Blame me for job losses

American Thinker | C. Edmund Wright | Dec. 11, 2008

When the jobs report for November came out last week, many so-called “experts” were shocked at the massive loss of an estimated 533,000 jobs. Even a Time /CNN organization called “The Curious Capitalists” were at a loss to explain it.

Let me attempt to help out these “curious capitalists” (though I am still skeptical that anyone working for CNN or Time is either curious or a capitalist). I caused part of this job loss and I know precisely why; the election. The results portend big trouble for small business.

The job destruction process has started. We are about 20% of the way through our ramp down process and on schedule to complete the shut down by spring 2009. Watch the financial news and you will see continued job cuts each month. We are not alone in our strategy. Far from it. Atlas has shrugged all over the country.

Like many business owners, we are no longer willing to take all of the financial and legal risks and put up with all of the aggravation of owning and running a business. Not with the prospects of even higher taxes, more regulation, more litigation and more emboldened bureaucrats on the horizon. Like others we know, we are getting out while the getting is, well, tolerable. Many who aren’t getting out are scaling back.

We learned just this week that getting out of business is harder than we thought. Take Republic Windows & Doors of Chicago, where being out of money and out of paying customers apparently does not give a business the right to shut down. Nor does it give that business’ bank the right to withhold credit. According to the unions, Jesse Jackson and the Governor of Illinois (yes, THAT governor), this company must continue to pay its employees salaries and benefits.

But pay them with WHAT? Liberals seem to be clueless as to where “the money” comes from. They love to tax, regulate and redistribute wealth — all the while decrying the very profit motive that created it — something they do not understand. If they did, they would not naively insist that a business that is out of money, out of customers and out of credit stay open so as to pay employees.

And that is but one example of why the lay-offs of November 2008 – which will be part of George W. Bush’s statistical record – fall in reality on the Obama election. Business owners understand that the election of 2008 just gave a lot more power to people who think like these liberals in Illinois. For crying out loud, an Illinois liberal is now “President elect” and he chose another one for his Chief of Staff. He chose Michigan liberals for his economic team. Illinois and Michigan are broke!

It is no secret that owners circulated endless emails leading up to election day discussing lay off plans were Obama to win. Entrepreneurs instinctively understand the danger posed by larger liberal majorities in power. The risk-reward equation and fierce independence spirit of start up businesses are anathema to the class warfare, equality of outcome and spread the wealth mentality of the left.

We have very little appetite to have our lives run by elected or un-elected officials like Barney Frank and Jamie Gorelick. We have no appetite to be taxed even more by the likes of Charlie Rangel. These clowns destroyed Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and our entire economy as a result. Congress, by their own admission, cannot even run their own damned dining room with a captive customer base! Some of them refuse to pay their own tax burden. Why in the world would we subject ourselves to their ilk armed with the unchecked powers of the Oval Office and both houses of congress and a massive army of bureaucrats?

We got into business to be independent. We will get out for the same reason.

The fact that Obama is not in office yet is irrelevant. Businesses must see “around the corner” and plan accordingly. Rightly or wrongly, business owners see a huge anti-business shift in motion and they are making preparations NOW. We do not want to have business illiterates like Chris Dodd dictate our decisions from the comfort of his home made possible by a quid pro quo Countrywide mortgage.

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“We learned just this week that getting out of business is harder than we thought. Take Republic Windows & Doors of Chicago, where being out of money and out of paying customers apparently does not give a business the right to shut down. . . . But pay them with WHAT? Liberals seem to be clueless as to where “the money” comes from. They love to tax, regulate and redistribute wealth — all the while decrying the very profit motive that created it — something they do not understand. If they did, they would not naively insist that a business that is out of money, out of customers and out of credit stay open so as to pay employees.”

I see, the evil liberals at work again. First, this a matter of federal law:

“The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) generally covers employers with 100 or more employees . . . WARN protects workers, their families, and communities by requiring employers to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs. Advance notice gives workers and their families some transition time to adjust to the prospective loss of employment, to seek and obtain other jobs and, if necessary, to enter skill training or retraining that will allow these workers to compete successfully in the job market. WARN also provides for notice to state dislocated worker units so that they can promptly offer dislocated worker assistance.”

http://www.dol.gov/compliance/guide/layoffs.htm

WARN also requires employees to be paid for accrued vacation time, plus wages for any additional hours worked.

Note that the company does not have to pay employees for hours not worked, as long as they provide 60 days of notice. If the company doesn’t want to give notice, that’s fine, it’s just that they have to provide 60 days of pay. In the case of Republic, employees — some of whom had worked there over 30 years — received three days of notice.

Also, it appears that Republic is not closing but is relocating to Iowa:

* Echo Windows and Doors, an Iowa company, was incorporated just over two weeks ago. As the name suggests, it makes the same products that Republic Windows and Doors used to make

* Sharon Gillman manages Echo Windows and Doors. She is also the wife of Robert Gillman, who owns Republic Windows and Doors.

* The former marketing director of Republic Windows and Doors is now listed as the contact person for Echo Windows and Doors on the company’s website.

* TRACO was the predecessor to Echo Windows and Doors. Recently, TRACO scaled down its production due to declining demand for its products. Shortly after Echo Windows and Doors purchased TRACO production at the Iowa plant returned to normal levels.

* Finally, just for kicks, the Gillmans bought $2.6 million condominium in 2007. The condominium is located in the very exclusive “Oak Street” neighborhood of Chicago, according to state records.

If the facts in this article are true, then the owners of Republic Windows and Doors decided to relocate to a cheaper location, combine their sluggish business with another company experiencing a downturn, and eliminate its Chicago workers — without giving them the required “heads up.” This is precisely the kind of corporate behavior that led to the passage of the federal WARN Act (and subsequent state versions).

http://dissentingjustice.blogspot.com/2008/12/made-in-iowa-did-company-in-chicago-sit.html

Another interesting twist is that just a few years ago Republic received a tax benefit for the purpose of building a few factory:

In 2002 and 2003, the company received $9.3 million from Chicago to construct a new factory. Prior to the building project, the company threatened to leave the city, arguing that it had outgrown its space. Chicago provided the money using a development tool known as “Tax Increment Financing” (or TIF).

http://dissentingjustice.blogspot.com/2008/12/republic-windows-and-doors-received.html

What the workers will receive is simply what is due them under the law that has been in effect for almost 20 years.

This situation illustrates one reason why the future of the Republican party is uncertain. If it’s really the conservative position that after having received millions in tax subsidies to build a new factory, a company should be able to dump long-time employees almost without notice (right before Christmas no less) in order to be able to move production elsewhere, why would ordinary working people be attracted to that?

1 thought on “Blame me for job losses”

Jim Holman

December 14, 2008 at 3:24 pm

“We learned just this week that getting out of business is harder than we thought. Take Republic Windows & Doors of Chicago, where being out of money and out of paying customers apparently does not give a business the right to shut down. . . . But pay them with WHAT? Liberals seem to be clueless as to where “the money” comes from. They love to tax, regulate and redistribute wealth — all the while decrying the very profit motive that created it — something they do not understand. If they did, they would not naively insist that a business that is out of money, out of customers and out of credit stay open so as to pay employees.”

I see, the evil liberals at work again. First, this a matter of federal law:

“The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) generally covers employers with 100 or more employees . . . WARN protects workers, their families, and communities by requiring employers to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs. Advance notice gives workers and their families some transition time to adjust to the prospective loss of employment, to seek and obtain other jobs and, if necessary, to enter skill training or retraining that will allow these workers to compete successfully in the job market. WARN also provides for notice to state dislocated worker units so that they can promptly offer dislocated worker assistance.”

http://www.dol.gov/compliance/guide/layoffs.htm

WARN also requires employees to be paid for accrued vacation time, plus wages for any additional hours worked.

Note that the company does not have to pay employees for hours not worked, as long as they provide 60 days of notice. If the company doesn’t want to give notice, that’s fine, it’s just that they have to provide 60 days of pay. In the case of Republic, employees — some of whom had worked there over 30 years — received three days of notice.

Also, it appears that Republic is not closing but is relocating to Iowa:

* Echo Windows and Doors, an Iowa company, was incorporated just over two weeks ago. As the name suggests, it makes the same products that Republic Windows and Doors used to make

* Sharon Gillman manages Echo Windows and Doors. She is also the wife of Robert Gillman, who owns Republic Windows and Doors.

* The former marketing director of Republic Windows and Doors is now listed as the contact person for Echo Windows and Doors on the company’s website.

* TRACO was the predecessor to Echo Windows and Doors. Recently, TRACO scaled down its production due to declining demand for its products. Shortly after Echo Windows and Doors purchased TRACO production at the Iowa plant returned to normal levels.

* Finally, just for kicks, the Gillmans bought $2.6 million condominium in 2007. The condominium is located in the very exclusive “Oak Street” neighborhood of Chicago, according to state records.

If the facts in this article are true, then the owners of Republic Windows and Doors decided to relocate to a cheaper location, combine their sluggish business with another company experiencing a downturn, and eliminate its Chicago workers — without giving them the required “heads up.” This is precisely the kind of corporate behavior that led to the passage of the federal WARN Act (and subsequent state versions).

http://dissentingjustice.blogspot.com/2008/12/made-in-iowa-did-company-in-chicago-sit.html

Another interesting twist is that just a few years ago Republic received a tax benefit for the purpose of building a few factory:

In 2002 and 2003, the company received $9.3 million from Chicago to construct a new factory. Prior to the building project, the company threatened to leave the city, arguing that it had outgrown its space. Chicago provided the money using a development tool known as “Tax Increment Financing” (or TIF).

http://dissentingjustice.blogspot.com/2008/12/republic-windows-and-doors-received.html

What the workers will receive is simply what is due them under the law that has been in effect for almost 20 years.

This situation illustrates one reason why the future of the Republican party is uncertain. If it’s really the conservative position that after having received millions in tax subsidies to build a new factory, a company should be able to dump long-time employees almost without notice (right before Christmas no less) in order to be able to move production elsewhere, why would ordinary working people be attracted to that?

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