Are these fair tactics?

[nonesuche]

I have a dear friend for 15 years who works as a Director for Caterpillar, her entire career having been with this one company. She called me a short while ago, I knew she had been downsized recently and we'd been in touch often, but this is the first time I have heard her so upset her voice is shaking.

Why? Because of this lie, I'm posting the link below for I had to go google to find it. She was so upset by what she is terming an "outright wicked lie" and by the President she helped vote into office.

According to her Caterpillar has absolutely no intention of rehiring anyone until significant rebound has occurred and she's asked the executives herself, made those phone calls post hearing this.

She feels betrayed and I can't say I blame her. At least tell us as voters and citizens a measure of the truth President Obama, not just the latest spin to slam shut your partisan interests.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/11/obama-caterpillar-rehire-laid-workers-stimulus-passes/

Obama: Caterpillar Will Rehire Laid-Off Workers If Stimulus Passes

AP

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

President Barack Obama said Wednesday that heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar has informed him it will rehire some of the thousands of workers it has laid off in recent weeks if Congress passes an economic stimulus bill.

"The time for talk has passed," Obama said.

The president's travel to pitch the urgency of the stimulus plan was his third day in a row to leave Washington. On Thursday, he goes to Peoria, Ill., to visit a Caterpillar manufacturing plan.

The world's largest maker of mining and construction machinery announced more than 22,000 job cuts last month amid waning demand for its products.

But Obama said the company told him Wednesday it would hire back some of those workers if the legislation passes. As House and Senate negotiators worked to reconcile differences between competing versions of the legislation, Obama spoke during a visit to a highway construction site here just outside of Washington.

"You don't need to travel very far from that debate to see why this plan is both urgent and essential for our recovery," he said.

With bulldozers visible behind him, Obama aimed -- as he has all week -- to build momentum by demonstrating real-world consequences of both the economic downturn and provisions in the bill aimed at helping create jobs and rejuvenate the economy.

As an example of a shovel-ready project that could get a jump-start from the bill, Obama cited an unfinished stretch of the Fairfax County Parkway connector. It serves the new east campus of National Geospatial Agency and is seen as key to easing horrible traffic congestion. The project's initial phases are under way but more money is needed to finish it.

"We're surrounded by unmet needs and unfinished business -- in our schools and in our schools and our roads, in the systems we employ to treat the sick, in the energy we use to power our homes," Obama said. "And that's the core of my plan, putting people to work doing the work that America needs done."

Obama also traveled to Indiana and Florida this week to pitch the stimulus plan.

"So much depends on what we do at this moment," the president said. "It's not just about the future of my administration. It's about the future of our economy and our country."

[WhiskeyGirl]

I look around and I don't see unfinished business and unmet needs.  I do not see decay.  I do recall a building boom for the past 5-10 years and prices many could no longer afford.  Every road and highway and parking lot ripped up and repaved...for miles.  Would the construction ever end I wondered?  Will anyone from the company be present for the next town hall meeting?

Caterpillar, the world’s biggest maker of bulldozers and excavators, last month said it expects sales to fall about 22 percent this year to $40 billion as a global recession and credit crisis sap demand for construction. Chief Executive Officer Jim Owens has said the company may post a loss this quarter, its first in 16 years.

“Depending on business conditions, more voluntary and involuntary workforce reductions may be required as the year unfolds,” the company said in the statement.

The package is being offered to about 2,000 production employees in the Illinois cities of Aurora, Decatur, Joliet and Pontiac, and in the Peoria area. Some workers also will receive the offer in Denver; Memphis, Tennessee; and York, Pennsylvania.

Job cuts that Caterpillar announced Jan. 26 included 12,000 employees, or 11 percent of the workforce, and 8,000 contractors. Four days later it said it would place another 2,100 factory workers in Illinois on “permanent layoff,” meaning they would be out of work at least six months. Caterpillar had 112,887 employees at the end of 2008.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=azygVVsrbK9k&refer=news

The good news is that Caterpillar still has some sales, and hopefully will go through any excess inventory.

I did hear an Obama supporter say today that the president wants us to start spending to get the economy going - so, even though she doesn't know where she'll be living next month, may be homeless, she'll heed the call right away and spend, spend, spend.  I'm not sure she was serious.

[WhiskeyGirl]

"Today, the chairman and CEO of Caterpillar said that if the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan passes, his company would be able to rehire some of those employees," said Obama. The president is scheduled to visit a Caterpillar plant in East Peoria, Illinois, on Thursday.

The Peoria Journal Star newspaper reported on Wednesday that Caterpillar Chairman Jim Owens would promise Obama on Thursday that his company would begin recalling laid-off employees if Congress passes an acceptable stimulus package.

Caterpillar declined to confirm the report, and the White House had no immediate comment on the source of Obama's information. (Editing by Brian Moss)

http://www.reuters.com/article/americasRegulatoryNews/idUSN1137890320090211

[WhiskeyGirl]

Here's what I'm thinking...

Maybe they had some kind of conference call with Obama, maybe taped, and the guy said it would take a lot to start hiring...

Morphs into what Obama said.  The Obama out - "acceptable stimulus package".  If he doesn't rehire, no harm done, not an accpetable stimulus package.

mo

[nonesuche]

WG - I think you are completely accurate. Obama needed a soundbyte to push Congress and this suited in the moment, whether true or not?

I found this video pretty compelling too, in fact many analysts have stated that using Pelosi and her appropriations bill writer to craft the stimulus was the fatal flaw to Obama's plan. He wants to push through the legislation the Democrats were unable to under Bush, so he branded it as stimulus? Sure seems a viable explanation for what we're seeing in what few details for the stimulus are available.

http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2009/20090211135318.aspx

[WhiskeyGirl]

Who would correct the president and expect to remain in business?