Local economy & jobs

The point is, ladies and gentleman, is that greed---for lack of a better word---is good.

---Gordon Gecco, in the film "Wall Street"

Danaher's President and CEO: H. Lawrence Culp, Jr.
Total Compensation for last year: $57,533,344.00
Source: Washington Post

Average hourly wage of a worker at Danaher Tool in Springfield: $14.00

More than 150 employees gathered yesterday behind closed doors here in VFW Post 425 on Front Street to discuss the closing, employees said. Inside, they compiled a list of questions for upper management that will be used as a jumping-off point for negotiations between the company and its workers, they said... Lafleche and Whitehead said many employees are confused as to how Danaher can close a plant that is currently running nonstop with three shifts per day, particularly after hiring 40 new workers less than four months ago.
"We're as busy as we've ever been, working like the dickens, and then they close the plant?" said Whitehead, noting that he worked 133 days straight earlier this year. "It doesn't make sense."

Approximately 300 union workers at Danaher tool in Springfield are about to become the latest victims of global free trade policies that have decimated America's manufacturing base. The company is famous for making the Sear's Craftsman line of tools. The production workers are represented by two unions; the Boilermakers Local 1570, with about 30 members and IUE-CWA Local 81228, with about 250 workers.

Danaher Tool Group said in a short written statement the decision came after a review of its hand-tool business. The firm plans to consolidate its manufacturing operations at Danaher-owned plants in Texas and Arkansas.
"The savings realized as a result of this restructuring will position it (the company) to better compete in the global hand-tool business," the statement read in part.

More news and information on this story will follow as it develops.

[image:576]A local resident’s group, Holyoke Citizens for Open Government (HCOG), presented a proposal to the Board of Public Works at their meeting on 12/16/04, 5:30pm at 63 Canal St., Holyoke. The proposal is for a public-public partnership as an alternative to privatizing the Berkshire Street Wastewater Treatment Plant.

An unusually large number of employers in Greater Springfield are planning to hire more workers in the first quarter of next year, according to a national staffing firm.
According to Manpower Inc.'s quarterly survey, 31 percent of companies interviewed plan to hire more workers in the first three months of 2005, while 3 percent expect to cut staff, for a net of 28 percent.

Article description:
"Everyone should have an opportunity to earn a decent wage. The hourly minimum wage has failed to keep pace with inflation and the rapid rise in the cost of living in Massachusetts.
Here's the bottom line for Massachusetts workers: At the end of the day, no one who works a full-time job should have to live in poverty."