Seems Obama has now giving a wedgie to the unions, and they don’t like it at all. It’s as the old saying goes……….”There’s no honor among thieves.”
In 2010 $300 million under the stimulus program went to two Michigan plants to build electric car batteries for state’s electric car industry. But as it turns out the companies getting all those American tax dollars are largely owned by Koreans who bought Korean equipment and supplies, and they even filled some of those sought-after jobs with Korean workers.
Now local labor unions are angered and apparently have taken pictures of Korean workers inside the plant doing the jobs that should have gone to Americans.
Mark Mangione, who represents 1,000 labor union members in west Michigan said, “I think there’s a lot of anger out there, not to be confused with any sort of prejudice against anyone from another country. This is American taxpayer dollars and there should be American jobs that are created with those American taxpayer dollars.”
The companies, LG Chem and Dow Kokam says the Korean workers are temporary and legal and have “unique … expertise (with) highly sophisticated equipment, ” yet Dow Kokam acknowledged 150 Korean workers on site last December, but won’t give a grand total and LG Chem says the union complaints are “baseless” and that Korean nationals haven’t been “used to provide labor or craft work.”
However, Mangione insist they’ve seen foreign workers doing the very jobs Americans could do. “The thing that was alarming to us was that there are people actually doing the work out there, installing the machinery, doing electrical work, piping work, mill right work, installing the machines in this plant.”
The unions have written complaint letters to the Labor Department and the president, but got few answers.
Unions have since filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking for payroll records of LG Chem contractors performing construction work. The government’s response named 18 companies; at least 11 of them are Asian firms.
Energy Department officials say they’re confident all laws are being obeyed, but declined our interview request to talk about foreign workers on stimulus jobs. The companies pointed us to broad totals, saying stimulus money has indirectly helped create 2,000 temporary construction jobs and 300 full time jobs.
The unions say they’re grateful for jobs that have come to Michigan — they just wish all of them were filled by out of work Americans.
I’m sure all the people in South Carolina, which is a right to work state, could use all those Boeing jobs as well, and they are Americans!
So to the unions I say, “What goes around comes around.”
Source cbsnews
