Thursday, June 03, 2004

Class warfare: Tax cuts for management, job losses for employees

Last year, Dubya rolled into Canton, Ohio -- where he used the Timken Co. as a backdrop to tout his tax cuts and their alleged role in job creation. (It so happens that company chairman W.R. "Tim" Timken, Jr. is one of Bush's elite "Ranger" fundraisers.)

Now, Timken is threatening to close three factories unless workers represented by the United Steelworkers of America agreed to unspecified concessions.

"To me this is all about corporate greed and corporate terrorism," said Pat Eslich, a die setter/operator at Timken for 16 years. "We've made every [productivity] goal they've asked us for. The terrorism comes from scaring the workers that their jobs won't be around. They keep telling us, be competitive, be competitive, be competitive. We do that, and yet they still ship our jobs overseas."

Anybody want to take bets on whether "Ranger Tim" Timken's taken any pay cuts lately?

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