Because the employer has no right to close it, if workers would be unhappy. Ever.
You can pull that trick once. Then try getting the next guy to invest in a factory. It may turn out that the only capital available is whatever the locals can raise, because foreign capital isn't endlessly gullible. And, strangely enough, local capital isn't readily available in such a system.
It's not enough for the policy to have benevolent intentions. Pretending that jobs are charity is a good way to ensure that the jobs go away.
5 comments:
I don't understand how that works. Goodyear is a multinational corporation. What's to stop it from simply shuttering its French operations? I mean, $80m losses a year from that plant means you'd be eating up your capital pretty quickly, no matter how much you'd invested there.
Don't ask me why, but I am reminded of Willie Nelson singing Where the Soul Never Dies. Relocate the tire plant to Paris, Texas.
It's possible Goodyear can be sued in the U.S. for a law it broke in France, but I'm not sure. I hope you're right, and that there's a way for them simply to withdraw from France and defy that government. Even the French -- some of them -- proved willing to withdraw from that kind of parasitic infestation.
PS, I see the workers did sue Goodyear in Ohio, but I'm not sure what the grounds are or whether they will hold water in an American court.
This way lies Detroit. People who can't fire won't hire. The French have already scared off Titan, the company their government fondly imagined would come in and buy the plant and save the day. Titan essentially said, "find another sucker."
Are Goodyear and Titan "bad" employers? (Patrons voyous.) Would "good" employers subsidize these losses by dipping into their profits from other countries? That depends on whether they're in business to make and sell tires to people who want and need them, or to insulate French socialists from reality.
The letter by Titans CEO was really a wonderful breath of fresh air -
It is so rare today to have someone state their mind without political correctness being the dominant theme.
Post a Comment