“International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union President Jim Hoffa told Candy Crowley on ‘State of the Union’ that President Obama should attack American companies in his upcoming speech for being “unpatriotic” by investing on other countries,” Joel Gehrke reports for The Washington Examiner.
“Hoffa admitted that it is cheaper for companies to invest in other countries – ‘we know that,’ he said – but maintained that companies ‘have an obligation to America to build [factories] in America,'” Gehrke reports. “Hoffa then called on Obama to attack companies who invest overseas in his upcoming jobs speech.”
“Hoffa continued by calling Apple ‘unpatriotic’ for considering construction of a factory in Mexico,” Gehrke reports. “He argued that labor costs are not too high for companies to succeed in the United States.”
“Hoffa also suggested a tax incentive to get companies ‘off the sidelines, get into the game and start spending some of that money here in America and put America back to work,” Gehrke reports. “The problem with the union pushing the President to dangle a carrot to companies is that they also have Obama carrying a huge stick in the form of his National Labor Relations Board, which has sued Boeing to close a non-union factory that the airplane manufacturer built in the right-to-work state of South Carolina.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
It must be a really nice alternate universe that Hoffa lives in. Unions had a place back in the day. But, now they are just dead weight on companies. American car companies anyone?
Unions suck. Liberals suck. Maobama sucks.
We will vote these Freedom hating scum bags out in 2012! Maobama and fellow comrades are egging this guy on too. What absolute scum. Who the hell would want to provide any kind of work in the US for lunatics like that and his lazy, unproductive, over paid minions???? It is insane what is going on lately. Liberals gone wild. Their end game is communism or bowing to a King or Dictator that tells us all what we can and cant’ do or can and can’t have. No freedom to make it on your own. I hate liberals!!!!!!!!
Why do we have some jack ass that was raised mainly in another country as president of the US. He has a phony Social Security number and most likely birth certificate. He won’t show his college records because they show he was a foreign exchange student. He is buddies with terrorists (Bill Ayres). He is a cocaine addict. He still smokes. He lies endlessly. How freaking stupid are you democrat losers????
“Legal US Citizen” You’re a complete right wing lemming who cares nothing about facts. I doubt you’re even a Mac user probably just some right wing nut job holed up in some log cabin trolling the internet for any Obama story to spew your ignorant hate at.
I’m not a liberal and Obama has been a disappointment but calling Obama a “cocaine addict” is so moronic that you instantly lose all credibility.
MDN really needs to monitor these kinds of posts and delete them. Most MDN readers come here for discussions and news about technology not politics.
Then again, judging by MDN’s love for Rush L. maybe they’re just trying to increase their hits with cheap and easy stories to get hits.
Hey Scabbro,
Obamagedden brags about his cocaine use in his book. His assistants talk about him still chain smoking when not in public view. Why are you trying to hide and cover up for the liar in chief, foreign raised, illegal alien president? Look up his social security number and college records and see what you find you liberal-troll-lemming-communist dirt ball. Just like a liberal to try to silence free speech. You are a liberal and it’s obvious. Stuff you hypocrite. I’m sure you were jumping for joy with flailing wrists every time George Bush or Reagan (if you were even born yet) was bashed in the news.
O My God Obama smokes!
Don Juan, are you the only one who knows about this?
Hells Bells, he smokes, cigarettes no less. Of all the bad rotten things a man could do on this planet…
Ooooooooo! He SMOKES!
He lies about being a smoker, get it. Get it dummy. The guys a freaking serial liar among many other horrible things. You freaking moron.
So admitting that you did something is now considered “bragging”? Using your logic, then you could you say that George Bush bragged about being an alcoholic?
Sorry dimwit.
Unless I missed the election, you are not the arbiter of subject matter or taste on this site.
Hoffa:like father like son. He may be visiting his father’s grave some day.
“communism or bowing to a King or Dictator”
Communism vehemently rejects the idea of kings and dictators.
Which should tell you something about all the “communist” regimes that are presided over by kings and dictators.
“I hate liberals!!!!!!!!”
That’s nice. Now how about explaining why you hate Obama W. Bush? If you despise liberals then it stands to figure you should love him for a variety of reasons.
And the irony of it all is, if he loses in 2012 then he’ll just be replaced by somebody identical to him. But would you lemmings rail against the replacement? No, because the replacement would be a Republican instead of a Democrat, which means you’d mindlessly eat up whatever they say and ignore their sins.
And of course the liberals are composed mostly of such lemmings as well.
The whole nation loses in perpetuity thanks to an electorate like you. So thanks a bunch. Really.
No dummy. If a conservative makes it in things will be on the right path at least. With an attitude like yours we all might as well jump off a cliff. Communism is king or dictator fool. The communist government acts as one collective dictator. Think about if it doesn’t hurt your brain to much to think. Liberals really are pathetic.
Right. We had a conservative president for 20 of the last 31 years.. are we on the right track? Since 1980, the top 20% have seen their incomes rise 55% while the bottom 20% have actually had a 4% decline in their real incomes. Since 1980, our deficit has ballooned to incredible proportions.
The thing is.. it’s not even about conservative vs. liberal anymore. It doesn’t matter if we have a democrat or republican in the oval office or in control of congress. Money has polluted the entire system, and really has become a battle of the haves vs the have-nots. And by ‘have nots’ I am including the american middle class. Productivity has gone through the roof, but wages have stagnated since the 80’s. Supply side economics clearly does not work. We have run the experiment for 30 years now, and what we get is huge income disparity and stagnation. All the gains made by productivity growth has gone straight into the pockets of large corporations and their investors (who only have to pay 15% on that income unlike those of us who earn wages) and overseas to cheap labor countries.
Most of the bad things are because of liberals in congress jb. You know it, all of us enlightened ones know it. The massive size of the government and it’s phony EPA, FED, Fannie, Freddie, Unions, and on and on departments kill the economy and the US. Social Security was set up as scam to confiscate even more money. They never thought the masses would live get it paid back to them. Right now we’re stuck with it. Conservatives aren’t for any of that.
Oooooo, “dummy”. That’s a witty one.
“If a conservative makes it in things will be on the right path at least”
This is exactly what I’m talking about. If a Republican makes it in, things will be on the exact same path that they currently are under Obama. However, Republican lemmings would shut their real eyes tight and pretend it was the right path because it would be on of their party members in the Whitehouse instead of a Democrat.
Just like what the Democrat lemmings are doing with Obama. The man continued following the disastrous path laid down by Bush, but suddenly it was the right path in their eyes because now it was a Democrat walking it.
There are of course conservatives and liberals who aren’t lemmings, but compared to the ones who are, they’re very few and far between. Most would rather tow the party line with their brains shut off. Like somebody whose name rhymes with Garen.
“Communism is king or dictator fool. The communist government acts as one collective dictator.”
Hahahahahaha, oh god.
“Collective dictator” describes every government everywhere, ever. Legal US Citizen obviously meant a literal king or dictator, which is ironic because that would violate everything communism stands for. Even more ironic, so-called communist governments like North Korea revolve around a singular king or dictator figure, showing you just how communist they really are. I.e., not at all.
The “commies” promised the public one thing in order to win their support, then once they were in power, they delivered something else entirely. And a lot of people chose to keep believing in the promise rather than face harsh reality.
Hmm… I think I just inadvertently summed up politics in a nutshell there…
There are conservative Republicans and RHINO plants. We know the difference Einstein. You apparently don’t
We’re idealistic enough to hope that a ‘conservative’ will be elected.
Shades of Zune Tang. But Zunie makes fewer mistakes and fewer tpyos.
The only coke snorting president we have had was the one that wasn’t elected, but was appointed by a Teapublican Supreme Court. He’s also the same one whose rich daddy pulled strings to get him into the National Guard to avoid being drafted so Junior could go AWOL. And the best part yet? The reason Junior was AWOL from the Guard was because he was doing community service for a cocaine conviction with Houston PUSH. Now that’s priceless!
remind us once again, where 0bama served. Kenya? Indonesia?
You guys are all friggin idiots. You don’t know what being decent humans means. God help us.
The liberal loons are awfully quiet so far. Come losers let’s here you stick up for this nut and his type.
Losers?
Yeah losing is how the Dems gained control of the Senate and Executive.
You right-wingers are really pathetic with your name-calling and ridiculous character attacks. How about a reasoned debate? No, that would surpass the intellectual capacity of most of those who typically resort to the tactics of children when arguing against the other side.
What, Bush’s cocaine use, excessive drinking and sketchy military past are all okay? No less so than whatever Obama has done in my mind.
Stop watching solely Fox News and merely regurgitating what the inflammatory talking heads have to say and start thinking for yourself!
Hey Dildo,
Losing is what happened to liberal scum in the 2010 elections numb nuts. Wait for 2012, it’s going to be even worse for you communists in training. Name calling? Are you kidding? That’s all you slimy sleaze balls do is name call. Go straight to he’ll dude.
So, the best you can muster is:
1. Nuh uh!
2. Just you wait.
3. More name-calling.
Brilliant.
Phildo = Obama lemming
You Americans really are funny!
What, if not Fox, do you get your news/info from?
As many places as possible.
It’s not the Unions that are dead weight on companies, it’s the employees.
Another portion of the article:
Hoffa does not seem concerned that the United States Postal Service needs a bailout from Congress to avoid having to close their doors. Why?
The New York Times explains: “Decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office’s costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees.”
In other words, the USPS needs Congress to pay for their union contracts, while FedEx and UPS are benefiting from a much smaller union force. A bailout for the Post Office is a bailout for labor unions, just as the auto company bailouts proved little more than kickbacks to unions, and just as a program that punishes American companies for avoiding Hoffa and his union will be another example of the close alliance between President Obama and Big Labor in this country.
Unions. The only reason Obama got elected in the first place. Union motto: Vote early, vote often. Unions are the only reason why Obama took over GM instead of letting it go into bankruptcy as it should have. Greedy unions are a main reason why this country doesn’t work anymore.
If you bolt things together for a “living,” you’re not supposed to have a $500k house in the tony suburbs. That is reserved for people who add much more value into the economy than you do. The sooner the blue collar set gets reintroduced to reality, the better.
You know, I don’t disagree with most of your comment, but it would’ve been more effective if you hadn’t thrown in the GM bit. An initial “bridge loan” was under President Bush’s administration. Bank bailouts were also done under Bush–or does that not count, because banks aren’t unionized?
It was done after Obama won and Bush got Obama signed off on it.
“The New York Times explains: “Decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office’s costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees.”
Much of what they say is true. However, one should realize that UPS and FedEx aren’t encumbered by ‘law’ to have to deliver door to door letters at 50¢ a pop to anywhere in the United States of America.
In addition, the contractual promises were made at the time that everyone was benefitting from a spiraling upward economic trend.
As well, “greedy” is a description that could well be applied to much of the populous. And to suggest that it only relates to ‘union’ members is ludicrous; when white-collar workers, management and so-called entrepreneurial business people have more than ripped off their fellow-man than those wearing collars of blue.
What is also interesting is a comment made by a former professor of political science of mine who iterated that one of the reasons for the success of America was the advances in transportation. At that particular time, no other country in the world was benefitting as much as the US re its food sources/supplies. While others depended most on their local farmers to seasonally satisfy their palates, we were enjoying strawberries virtually any day of the year.
P.S. One has to wonder how well UPS and FedEx would do if Apple were to begin manufacturing at home. Realizing of course that one is unionized more than the other and the issues governing such.* Needless to say that much of the success of these delivery companies is enjoyed by the extensive involvement they partake in getting products from foreign countries thousands of miles away. Not next door.
* http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/04/fedex-and-unionization
Your argument about the USPS being required by law to deliver letters at a fixed rate cuts both ways. No other company, by law, can offer letter delivery service. That’s why FedEx and UPS are parcels only.
The USPS is weighed down by union contracts for sure, but it’s also required to fund retirement accounts for it’s 900,000 member workforce. Only problem with that is the USPS only has 250,000 employees because it has greatly reduced it’s workforce since the law requiring retirement funding was passed. So it’s required to fund pay money into a retirement fund for fictional employees.
The real problem with the USPS is that it is run ultimately by Congress. It needs to be a quasi-governmental entity, with some broad mandates but permitted to operate as a business and respond like one.
Apple should move to another country, there’s just too many a**hole in US government.
I think you can take “US” out and just have it referring to any government.
Now that’s the biggest truth on this board.
I think you can take “government” out and just have it referring to all the a**holes in the US.
Screw you you fuzzy foreign freak.
I guess the big new (spaceship?) campus Apple is planning in Cupertino doesn’t count. Hmm, I guess it could be built elsewhere? The Hoffa-ites are the cause of the problems, but they do know how to grease the palms of the politicians.
The Unions are why we lost manufacturing to other countries. A company such as Apple can not make the product here in the States because the Unions would want to much an hour and all the other benefits. Sure Every American deserves good pay when earned. But Companies need to make a profit. I would love to see Designed in California and made in the U.S.A. But until the Unions take a reality check in wages. It will not happen!
I would love to see “Assembled in Texas” on my Macs.
Hey, maybe Obama will give Perry some of that new stimulus money for Apple to build in non-union Texas!
You are so misguided, I do not even know why I am wasting my time.
Unions are not the reason we lost jobs to other countries. Greedy shareholders may like to spin that tale, but the facts do not support their argument. America has the biggest gap between the top and bottom wages in the ENTIRE world chief, look it up. You want to continue to reward the greed at the top by increasing the gap at the expense of the bottom? Who is gonna buy the products in that model?
Enjoy your slavery fool.
Ooooo, greedy shareholders, evil corporations. Spoken like a true class warfare communist. Corporations are made up of people that choose to work their you freaking idiot. They are people. If you don’t like the job leave. You liberals are so brain washed it’s scary.
Unions are the best thing that ever happened to the American worker. Companies have off shored manufacturing to countries like India and china where employees are basically indentured servants for one reason – profit and rules that were lax enough to allow them to import goods back to the US consumer market which was in turn propped up by loose credit during the housing bubble. Hence we had consumption without jobs creation. The TEA PARTY has an answer for you- structure our economy more like Chinas … Cut social programs …. Cut the EPA, kill unions, increase spending on jackboot homeland security, fun. So the Tea Party would have the average American living more like the average Chinaman than the average German; ie do you want to be more like Germany or more like China. The teaparty are traitors.
MacDrone,
The foreign workers will work for less? why is that so bad? The EPA is a complete scam on US citizens. They are there only to drive up costs for everyone and do very little at an astronomical cost to tax payers. Maybe US citizens should work for less too. If you don’t want the job better yourself and find another job or start your own business. What is with you moronic liberals that think the government and unions are the answer to your prayers. They are the massive problem.
We lost manufacturing to other countries because:
1. Here in the USA, businesses aren’t allowed to pay their employees pennies a day for their labour.
2. Businesses are allowed to outsource labour to countries that do pay their employees pennies a day.
The solution is to either allow businesses to pay sweatshop level wages to domestic workers, or to close tax loopholes and impose fines so that outourcing labour becomes more expensive than using domestic workers.
Lowering wages to a level where Americans still recieve good pay isn’t good enough.
As long as it’s cheaper to outsource then outsourcing will continue to be widespread. Making it the more costly option is the only way to slam the breaks on it.
Anything less doesn’t cut it.
Well……if Apple builds in Mexico, won’t that help the ‘document challenged’ Americans…?
(and would that make the iLegal?)
+1
I bet Apple created more jobs then Hoffa. But I bet Hoffa lost more jobs then Apple created when Hoffa’s Union gets ultra greedy with their contract talks… “how much you gonna pay me, how many weeks vacation do I get, how many sick days do I get, 100% pension or nuttin’, you payin’ my health care benefits”. Its this “you need to give us more” attitude and ultra non-commital to their employer regarding duties and obligations, “That’s not in my contract” or “Not my job” or “My contract doesn’t allow me to do that” is why Apple doesn’t manufacture here.
Who here, is the unpatriotic one?!
Obama is a wuss. He wouldn’t attack Apple, he needs their $$$ to get his scrawny tail another four years in the WH and especially with the change in leadership at Apple, he’ll need to forge a new relationship. I guess that means an invite for Cook to come over for dinner.
Here’s an astute rebuttal of sorts by someone who gets it:
“Apple’s Exceptionalism, China’s Mean Trade, and America’s Media Mediocrity”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-navarro-and-greg-autry/apples-exceptionalism-chi_b_946700.html
ROFL.
My company saves the Teamsters lots of money each year. We sell embroidered patches/emblems and they won’t buy the USA made ones due to the cost. We sell them 1000’s of made in China patches with no “Made In…” stickers as they don’t want the stickers on the package.
Difference between costs: USA patch: $1.50, Import: $0.45.
Tell Hoffa to put his money where his mouth is.
“Hoffa continued by calling Apple ‘unpatriotic’ for considering construction of a factory in Mexico, …” Idiot! Didn’t the USA government and EPA harass Halliburton a few years ago until they left America and relocated to Dubai, OAE? I know, lets piss off Apple so they will consider ALL of their world wide options and take the worlds largest most successful company somewhere else. Maybe Apple will want to buy a country first and then relocate there.
I remember a prior Apple CEO (Steve Jobs) who purchased a large property in a state where he could get a liver transplant.
When people and companies have lots of cash they also have lots of options. Apple’s responsibilities are to their stock holders and existing business and employee’s. If the government wants to encourage a company to invest and expand, you don’t piss them off regularly and take more of their money and assets.
Given today’s realities, do you consider it patriotic to at least *look for* items made (mostly) in the USA, or is it better to just buy stuff from China, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Mexico, etc.?
Delusional, all it would do is lose the jobs of the many 1000s of staff employed directly and indirectly by Apple as they become less and less competitive and turn the Worlds biggest company by value to the level of a boot store. Has he noticed that HP like IBM before it is getting out of personal computers altogether and sending creative and technical employment abroad as a result, exactly the jobs that Apple keeps in the US.
At least he didn’t tell Obama to “take the son of a bitch out” this time.. Or at least not directly.
12% of the US workforce is unionized, and the majority of that is government workers..
Unions, and Hoffa, are so arrogant. Telling a president of the US that he needs to target a PRIVATE US company because they are not unionized and don’t follow hoffas ways.
There’s a reason apple makes money, and Hoffa and his types are bleeding cash.
Private company?
Huh?!
Not controlled by government…
GM, not a private company anymore now that the government owns part of it.
No government owns any portion of apple.
With any luck, he will be marinating in a barrel at the bottom of Lake Michigan like his punk criminal democrat asswipe daddy.
I thought he was buried in the old Meadowlands Stadium in 3 tons of concrete?
i wanted to make that joke.
Unlike many commenters, I’d love Hoffa to keep putting exactly what’s on his mind into the public discourse. With unemployment *still* hanging around 10%, I know people want nothing more than to hear about how unions are going to save the economy and probably cure cancer. Stay strong, Jimmy!
He’s already seriously involved into helping the fat windsock industry recover. He’s not only a member, he’s the president.
Now if somehow a turducken could be made from a Hoffa stuffed into Michael Moore stuffed into a… still working on the recipe…
Obama’s best buddy Immelt, of GE infamy, has taken more jobs and is building bigger factories in China than any other company. Plus he has sold the Chi-coms valuable weapons technology.
It’s all in Obama’s plan to socialize the USA.
Yep. Obama best bud’ Imelt just recently announced he’s moving GE’s X-Ray division from the US to China. In 2000 GE still had the majority of its workforce in the US. By 2010 the majority of that workforce was outside the US.
GE under Imelt (unlike the days of Jack Welch) has become the poster boy for crony capitalism. It’s not just the billions in bailout money GE Financial got based on its ownership of some small, obscure bank out west. Nor the business they derive from billions in subsidies for “green” energy like windmills. It’s the billions they expected to earn by trading in carbon credits if cap-and-trade were ever to become a reality.
One, where is this rumor about an Apple factory in Mexico coming from? This is the first I’ve heard of it. That’s the big news.
Two, Apple has created by my estimate, 34,000 jobs in the US, in the last decade, including about 22,000 retail jobs and 12,000 engineering and other salaried jobs. Apple has over 30,000 retail jobs, with about 70% in the US; and a total of about 55,000, so, about 25,000 engineering and other, which are probably 95% in the US.
Three, about this, “they also have Obama carrying a huge stick in the form of his National Labor Relations Board, which has sued Boeing to close a non-union factory that the airplane manufacturer built in the right-to-work state of South Carolina.””
That issue is crazy. I like Obama, but blocking this non-union factory in SC is NUTS! That’s 5000 jobs they’ve blocked. I am sympathetic to union workers, but I’m outraged that they are blocking 5000 jobs. They’re worse than Republicans over the debt ceiling debate. If Obama wants to tell us to think of Country First, he needs to get the unions in line, because blocking 5000 jobs is antithetical to that.
He’s such an astute leader that he made a special trip to Silicon Valley, talking about getting advice from all the tech savvy people about jobs/economy, which meant that on his way to spend the evening fundraising with Google execs, he spent a little under 30 minutes with Steve Jobs and Apple.
Is there anyone out there who still thinks the government can create jobs? Is someone holding out for the ObamaPhone, and all the massive demand and subsequent jobs it will spur? Or are we still convinced that there’s like 3 really rich guys in Texas that are going to buy us everything we want?
the hyprocracy of this idiot is unbelievable…these morons drove the American auto industry into the dirt…they cut sweetheart deals for themselves (remember the healthcare exeption for unions). The parasites are killing the host you big fat f***!
Not true at all, nice talking point you have been fed. (and seemingly gobbled right up)
The American Auto industry was destroyed by greed and mis-management from the top down.
Namely: lack of innovation, lack of quality. People tired of buying expensive cars with a limited shelf life. Japan produced more reliable, longer lasting, more efficient auto’s, thus providing more value for the buck.
Buying inferior junk just because it is made in the USA is a self-defeating principle. Not to mention isolationist, nationalistic, and misguided.
Which is not to say I think Hoffa is correct. I think he is a corrupt dirtbag who should be…Well something not nice at the hands of those he is suppose to be serving.
You live in a moral vacuum if you think working people banding together, looking out for their collective interest and safety against the greed and tyranny of a few is bad for America or any other country for that matter.
Namely: lack of innovation, lack of quality. People tired of buying expensive cars with a limited shelf life. Japan produced more reliable, longer lasting, more efficient auto’s, thus providing more value for the buck.
Thats hitting the nail on the head. Well said.
Management played a large role, no doubt. They should have never agreed to labor contracts that eventually made them simply clearing houses for medical and retirement benefits. To build innovative products, with high quality, requires a deep R&D fund. When the gross profit on your product is less than half of what your competitors earn, R&D is not going to get what it needs, and you’ll eventually go bankrupt.
The Asians won the car war because of better management (long term focus) AND better relationships with line workers due to fair treatment without the need for a 3rd party. They also did a pretty good job making sure their vendors made money as well.
My, how quickly the tide has turned in three years! Thanks, Obama, for uniting America against Big Government, Overspending, and Greedy Unions. At least you succeeded at something, you empty-suit one-termer.
The problem is not unions, not ability, not ambition of the American worker; it is has been and always will be the tax burden carried by American workers and hence the higher wages required to pay them…in other words, the problem is always the same source: the federal government.
Um, wasn’t Jimmy Hoffa corrupt as hell?
He was convicted of bribing a federal grand juror and later for fraud. This is his kid that admits he got raised into the Teamsters by Daddy during all his shady criminal dealings? Isn’t it in really poor taste, and probably a very dumb move to have a guy like this speak at your election rally? Wow.
That being said, doesn’t this totally invalidate his participation in any ‘union’ debate? Instant credibility eraser. What’s next? OJ on 3 strikes laws? Jim Jones Jr. for the FDA?
Because this guy is so clearly not a good guy, the opposite of what he’s pushing for is probably going to be the right thing. The more hot and bothered Hoffa gets over something, its a likely sign of a terrible idea and a mess best avoided.
Hey yo Hoffa Jr,
Do you know where your father is?
STFU Hoffa Jr.
It is very important to remember that Obama is completely in agreement with Hoffa on this. The are fellow travelers. Good cop bad cop. Discerning people knew this was coming when the Chrysler bondholders and independent car dealers and Boeing were assaulted by Obama. Some cheered because they did not like those companies, though their legal rights were trampled. Now our darling Apple’s ox is being gored. The law exists to protect everyone. Obama is here to overturn the law. If you don’t seek anarchy and violence, then renounce Obama and his band of corrupt knee capping thugs.
I find it disturbing that Apple is being singled out for not building factories in the U.S. This sort of thing has been going on for years and I’ve never heard those companies being called unpatriotic. There’s a world economy and I always thought it was supposed to be advantageous for American companies to seek cheap labor to keep prices low.
Think deeply on this:”I find it disturbing that Apple is being singled out for not building factories in the U.S.”
It might explain why 0bama was only able to spend 30 minutes alone with Steve.
Why Apple, and not Dell or HP?
The answer to Apple, unions and government issues all centers around financial certainty.
Apple needs to protect its shareholders and customers and does so with the most conservative investments in products, plants and locations it can, so it can ride out financial cycles & unpredictable governmental changes.
Certainty requires sustainability, meaning you can’t agree to do something now that will kill your company, product, union or government program, and ultimately the government in 3 decades just to make someone look good today.
The U.S. government makes Madoff a piker. Social Security, Medicare and the US Post Office are big Ponzi schemes that must crash because they are unsustainable. Politicos promise to give now knowing a program is absolutely 100% certain to fail and probably cause a revolution, but they won’t be here to see the collapse.
Who gets hurt the most? The people on the bottom end of the economic ladder.
The sooner the bottom half of the US citizenry figure out that you can’t go against the actuarial tables & long term consequences, the sooner we put the US on a growth curve again. And by growth curve, I don’t mean a bubble.
Everyone calm down. It’s obvious that Obama can’t have a Jobs report without bringing up Apple.
Not sure what i think of Hoffa but when the company I work for is pushing pay cuts and benefit losses while the executives pay is increasing i sure as hell have to believe we need unions now more than ever.
When I was planing of manufacturing a pair of customized pants I priced the cost here and overseas. My goal was to wholesale them for $40. US manufacturing cost was $45 which was above what I was going to sell them for and China was $12 delivered. I could not possible afford to have them made here.
With Apple low, overseas manufacture cost, they have created thousands of jobs here.
Not to mention the availability of their products for purchase by the masses. Think about the alternative union scenario. Only “Rich” people would be able to afford their products and the entire computer-cell phone market would be tiny. Not mention lack of access to the web. You liberals are brain dead.
Facts:
– Nov. 2008: 95% of black voters voted for Obama
– Sept. 2011: Black unemployment highest in 27 years
There’s a very powerful political ad to be made based on those two facts.
End it with a third fact: The man who freed the slaves, Abraham Lincoln, was a proud Republican.
I urge my black brothers and sisters in the U.S. to wake up and stop voting yourselves into slavery every year. The government and dependence on it for subsistence living is destroying your culture.
The Republican Party of Abe Lincoln’s day and the modern Republican Party aren’t even close to the same entity. This goes for the Democrats as well.
Your third act would be disingenuous to put it incredibly nicely.
It’s like saying people should bet on Uruguay to win the World Cup because their national team was a soccer powerhouse in 1930.
Why do PoliTards have to fill their stomachs full with hateful bile then come here and VOMIT?
Just STFU and go play with the other PoliTards in the sandbox. We talk about computers here, not propaganda pandering. 😛
Because that’s what this MDN post is about dumb ass, politics.
And Al Gore Sr., George Wallace, Ernest Hawlings, William Fulbright, Robert Byrd, and many other supporters of apartheid in the South were prominent Democrats. Now, the Democrat Party actually runs the new plantations that keep blacks in chains – the cities of Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, St. Louis, Chicago, Columbus, LA, and many more, where Democrat policies have been in place for decades and there is only despair. No jobs, no education, lots of crime and drugs and tolerance of every behavior that destroys an effective society.
This di$%bag, his buddy Trumka, and their enabler in the White House are a big part of the problem. It’s time we passed a national right to work law and prohibited public employees from collective bargaining. That may not be the entire solution, but it is a LARGE part of it. I used to be a Democrat. Then, I opened my eyes.
It seems rather obvious but Steve is building a huge factory in the US .The Mothership in Cupertino which will house 12,000 Apple workers .And here’s the neat part -they are going to build really great intellectual stuff that only be built in a society that places great importance on higher education and freedom of thought
Apple has to build factories in other/cheeper countries as long as their competitors are also doing so.
The only way to change this is for the government to force all competitors to do the same thing. If you are not willing to do that, then there is no point in even talking about this.
Then there are companies like Samsung that you can’t force to do anything like this.
Well maybe if Obama lowered the obscenely high corporate tax rate maybe Apple and other companies would come back. We have the 2nd highest corporate tax rate in the world. It’s like our politicians want businesses to leave this country. As for Hoffa – I hope he keeps talking his radical union mentality talk. For as long as it takes.
We mexicans are number one worldwide at enssambling and exporting cellphones. In fact, we’ve enssambled the most RIM Blackberries existing in the world (don’t blame on us for the crappy design, we just follow orders).
Personally, I’d be so proud for my country to manufacture the iPad or the MacBook air or the iPhone. “Made in Mexico. Designed in California.” It sounds great!!
Did not one Mr. Steven Jobs lobby the Pres to provide some kind of incentive so companies can bring their multi billions back into the US without losing a ridiculous sum to the spending addicts in Washington?
I’ve lived 30+ miles north of the cesspool known as Detroit and have had to listen to union crap my entire life. Alright, I paid no attention at all in the 80’s, but I’m making up for lost time. Nothing ever changes. Nothing. It’s the same BS over and over, year after year, contract after contract.
What the saying….insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Sit the F***m down Jr.
So not being union is unpatriotic now? Damn, I guess that makes a lot of the workforce unpatriotic. What about all the unemployed? Maybe they’re unpatriotic. Hard to form a labor union if there’s no labor to be had. Thanks for the new perspective Mr. Hoffa!
The cognitive dissonance with conservatives is mind blowing. Do they not even see the hypocrisy in their arguments. Oh wait, of course they don’t they’re myopic conservatives. Their arguments aren’t thought out, just based on how they FEEL at any particular moment.
Conservative: “Hey Obama, where’s the jobs you promised, America needs jobs…your a failure for not getting jobs back in America!
A week later, “What! someone suggested that Obama call out companies to bring jobs back to America! What a socialist!!! The government needs to stay out of corporate affairs!!! The corporations should be able to do whatever they want, even if it means shipping jobs overseas!!!
This is almost along the lines of… “Pro life! Pro life!! Abortion should be outlawed, Every child should be protected!!”, then, once the kid is born, “No health care, food stamps, medicaid, or free school for you… Why is your welfare my problem?!?! You’re on your own!
Wow are you clueless. Go crawl back under your rock you commie.
More thuggery by duh unionsssss. I’ll probably be attacked with a pipe wrench for saying this, but Hoffa and others like him fail to consider that a considerable percentage of Apple’s jobs are in the US. Apple makes more than physical products. Thousands of good paying American jobs are created by Appke in software, retail, customer support, design and engineering and more. add to that thousands of other jobs created indirectly by Apple with third party software and product developers as part of the greater Apple ecosystem. That is considerable.
What Hoffa wants is for emplOyees of Apple to by owned by union thugs, and drive the company into the toilet. My hope is that Hoffa and thugs like him are hit with the RICO laws and put behind bars where they belong.
Unions once served a noble purpose. Today, they are little more than organized crime. It’s time they went the way of the buggy whip, before they destroy what remains of a once great American manufacturing industry.
Reading the right wing comments here make me wonder what’s wrong with your?
Bush started two (2) wars on credit! And top of that he lowered taxes! For the very rich! Don’t you understand how basic economics work?
Hey Scandinvian idiot, go straight to hell. You have no clue what you’re talking about. Maobama has spent more that on all US presidents combined before his first year in office was finished. It’s liberals and communist wannabes that are screwing the world up. Bush wasn’t perfect but he was light years better than this illegal alien president with a phony social security card.
Reading the left wing comments here make me wonder what’s wrong with your?
Obama and unions are destroying the US as fast as they can.
If you put your ear to the ground, you can hear, ever so faintly, a mysterious death coming. Yeah…..you hear that….yeah…crazy huh…i Know!!
Well, apparently the current corrupt version of the free enterprise system is ‘unpatriotic’. It’s certainly not nice to US workers! That’s because the consistent pressure on the current lamebrain biznizz culture is THE BOTTOM LINE. IOW, US employees, despite being the single most productive working on the planet, COST TOO MUCH.
Look at history: What do rich people typically want? What did the LORDS of the feudal dark ages want? FREE LABOR. But darn, you have to pay workers something or they starve and die, and that costs money! So feed them but otherwise screw them over while they make your stuff for you. That is what the current work culture in China is all about. That’s why I’ve been shouting at Apple to GET THE HELL OUT OF CHINA for years.
Can you blame Apple for succumbing to price pressure by being part of the ‘slave wage labor’ movement? You decide.
But pulling the worn out, nearly illegible and in this case meaningless ‘unpatriotic’ card is entirely LAUGHABLE. 😆
Please try harder Mr. Hoffa.
(Funny how that name is so familiar.
Union royal succession perhaps?) 😉
No lame brain, it’s the consumers. They wouldn’t buy Apple products or any products at the insane union inflated prices that US made product would cost. US worker can be great. They demand too much to get it done though. It’s not necessarily the business’ fault. Taxing corporations is idiotic too because it’s the consumers that pay those taxes in cost of the product. Unions need to end, government needs to de-unionize and massively shrink, then and only then will the US economy take off.
It’s BECAUSE of Hoffa and his unions that manufacturing is all going overseas. Most trades cost the employer around $50-80/hour (including benefits) and are fairly inefficient. Compare that to $10/hr in China. Give me a break. Crying in your beer. The jobs are not coming back, and the more you obstruct and whine, the more jobs will leave. Read up about Longview, Washington union actions this week. A real eye opener. Longshoremen are the worst.
PS I have been a union electrician for 20+ years. But only because I want to be overpaid too. When we have work, it’s great. But the more money we get, the less jobs there will be. How is this helpful to the country?
Since you appear to be the arbiter of reasonable compensation, how much should manufacturing jobs cost per hour, including all benefits and taxes?
But wait…you fail to even consider the impact of quality and productivity. If American workers can be more productive and produce higher quality goods, then higher compensation might be warranted. It is overly simplistic to look at overall compensation, make such a judgment, and then declare that the entire source of the problem is unions.
All this aside, unions do not have to be evil or counterproductive. Unions were formed because companies were evil. The pendulum swings back and forth over the decades, and I agree that some unions have gradually accumulated too much power and enacted stifling labor rules. So let’s fix that and move on.
If you have truly been a union electrician for over 20 years, then I have to ask what efforts you made to fix union excesses. How were you helpful to your country?
Surprising absence of facts in Hoffas statement and this thread.
Apple has NO overseas manufacturing plants. It is the FAILURE of the American free enterprise system to establish contract electronics manufacturing facilities in the US that keeps those jobs in China.
But the US made content of Apple products is higher than one thinks on first glance, since many of the component devices are U made and China does mostly final assembly of parts from a world-wide variety of sources.
You’d think a bunch of Apple fans would know such things.
OH DEAR! Jobs UNSURPRISINGLY to NON crApple Fagbois (ie IQs into double figures) DIED TODAY!!!!
Right now the internet’s quaking with speculation about Steve Jobs’ possible death—all sparked by a single tweet. But rumors from news desks and people dumping AAPL stock are making us wonder: is this it?
It’s reminding us a lot of the media rumors that swirled up right before Patrick Swayze died of pancreatic cancer. It’s extremely hard to keep the lid on the death of a celebrity—today more than ever, thanks to websites like ours.
OH DEAR! Jobs UNSURPRISINGLY to NON crApple Fagbois (ie IQs into double figures) DIED TODAY!!!!
Right now the internet’s quaking with speculation about Steve Jobs’ possible death—all sparked by a single tweet. But rumors from news desks and people dumping AAPL stock are making us wonder: is this it?
It’s reminding us a lot of the media rumors that swirled up right before Patrick Swayze died of pancreatic cancer. It’s extremely hard to keep the lid on the death of a celebrity—today more than ever, thanks to websites like ours.
Hmmm. Looks like my post was deleted. I can’t imagine why, it was tamer than most of the political drivel that’s still present.
In summary, just imagine the opposite of whatever F10T12 says, the paranoid, self-farrighteous freak.