To set the proper mood, please click on the YouTube below before you read the rest of this post, especially beginning at the 2:28 mark!
During the 2012 campaign on March 8, with great fanfare, Obama made a visit to the Daimler-Chrysler Trucks North America factory in Mount Holly, NC, to trumpet the good news of the ECONOMIC RECOVERY.
In preparation for his highness’ visit, workers planted shrubs at the silver sign that displays the company’s name.
Before an adoring audience of United Auto Workers members (see photo below), local dignitaries, local and national media and the trucking trade press, the POS congratulated Daimler on the production of its 1,000th Freightliner natural gas truck, and for adding 1,000 workers to the plant last year, many of whom had been laid off during the recession. He promised that the federal government will help communities that buy vehicles powered by alternative energy to “cut through the red tape and build fueling stations nearby.”
Yesterday, FOTM received this email from a reader C.Y.:
“I work at the Daimler Chrysler/Detroit Diesel co. in Cambridge, Ohio. It was just announced to us at 1:45 p.m. EST that Daimler Chrysler trucks gave legal warning that 1300 employees would be laid-off in their U.S companies (Mt. Holly, NC, and another plant in Oregon). These employees were hired in the mid 2012 campaign year! Obama VISITED the Mt. Holly plant (with press coverage!) to tout his “recovering economy” & “jobs creation”!!!!!!!!!!
I can confirm what C.Y. wrote is true.
Emery P. Dalesio reports for the AP, Jan. 29, 2013:
Daimler Trucks North America said Tuesday it was warning thousands of workers that potentially large layoffs could be coming at manufacturing plants in North Carolina, South Carolina, Oregon and Mexico. The company said in a statement that it was notifying production workers about the layoffs two months in advance, in compliance with federal law.
Portland, Ore.-based Daimler Trucks employs about 20,000 workers building Freightliner and Western Star trucks, Thomas Built school buses, along with engines and parts. The unit is a division of Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler AG.
It was a year ago that the company’s Freightliner long-distance truck plant in Cleveland said it would recall about 1,100 workers. The factory said it needed the manpower because demand in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and South Africa was improving. Increased need for trucks indicated companies and consumers were buying more products and homes since “America moves on trucks,” Daimler Trucks chief operating officer Roger Nielsen said then.
But Daimler Trucks said last summer it had rehired only about half its stated goal for the Cleveland plant because demand had not materialized as forecast.
How are y’all liking the Obama Hope-’n-Change?
FORWARD! — into the abyss!
~Eowyn
