Detroit files for largest bankruptcy in U.S. history … Prime example of the destruction caused by labor unions … on a track to destroy cities in America and beyond

Captain Rick: Detroit, motor capitol of the world, has filed for the largest public sector bankruptcy in U.S. history … $18.5 billion. This is prime example of the destruction caused in a major way by labor unions.

Detroit, pictured above with excellence, has filed for bankruptcy, the largest in the public sector in U.S. History

Words from the Michigan Governor Rick Snyder

“The fiscal realities confronting Detroit have been ignored for too long. I’m making this tough decision so the people of Detroit will have the basic services they deserve and so we can start to put Detroit on a solid financial footing that will allow it to grow and prosper in the future. This is a difficult step, but the only viable option to address a problem that has been six decades in the making. I have reached the conclusion that this step is necessary after a thorough review of all the available alternatives, and I authorize this necessary step as a last resort to return this great City to financial and civic health for its residents and taxpayers. This decision comes in the wake of 60 years of decline for the city, a period in which reality was often ignored.”

He also said that 38% of the city’s budget is being spent on “legacy costs,” such as pensions and
debt service. He said police take almost an hour to respond to calls, compared to a national average of 11 minutes, and that 40% of street lights in the city are turned off.

Labor Unions are destroying America

Once serving a great purpose of job safety, labor unions have become an empire of greed for wealth over past decades. Their greed has destroyed millions of American jobs. Auto companies in Detroit were forced to build plants in and source parts from places that were less union friendly in an effort to stay profitable. Unions helped destroy Detroit. This bankruptcy of Detroit, once America’s fourth largest city (now 18th), is the culmination of that destruction.

My purpose with this report is not to expound on the details of this record bankruptcy, for they will be broadcast around the world by the media in coming days. My focus is on the destruction to America, caused in a significant way by labor unions.

Across America, our companies, cities and states are significantly influenced by powerful unions, especially those representing police, fire and civic service. I urge all employees who are members of a union to consider severing your membership in an effort to protect the future wellbeing of your company, so that it does not have to relocate … or your city, so that it does not eventually have to file for bankruptcy, like Detroit. I urge city and state officials to do what is possible to curtail or limit agreements with unions, in an effort to help prevent the need for our cities and states to file for bankruptcy, like Detroit. Many more American cities are following closely in Detroit’s path. America has not yet experienced its first state bankruptcy … but its just a matter of time. There are thousands of fiscal ‘time bombs’ waiting to explode across America, especially those concerning employee pensions.

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Labor Unions

U.S. Jobs: Stuck in neutral … with little hope things will pick up any time soon … unless…

Captain Rick: The January Jobs Report shows a continuing drop in new jobs created and a reality that job creation in America is stuck in neutral … or possibly reverse. 150,000 new jobs are needed to be created every month just to keep pace with population growth as represented by my red line in the chart below. Overall, the U.S. economy lost 8.8 million jobs during the Great Recession, and is still down about 3.2 million jobs from the labor market’s height in January 2008. The 5.6 million jobs that were created since the Great Recession also had to provide for the 9 million new job seekers entering the market since January 2008, due to population growth. Realistically, another 8.8 million jobs would have been needed to be added during the past few years to equal the American job scene of January 2008. At the current pace, those jobs will not be returning any time soon. Making things even worse is the fact that many of the jobs being added are relatively low paying in comparison to the jobs that were lost.

The U.S. economy added 157,000 jobs in January. That’s slower growth than in December, when employers hired 196,000 workers. Some call it “Groundhog Day in the labor market” and say “We’ve been waking up to this same story for four years.”

The biggest job sector gainers
In January, businesses added 166,000 jobs while federal, state and local governments cut 9,000. The government continued to cut jobs for the fourth month in a row.

Retail added 33,000 jobs, with about a third of those gains at clothing stores.

Construction firms added 28,000 jobs, reflecting a stronger housing market and rebuilding efforts after Superstorm Sandy.

Health care added 23,000 jobs. Most of those jobs were in ambulatory health care services, a category that includes doctors’ offices and outpatient care centers.

Manufacturers added only 4,000 jobs. The Labor Department noted that employment in this sector has changed little since July. Manufacturing once was the job sector that built and sustained America as a great country. America’s manufacturing jobs have mostly been lost to places like China because of lower wages and NO unions!

Unemployment Rate
The unemployment rate increased to 7.9% in January, as 12.3 million people were counted as unemployed.
The number of jobless Americans out of work at least six months was roughly unchanged at 4.7 million and that group represents only 38% of the unemployed.

A broader measure of the job market’s health called the underemployment rate — it includes the unemployed, discouraged Americans who have stopped looking for work and part-time workers who want full-time jobs — was unchanged last month at 14.4%.

Outlook for 2013 and beyond
Economists are expecting job growth to remain stalled during 2013.  Political uncertainty that is still hanging over employers, as they wait for Congress to hash out a budget deal. Amid an impasse between Democrats and Republicans, chances are growing that automatic spending cuts, which aim to reduce deficits by $1.2 trillion over a decade, could take effect starting in March. All of this will likely have significant negative impact on the job scene.

The best hope we have of seeing an improving job scene in the next few years is for the U.S. Congress to pass legislation to permanently solve the U.S. Debt Crisis, including working towards balancing the budget. Our nation can not continue living on deficit spending … money it does not have. That is a recipe for eventual total economic failure. While it’s continuing practice of ‘kicking the can down the road’ might prevent further erosion of jobs short term, it will most assuredly will set our nation up for a much larger recession and loss of jobs in a few years.

View prior reports on Jobs: https://atridim.wordpress.com/category/jobs/

Michigan becomes 24th “right-to-work” state … new law weakens unions’ power

Captain Rick: Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation Tuesday that now allows workers at union-represented employers to forgo paying dues. Michigan, the birthplace of the United Auto Workers where 17.5% of employees are represented by unions, is by far the most heavily unionized state to pass “right-to-work” legislation. This has the potential of starting a move to crack the union “job-killing” stronghold in the American northeast.

I chose the short video above as the best of many to give you a quick overview of this monumental legislation.

What is a right-to-work law?
A right-to-work law is a statute in the United States of America that prohibits union security agreements, or agreements between labor unions and employers that govern the extent to which an established union can require employees’ membership, payment of union dues, or fees as a condition of employment, either before or after hiring. Such laws are allowed under the 1947 federal Taft–Hartley Act. Before then, an employee who ceased being a member of the union for whatever reason, from failure to pay dues to expulsion from the union as an internal disciplinary punishment, could also be fired even if the employee did not violate any of the employer’s rules.

What is the benefit of a right-to-work law?

Right-to-work states have done better in terms of growing jobs, according to State Budget Solutions, an advocacy group that supported the measure. Right-to-work states saw employment expand by 8.2% between 2001 and 2010, while those without the law experienced a 0.5% decrease, according to the group’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics figures.

Which states have a right-to-work law?
Right-to-work laws now exist in twenty-four U.S. states as shown in the map below. In my humble opinion, they are the 24 states which are leading America out of the past doldrums of “shipping” millions of well-paying American jobs to China, Mexico and may other foreign countries because of the endless greed of American labor unions for more power and wealth. I am proud of my state of Arizona for being a “right-to-work” pioneer and leader. Arizona was the first state to pass “right-to-work” legislation way back on November 22, 1948. Arizona has since enjoyed the company of 23 other states who have a desire to do what is best to grow jobs at home in America.

Captain Rick’s closing thoughts

Nationwide, union membership stands at 11.8% and is decreasing daily. That is good. I look forward to the day when it reaches zero. There was a day nearly a century ago that unions played an important role in protecting the safety and well being of American jobs. After World War II, unions became nothing more than a money-making scheme for a few to get rich at the expense of many. During the latter half of the last century America has witnessed the destruction of much of America’s manufacturing base along with the end of millions of well paying jobs that were sent overseas because they could be done at less cost. I hold American unions mostly to blame for this travesty. American unions are running out of “suckers” so they are relentlessly perusing the only remaining frontier for their financial greed … service jobs in the government sector which consists mainly of teachers, police, fire and other civic employees. The union thought is that these jobs can not escape America, so they have free reign. I hope our elected civic servants will be wise to this ploy and help prevent one of the last American job frontiers from destruction.

Unions kill another American Classic: Hostess, maker of Twinkies & Wonder Bread: Bankrupt … 18,500 workers lose their jobs

Captain Rick: Once upon a time in America, unions were an entity to protect job safety, like having clean air to breath and working with equipment that doesn’t maim or kill. In recent decades unions have become mostly about a means to push member benefits and wages as high as possible … historically, beyond justifiable means … at the expense of the consumer and their employer. All too many times we have witnessed massive job losses as the result of union greed. Detroit, once automotive headquarters and union central, is America’s greatest example. The city is all but dead, killed by the unions and their thirst for endless, unwarranted greed.

Hostess gave the unions a 5 PM deadline Thursday, November 15 to return to work. The workers did not return. As a result, the union workers killed Hostess, with annual sales of $2.5 billion. 18,500 workers have lost their jobs. 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centers and 570 outlet stores have closed across America. Annual sale of 500 million Twinkies and 127 million loaves of Wonder Bread also end. It’s the end of another American classic.

Hostess will move in bankruptcy court to sell its assets to the highest bidder. I trust the Twinkie and Wonder Bread will live on … but will be produced by companies  of dedicated workers who are not unionized … workers who understand the true value of their jobs … not some super hyped imagination of job glory that does not exist in today’s America. Thus, the companies might not be headquartered in America. Its time for all unions to exit America or America will continue to watch our great companies be washed to the sea.

DuPont to cut 1,500 jobs worldwide, 2% of its workforce … signaling another blow to the global economy

Captain Rick: DuPont, one of the world’s largest chemical companies that invented Nylon, Neoprene, Corian, Teflon, Mylar, Kevlar, Freon and much more issued a wake up call to the world today as it announced a cut of 1,500 jobs worldwide, about 2% of its global workforce. It also lowered earnings guidance for this year.

DuPont, headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, had 70,000 employees worldwide at the end of last year. A component of the Dow Jones, DuPont’s stock fell 9% today, helping send the Dow into a nose dive today, loosing nearly 2% of its value.

Cummins to cut 1,500 jobs by end of 2012 due to weakening global economy

Captain Rick: Cummins, the world’s largest producer of diesel technology with $1.85 billion in 2011 sales,  announced that it will cut as many as 1,500 jobs by the end of 2012 because of uncertainty regarding the direction of the global economy. Cummins employs about 44,000 people worldwide. Based in Indiana, it also has factories in Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina and several overseas. It instituted a global hiring freeze after a recent drop in sales in North America, China and Brazil.

FedEx, Caterpillar and others feeling the pain of China’s slowing economy

Captain Rick: The sluggish economies of the U.S. and Europe are having a direct effect on China’s economy, all working in unison to amplify the global financial crisis. FedEx, the world’s largest air package shipper says the impact on China’s economy is far bigger than most have estimated. FedEx has trimmed the number of planes carrying shipments into the United States.

Caterpillar, the worlds largest maker of earth-moving equipment, has slowed production at its main Chinese excavator factory, including a two month shut down and cutting work hours. Caterpillar is exporting most production out of China as a result of overestimating sales potential in China. Many other companies are also effected. The report continues …

For more info, read the above Fortune Report:  http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/09/19/fedex-china/

Chicago teachers strike could make negative blow to jobs report and dampen Obama’s chance of reelection

Captain Rick:

Unions in America have well outlived their benefit. Over the past half century I have witnessed thousands of good paying manufacturing jobs shipped overseas because of union pressure for higher wages and benefits. The fact is that there are lots of people in other countries that will willingly do the jobs that America thinks do not pay enough. Now that unions have destroyed most of the manufacturing jobs, they are attacking the only ‘meat’ left…the service jobs, which include teaching, police, fire and other government jobs. The unions figure that these jobs cant be shipped overseas so they are safe territory to strike with demands of higher wages and benefits.

WRONG! This plan will fail and it will take what is left of good paying American jobs and make them history. This strike is so big (and stupid) that it most likely will effect the federal Jobs Report which already demonstrates that American jobs are on life support. President Obama, who supports unions and accepts significant financial support from them, might find himself out of office in November because of them.

The above is a photo snip is from: http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/17/news/economy/chicago-teachers-strike-jobs-report/index.html?iid=Popular

Some interesting excerpts:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — As it drags on for a second week, the Chicago teachers strike is so large it could distort national economic statistics, including the Labor Department’s key monthly jobs report.

About 26,000 teachers and support staff are striking in Chicago, demanding higher pay, better job security and changes to a new evaluation system.

The strike’s timing is key, in that it coincides with the period in which the government collects data for the national jobs report.

Last month, that report showed the economy added only 96,000 jobs. The number was seen as weak, posing a challenge for President Obama as he faces re-election.

September’s report could look far worse if the strike continues.