Corporate America’s Counter-Stimulus Strategy

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2009/0509bybee.html

Firms decide to shut profitable plants while spurning buyers.

By Roger Bybee

“Is it too late? I hope not,” said an exasperated Anthony Fortunato, president of the 260-worker United Steelworkers (USW) Local 2604 at an ArcelorMittal steel mill in Lackawanna, New York, as he and his members watched the mill being systematically taken apart.

An eager buyer has been pressing the company for at least two months to sell the mill and thus keep the profitable operation open and the jobs alive. Fortunato is hoping the buyer will remain interested despite ArcelorMittal’s aggressive drive to gut the mill. ArcelorMittal is rushing to dismantle complex, custom-built ovens and other equipment that will take months to replace.

Day by day, the dismantling continues relentlessly, with each step reducing the value of the mill. “Our members are getting sick watching this happen,” said Fortunato.

Arcelor’s plans to close the Lackawanna mill are occurring against a backdrop of a widely supported effort by President Barack Obama to stimulate the nation’s flat-lining economy with the $787 billion “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” But even as Obama is moving to counter the nation’s economic free-fall, major corporations are moving in the opposite direction when it comes to maintaining employment and consumer demand. A recent survey showed 71% of CEOs expecting more layoffs in the coming six months.

Not only are they accelerating the pace of outsourcing to low-wage nations like China, but there have been several recent instances of corporations closing profitable plants in the United States and then refusing to sell them to other companies interested in keeping the plants open and retaining the current workforce.
“These jobs aren’t coming back”

The Lackawanna mill isn’t ArcelorMittal’s only closure. ArcelorMittal is also shutting down its Hennepin, Ill. steel mill, even though other firms have expressed strong interest in buying that mill, reports USW Local 7367 president David York.

At a moment when unemployment around Hennepin—about 100 miles west of Chicago—has hit 10%, ArcelorMittal is preparing to discard the 285 USW members who have performed the hard work of steel production.

FULL story at link.

They have a supreme court ruling on their side. They could exercise eminent domain on a plant that has an interested buyer, purchase it and then immediately resell it to the buyer.

so why is this thread seemingly being ignored?