Wednesday, May 19, 2004
"The future of employment is bright for the families that work here...." | Kanagaroo Court justice at Abu Ghraib? | The scandal spreads to Brooklyn
Image courtesy: White House website
From The Center for American Progress' Progress Report:
On 4/23/03 President Bush visited the Timken Company in Canton, OH, and touted the company as a demonstration of the success of his economic policies. Bush said "the future of employment is bright for the families that work here, that work to put food on the table for their children." Yesterday Timken announced it is slashing 1300 jobs from its work force, a quarter of its employees in Canton. Bush said that Timken would be successful because "high productivity that comes from steady innovation and skilled workers gives our economy a tremendous edge." But, announcing the layoffs Timken revealed that "production at the Canton bearing plants has declined 27 percent over the last five years." (White House Press Release | Cleveland-Akron News Channel 5 website | Timken Official Press Release)With economic policies like these.... (Subscribe to the daily Progress Report here)
Timken said that it is paring back operations in the Canton plant because it believes wages there are too high and health care benefits too generous. The Union president, Stan Jasionowski, said that Timken "never ever gave us any formal proposals" to reduce costs at the plant. Jasionowski said that he believed the layoffs were "a ploy to destroy the union in the bearing factories." (Akron Beacon Journal site reg' req'd)
As Timken fires workers in Ohio it has expanded operation abroad, especially in China. On 1/31/03 Timken announced it "established a distribution center in Shanghai, China." In 2002, "The Timken Company and NSK Ltd. formed a joint venture to build a plant near Shanghai...production is expected to begin first quarter 2004." (Timken Official Press Release)
Meanwhile, W.R. Timken, the company's chairman of the board, is a Ranger – meaning he has raised at least $200,000 for the Bush campaign. Timken's political action committee has donated $10,000 directly to Bush and $235,000 to his political allies. Other executives have chipped in $12,500 since 2000. Timken was a member of the Employers' Coalition on Medicare, a group of heavy Bush contributors who lobbied for the new Medicare law which rewards companies with a tax subsidy even if they reduce retirees' existing drug coverage. (GeorgeWBush.com | OpenSecrets.org | Center for American Progress)
And do these super-swift Abu Ghraib prison scandal court martial cases look and smell like kanagaroo court justice? How can they have convicted one soldier already when this story just broke a couple weeks ago and there are still ongoing investigations as to what happened there. But the US is bringing freedom, justice and democracy to Iraq? C'mon. (Ananova)
Meanwhile, just to show you how far-reaching this scandal goes, now there are allegations of prisoner abuse at the Metropolitan Detention Center right here in Brooklyn, NY not even two miles from where I live. (Newsweek)
And finally, WTF is going on Gaza? I haven't made much comment on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because 1) I don't have a strong sense of the historical context and roots of the conflict and 2) I haven't followed the ongoing minutiae of it but these latest developments look like absolute madness to me. Who can step up and end this? (San Francisco Chronicle)
