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Here are beginning and concluding excerpts from
commentary by Assoc Editor Susan Nielson of the Oregonian today on the subject
of diverse economies, a Prime Topic in Oregon with 8% unemployment (though I’ve
read that some temp hiring is up). Nieslen’s entire piece is attached, 3.5 pages (37 KB) and I
urge those who have participated in this thread to read it for the two sides
she presented of this coin. - KWC When the company leaves
the company town
By Susan Nielsen, Associate
Editor, in the Sunday Oregonian, June 15, 2003 Loyalty is not an American trait, not like
independence or drive. But it's
still a shock when a major U.S. corporation acts disloyal by threatening to
leave town. Today it's the Boeing Co., declaring its
disloyalty to the Puget Sound region after 86 years of building airplanes in
Washington state. Yesterday it was
the trust that controls Hershey Foods Corp., trying to sell the candy company
out from under the Pennsylvania town that made Hershey great. Tomorrow, it could happen in Oregon
with Nike, Hewlett-Packard or Intel. The story goes beyond airplanes and chocolate to
any product that can be assembled, processed, designed or serviced more cheaply
elsewhere than in its hometown. The more global the commodity, it seems, the
less loyal the company to any "home." American workers need a strategy to deal with
this threat of disloyalty. So do
states, which spend millions luring whole industries, only to become too
dependent on a handful of corporations.
The problem won't solve itself. As goods and ideas flow more easily
between states and countries, so will jobs. Blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Maybe your job. Or at least, the job you thought
belonged to you, in the company you thought you built. "The whole notion of job security
is fundamentally changing," says Bob Bussel, associate professor of
history and director of the Labor Education and Research Center at the
University of Oregon. "The idea of a lifetime job and a loyal company is
an older notion." ….Swallowed by a giant. Third, communities
should diversify, diversify, diversify.
Gresham hoped Fujitsu Microelectronics would stay a major employer
forever, but the memory chip plant closed in 2001 after only 13 years. Portland-based Willamette Industries
was an Oregon mainstay since around 1906, but got swallowed by global timber
giant Weyerhaeuser early last year.
Counting on a business not to move or sell out is as risky as owning all
stock in a single company. Finally, states should anticipate and prevent
destabilizing moves, rather than react in a panic. Washington state, for example, let the traffic in the Puget
Sound area worsen for years, ignoring Boeing's complaints about the difficulty
of moving goods and people.
Leaders also dismissed Boeing's plea to spread the cost of unemployment
insurance more fairly. Now,
Boeing's threatening to pack the U-Haul. State leaders are standing by the curb
and promising to do anything, anything, for Boeing to please stay. That sets a bad precedent for other
businesses. Cortright called it "cash prizes for bad corporate
citizenship." "The more
you threaten and the more you bluster," he said, "the more money you
get from the state. It's kind of a sad commentary." Build loyalty from ground up. Americans think
these big U.S. companies belong to them. People in Washington state claim
Boeing as "theirs," though Boeing has three major divisions in the
United States and operations worldwide.
People in Oregon call Nike their own. They also claim Hewlett-Packard in Corvallis and Intel in
Hillsboro, though both are headquartered elsewhere. We're all wrong. These companies belong to themselves. With the act of incorporation, they
become legal bodies with needs as distinct and powerful as human bodies, and
survival instincts just as keen.
If they don't adapt, they'll die, said Raymond Waldmann, who retired in
2000 as Boeing's vice president for international relations. "I think corporations do have to
take into consideration the community and people who hold jobs," Waldmann
said. "On the other side of
the coin, companies have to stay in business. There's a balance." That balancing act happens with every American
company trying to be a good employer but getting pushed to compete and cut
costs. The pressure to slash wages
and benefits is enormous when people overseas are grateful to work for
peanuts. It's easy for corporate
managers to perceive American workers as greedy and unreasonable by comparison,
simply for expecting decent jobs. As corporations flex their global muscles,
employees lose power. The balance
between community and corporation gets out of whack. Blue-collar workers have known this for decades, as their
jobs disappeared overseas while corporate profits soared. Today, white-collar jobs are also
shifting overseas. Computer
programmers, database managers and call-center operators now hear that giant
sucking sound, too. This job shift adds to what economists call a
jobless recovery. Workers have a
simpler term. Betrayal. Demanding loyalty from big U.S. companies on
moral grounds is a lost cause.
Communities should build loyalty from the ground up, and spread their
investments as broadly as the best mutual fund. Citizens can help by showing the kind of loyalty to their
hometowns that they'd like corporations to show. The small decisions about buying locally and
staying involved add up. The goal,
of course, is not to control the behavior of airplane makers and chocolate
companies. The goal is to imagine
the United States with Wal-Mart as the only place left to shop or work, then
pledge allegiance to a more promising future. |
NIELSEN When the company leaves the company town.doc
Description: MS-Word document
