and we need to challenge them to get in the game,” said Hoffa.
Hoffa also said he expected the president to present a “bold plan” to boost employment when he addresses a joint session of Congress Thursday.
“We want a bold plan. Labor wants a bold program,” said Hoffa.
So far what we’ve done hasn’t worked; we’re still at 9 percent,” he said of the unemployment rate. “He needs to challenge business. Labor needs everybody to be in the game.”
Labor unions have indicated they are growing frustrated with their traditional allies in Washington over worries the president and congressional Democrats are more concerned with cutting the national deficit than with boosting the still-struggling economy.
Hoffa though suggested that the Teamsters were still behind the president in his reelection bid. “He took over the worst economy in 80 years,” said Hoffa. “He’s going to have a very difficult time turning this around.”
He dismissed the Republican 2012 presidential field and said Obama was the easy choice. “When the alternatives are Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, it makes it easy to make this decision,” he said. He said the GOP candidates were “anti-union, anti-worker.”
Amidst concern that Democratic leaders are not pushing back against Republicans, labor unions are gearing up for the 2012 election.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Wednesday that a super PAC is being set up by the labor federation to help unions earn their independence from political parties.
Trumka said labor unions would continue to push both parties to do more to boost employment. Voters are “going to check and see who’s pushing for jobs right now, see whose main purpose and focus is jobs,” said Trumka Wednesday.
Yeah. Scr*w working Americans!!
Ever wonder how many microsoft people buy new cars homes and other item that help America.
Don’t be greedy unions are not the answer,why do you think states have the right to work law?.
I’ll be honest, I’m a bit agnostic on unions. I’ve never been in one, and don’t support them.
I am emphatically NOT agnostic about American collapse, outsourcing, and globalism.
We need to retain, return, and rebuild American industry.
Whatever that takes. America first.
In a way he’s right. Many companies have no problem outsourcing their production or operations because (up to now) Government has picked up the slack for the domestic consumer base. That is, as private sector jobs have disappeared, well paying Government jobs (or entitlements) have taken their place. Bigger profits for the companies, and less of the problems associated with American workers.
Of course, Unions have helped cause those problems which have motivated these companies to leave. Hoffa conveniently leaves that part out.
When he was fired from Apple and created NeXT, Inc., he actually built a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in the United States for NeXT's workstations.
Ultimately those hardware products failed to find a market and the facilities were sold to Canon. NeXT, then a software company, merged with Apple in 1996 and it's technology formed the foundation of Apple's major products today: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Macs.
What Hoffa ignores is Apple does employ tens of thousands of Americans.
Designers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, software engineers, IT professionals, retail sales clerks and more. It employs builders and architects for its stores and new state-of-the-art headquarters which will add capacity 12,000 employees.
What Apple (and its competitors) cannot do cost effectively is obtain the parts it needs for its products domestically. The sources do not exist. There's no manufacturing facilities, there's no skilled labor, there's nothing here.
The facilities are in China and other parts of Asia because they cared to develop high quality facilities and workforce to carry out the manufacturing.
That's not Apple's fault.
Mr. Hoffa should look in the mirror for reasons why this is so. He should look at his friends in Washington for more reasons why too.
Look for the Union Liable..
Work with union guys every day,my company is non union,I get 7 weeks paid vacation a year,they can keep their union.
Get lost, Hoffa.
Has the U.S. Postal Service sent any jobs overseas,just asking.
It's not just on the high technology end.
The Obama buses came from Canada because they make the best shells or chassis. The interior retrofitting was done in the U.S. How pathetic is it that American transportation manufacturers cannot produce a bus good enough for a president?
Obama talks up having saved American auto makers. GM is still "government motors," at a loss to tax payers. It screwed over the bond holders and now car owners despite his statements to the contrary. Worse it's producing crap no one wants to buy like the Chevy Volt.
Chrysler, another billion dollar investment loss to tax payers, is now a subsidiary of Italy's Fiat! Italy! Yes, Italy of the European debt crisis.
That’s actually a clever question.
In point of fact, have you noticed those funny almost-bar code labels you see pasted onto your mail, if the code wasn’t printed there by the originator.
As far as I know, those labels are outsourced and created offshore. If anyone has info to the contrary wouldn’t mind being corrected on that.
Bold Plan = Card Check.
I guess Hoffa could afford a $2000 iPhone made in the USA.
Ha. The Teamsters have put more companies out of business than any other entity that comes to mind excluding state & federal governments.
So if that’s true,and the U.S.P.S lost $3.1 billion in the last quarter,what could be the reason?
So, Apple Inc which turned itself around from the brink of failure about 12 years ago thru good management decisions and building products people want is “unpatriotic”, while GM which sibumbed to unsustainable union pay demands was bailed out with millions of taxpayer’s funds and is now building cars dictated by the government, which no consumers want, such as the Volt, are I presume “patriotic”. OK. Right. Got it.
Well that’s why I said it’s a clever question.
The USPS’ problem is they’re a government monopoly tasked with delivering buggy whips.
Answer: To make as much profit as possible for the stakeholders. That's how capitalism - - the system that made America the greatest, most free nation in history - - works. Jimmy, if you want American businesses to hire Americans and make their profits here in America, then tell your Community-Organizer-in-Chief and his party of communists to get the hell out of the way. You freaking moron.
Don't think he be happy seeing unions making promises they can't keep.
That would be nearly as stupid as trusting Ubama's Politboro. (shrug)
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