Be Prepared for Jobs Leaving the United States

I worked for Continental Tire North America for 22 years in the Charlotte N.C. manufacturing facility. I had very big dreams of working 30 years with the possibility of retiring and not having to worry about insurance, in my golden years.

CTNA has failed to attain profitablitity in the North American tire industry. In fact it has failed to turn a profit in the past 20 years, between 2001 and 2005 CTNA lost almost 1.2 billion US dollars !

According to www.wikipedia.org/wiki/continental_AG This is the reality of the companies failures.

Continental's failures in North America have been the clear result of the company...

Company did not develop a effective tire dealer network

Company had poor marketing strategy

Company had Poor sourcing strategy

Company overemphasised on the unprofitable Original Equipment market

In September of 1998, after months of failed contract negotiations, the employees of CTNA Charlotte plant and the United Steel Workers of America began a year long strike, only to come back to a plant that had hired replacement workers. Replacement workers that had been given a crash course in training, how to run a tire plant.

I honestly had hopes that we could work it out and Continental Tire could recover from the struggle of the year long strike but unfortunately this was not the case.
The replacement workers were hired at full time status, obligating the company to give them a job even though we had come back from strike. This in turn began the buy out, where hundreds of employees were giving rates for years of service in exchange for their job. Never could I emphasize how much experience and knowledge on the job would never return due to the buy out.

In 2006, CTNA announced the cessation of tire building production in Charlotte, ultimately leading up to a series of layoffs costing thousands their jobs, including my husband and myself.

Like us these people are not teenagers any longer. Many of whom had children in college and some had spouse's that were dependant on them for wages and insurance. In some cases, people had not finished high school racing to take these jobs that now leaving them looking for a job without a High School diploma.

During the layoffs the company announced that effective January 1, 2007, massive cuts to retiree health care benifits would be administered. Now invoking retirees to pay the steep medical insurance prices on their such small fixed income! I've talked to some that have very extensive medical problems now only bringing in two hundred dollars a month after paying for their very needed insurance premiums.

Having been layed off for 18 months CTNA now still denies the people that have been layed off any insurance or severance packages.

There are so many of my former co-workers in worse financial situations than my husband and mysef. There are so many that have lost their homes and cars not to mention health insurance because they simply could not afford the premiums.

In our local daily news paper, the Charlotte Observer, it stated plans for other big lay offs at major companies in our area.

I Pray for all of the United States! It is really scary when you open the news paper and read about more and more major companies that are moving over seas for cheaper labor.

The big question is WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO THE UNITED STATES?