Recently, a company in the city I live in announced that it will be closing in January. This closing will cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax income and at least 300 jobs will be lost. That’s at least 6% of the elibigle workers in my city who will be newly unemployed and at least 8% of the city’s total tax income. This is a huge hit to the local economy, to say the least. And why are they closing?

One of the stated reasons is the current downward spiral of the housing market. The company is in the housing industry and if no new homes are being built, they lose money. But, that’s not really the reason.

The workers in this company are in a union. So, the company wants to save money by shifting the work to a non-union plant and to a plant in Canada that has a union, but also has a national heath system to offset labor costs. It’s not that the market has dried up, rather, the owners and shareholders would prefer to maintain their profit-margin by cutting the cost of labor.

Early this year, the company asked the union to cut 20% of workers’ wages and benefits in order to avoid layoffs. At that time, the union and the company came to an agreement that would avoid layoffs. But now, they say they’re closing and moving the work to places that have lower labor costs. The company is also willing to discuss this further with the union in case the union wants to take those cuts.

What does a 20% wage cut really mean for these workers? Imagine making $15/hour and paying $150 per month for health insurance. A 20% wage cut could mean getting a $3/hour less pay and adding $30 each month to the cost of health care. That means these workers will be taking home $780 before taxes instead of their usual $1,050 before taxes. After city, state, federal taxes, social security, and medicare are taken out, they’ll be bringing in barely enough to pay for food. And, to make matters worse, these folks who are making $15/hour might have worked for that company for five to ten years!

I could go on and on about how this is really unfair and how the company only cares about making profit and not about the workers. And I could dwell on the fact that almost all companies are like this. But, more importantly, I need help from all of the minds at Rethos.com. Actually, we need help.

If you can spare a few moments, please add a comment with your suggestions on how to help the 300 people who will be losing their jobs. They’ll need food, clothing, money for utilities, money for rent and/or mortgages, money for car payments and phones and Internet connections … most of all, they’ll need a new way of making this income or at least gaining these services for free or barter. All ideas are welcome. Please help especially if you’ve dealt with a situation like this before and have some practical experience in this area. Community-building ideas would be great!

Thank you in advance for your compassionate consideration.