President Obama’s administration has asked Lockheed Martin to delay its announcement of the layoffs of 123,000 employees to make the unemployment numbers look much better. Lockheed Martin is one of several defense contractors ready to lay off tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people after the election. These numbers may indeed rocket the unemployment figures past 8%.
The layoff notice announcement came by way of Yahoo.com on October 1, 2012 and was quickly buried apparently to fool the voters into believing the economy is much better than represented.
“It’s difficult to understate the importance of Lockheed Martin‘s latest announcement on the race for the White House: the defense contractor said on Monday it will not be issuing employee layoff notices to 123,000 workers on Nov. 2—just four days before the presidential election. Amidst all of the super PACs and campaign ads, the threat of telling a sizable chunk of voters in key areas of the country that they could lose their jobs if the election didn’t go Lockheed’s way was one of the most potent examples of corporate electioneering. But the layoff threat was largely unreported outside of Beltway trade publications. Here’s why today’s announcement matters:” More…
Basically the bottom may fall out of the economy after November 6, 2012 with hundreds of thousands to be laid off. This would be devastating. Defense contractors agreed to delay the announcements in a sweetheart deal where the White House will pick up any costs associated with these layoffs.
“Lockheed, one of the biggest employers in the key battleground state of Virginia, previously warned it would have to issue notices to employees, required by law, due to looming defense cuts set to begin to take effect after Jan. 2 because of the failure of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction — the so-called Super-committee, which was created to find a way to cut $1.5 trillion from the federal deficit over the next decade.” More
This move to delay the announcements of these massive layoffs and cover the costs was totally illegal according to Senator Lindsey Graham. And remember, if you watched the third presidential debates President Obama assured the 70 or so million viewers that these cuts in defense “would not happen.”
“Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says that he will do anything he can to block the Obama administration from reimbursing defense contractors for severance costs if the firms don’t send layoff notices to employees. The Obama administration issued guidance Friday that said defense firms’ costs would be covered if they have to layoff workers due to canceled contracts under the across-the-board cuts set to take effect Jan. 2. The layoff notices have become a politically charged issue because they could have come just four days ahead of the election because of a 60-day notice required by federal law for mass layoffs.”More…
There is a greater message here from the American people greater than their horror of how the president plans on destroying our military.
In less than 72 hours we will know if we have a new president or not. It does appear that the majority of Americans are tired of the change President Obama had in mind. Change in the form of crushing unemployment, a stagnant economy, 50 million people on food stamps, 23 million unemployed or under employed, a second world America, gutting the defense sector etc. are not what Americans had in mind when they heard the president first promise change. Americans feel that they were scammed in a classic bait and switch fashion.
The greater message that is getting louder and louder to President Obama is that the majority of Americans are saying to him.”
PROPAGANDA ALERT
THE TRUTH IS TWO FOLD – as we the people have been wanting, there will be a CUT IN MILITARY SPENDING; which both pro-Rmoney and the Military Industrial Complex are against:
Lockheed Martin’s vice president for legislative affairs, Greg Walters, recently announced that if the $500 billion in automatic cuts to defense spending mandated by last year’s “supercommittee” budget deal go through as planned, it may have to issue layoff notices to the “vast majority” of its 123,000 employees.
The announcement is being spun as an attempt by the largest player in the defense contracting industry to influence the political environment before election day, by linking cuts in defense spending with massive job losses. However, before heeding the hollow pleas of Washington’s most favored industry, we should clarify the real economics at play here.
According to USASpending.gov, Lockheed currently has roughly $302 billion in defense contracts, which is nearly half of the entire defense budget for fiscal year 2012. Of course, not all of this money is disbursed in one year, but it gives a good idea of the magnitude of Lockheed’s dependency on revenue from the government. Many of the required cuts in defense spending will likely come from these contracts, and while it is doubtful that the vast majority of Lockheed’s employees will actually be axed if the cuts go through, the company is required by law to give a two-month notice before layoffs due to its reliance on federal money. Thus, given the uncertainty about what may actually be cut, Lockheed must cover its bases and put everyone on notice.
The goal here, clearly, is to lead politicians to the conclusion that a bunch of layoffs at Lockheed would be disastrous for the economy. However, that Lockheed has a vice president dedicated solely to “legislative affairs” speaks volumes about the composition of the company. This is an organization which thrives on public money. Furthermore, it is an organization which, by and large, produces the tools of war. The vast majority of Lockheed’s employees are engaged in designing, producing, and maintaining weapons systems, and they are paid to do so by everyone else in the country, through our tax dollars.
SEE Lockheed Martin Job Layoffs Are Good For the Economy
BY Jim Howes
Great comment. Duplicity is to be expected, of course.
Absolutely. Shrinking the military industrial complex=good. No, it’s great. But as noted, it is one of the last bastions of work for a sizeable chunk of the middle class. This coming after already decimating the country’s industrial base? Good luck with that. Globalism has a tough row to hoe now that more will be awake. Impossible, in my opinion. This, my friends, is the good news.
It is a complete joy to hear fooking sanity, thank you. It is true, we can not sustain this madness, and we outspend most all others, combined! Plunder is groundless and only leads to further breaking. This is why the planet is melting.
Well I have to say that that this is one group of people that we wouldn’t lose any sleep over. The military industrial complex, the makers of death and destruction and have the blood on theirs hands of being part of the killing of millions of families overseas from our governments illegal wars.
It’s not that simple..this is leading to the downfall of America and its ability to defend itself…that’s where all this is REALLY heading….when will people realize, with little jobs, no production, no defense, no lending, that we are opening ourselves up for takeover….?