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Why Auto Makers Are Building New Factories in Mexico, not the U.S. 10 jobs robots already do better than you. The Machines Are Coming. Machines aren’t used because they perform some tasks that much better than humans, but because, in many cases, they do a “good enough” job while also being cheaper, more predictable and easier to control than quirky, pesky humans. Technology in the workplace is as much about power and control as it is about productivity and efficiency. This used to be spoken about more openly. An ad in 1967 for an automated accounting system urged companies to replace humans with automated systems that “can’t quit, forget or get pregnant.” Featuring a visibly pregnant, smiling woman leaving the office with baby shower gifts, the ads, which were published in leading business magazines, warned of employees who “know too much for your own good” — “your good” meaning that of the employer.

Why be dependent on humans? “When Alice leaves, will she take your billing system with her?” The ad pointedly asked, emphasizing that this couldn’t be fixed by simply replacing “Alice” with another person. The solution? Shinola has perfect timing in Detroit. By Kai Ryssdal January 21, 2016 | 3:48 PM There's a new term out there to describe a recent manufacturing movement in America - "Make-tailers.

" It's a category of "embedded-in-the-community" companies that produce small-batch, high-quality artisan products. One of the marquee examples of this movement is Shinola. That name probably rings a bell. Kartsosis is from Plano, Texas, but he chose Detroit for his new company's headquarters and production facility. Shinola has been divisive amongst Detroiters. But Shinola's growth signals corporate success. Marketplace visited Shinola's headquarters in Detroit where the company also has its leather shop.

Produced by Tommy Andres. To Do List. If Labor Dies, What's Next? Imagine America without unions. This shouldn’t be hard. In much of America unions have already disappeared. In the rest of America they’re battling for their lives. Unions have been declining for decades. In the early 1950s, one out of three American workers belonged to them, four out of ten in the private sector. Today, only 11.8 percent of American workers are union members; in the private sector, just 6.9 percent. The vanishing act varies by region—in the South, it’s almost total—but proceeds relentlessly everywhere. Related Content What Does Labor Need to Do to Survive? Harold Meyerson talks to four movement leaders about the future of unions in America. A Brief History of American Labor Spotlight: America without Unions Harold Meyerson on the decline of America's labor unions—and what the future of workers' rights looks like without them.

Within the labor movement, a number of leaders and activists quietly shared the same pessimism. Perhaps not. II. As unions shrank, inequality grew. V. With Unions Disappearing, What’s the Future of the Worker Voice? Above, watch the full conversation, moderated by Harold Meyerson. Labor union membership and strength is in a free fall. From 1954 to 2014, union membership fell from 34.8 percent of wage and salary workers to 11.1 percent. Half of the states have adopted “right to work” laws.

And last year, the US Supreme Court ruled against a home care worker union in Harris v. Quinn. In light of these statistics, the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program recently held a panel discussion to address the future of worker voice, new means of organizing, and what the future of organized labor will look like. Moderator Harold Meyerson, editor-at-large for The American Prospect and Washington Post columnist, began by asking David Rolf, president of SEIU 775 and, according to Meyerson, the person who “has organized into unions probably more workers than anyone else in the past 15 years,” why he thinks unions are “something of a dead end.”

But others decided to launch the Campaign for Fair Food. Ford adding plants, jobs in Mexico. Susana Gonzalez | Bloomberg | Getty Images A file photo showing the assembly line at the Ford Motor Co. plant in Cuautitlan Izcalli, Mexico. "When I am president, we will strongly enforce trade rules against unfair foreign subsidies, and impose countervailing duties to prevent egregious instances of outsourcing.

" Trump went on to call for renegotiating NAFTA "to create a fair deal for American workers. " Joe Hinrichs, president of Ford of the Americas, told CNBC that the new plant does not mean Ford is moving jobs out of the U.S. "We're proud to be an American company," he told CNBC. The Mexican plant, in San Luis Potosí state, will build small cars that will be exported for sale in the U.S. and other countries, though the automaker has not decided which vehicles will be built there.

The company already has two final assembly plants and one engine plant in Mexico. We saved the automakers. How come that didn’t save Detroit? It's common for headline-writers to refer to the Big Three automakers — Ford, Chrysler, and GM — as "Detroit. " The monument to Joe Louis in Detroit, known as "The Fist. " (Paul Sancya/AP) But that metonymy is misleading in a very important way. The fortunes of Detroit the city are no longer tied up with the fortunes of the Big Three automakers. That helps explain why Ford, Chrysler, and GM have all been thriving since the auto bailout in 2009 while the city of Detroit continued to deteriorate and has now just declared bankruptcy.

From 1910 to 1950, Detroit's economy was synonymous with car manufacturing. The city was filled with dozens of factories churning out everything from Cadillacs to Studebakers — plus auto-parts plants, steel mills, foundries... Even then, much of the auto industry's industrial base wasn't in the city proper. But starting in 1950, automakers began moving more and more of their operations further away. Today, there are only two auto factories left in Detroit. The rise and fall of Detroit: A timeline. Sign Up for Our free email newsletters On Thursday, Detroit made history — and not in a good way. The heart of the U.S. auto industry and home to the Detroit Tigers, Eminem and the White Stripes, Motown, and (maybe) Jimmy Hoffa's body became the largest city ever to file for bankruptcy.

In many ways, this financial crisis is 60 years in the making. As the Motor City faces an uncertain future, here's a look back at some key dates in the long, storied past of one of America's great cities: July 24, 1701Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac establishes a French settlement, Fort Ponchartrain du Détroit (the strait), along with 100 French soldiers and an equal number of Algonquins. 1760Britain wins the city from the French. 1796U.S. forces capture Detroit from the British. Feb. 1, 1802Detroit becomes a chartered city, covering about 20 acres. 1827Detroit adopts its forward-looking city motto: Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus (We hope for better days; it shall rise from the ashes). 1899Ransom E. Crain's Detroit Business : Subscription Center. Photo by St. John Providence Hospital Most of the certified registered nurse anesthetists at St.

John Providence Hospital and Medical Center in Southfield and St. John Providence Park Hospital in Novi (pictured) lost their jobs Dec. 31, caught in a push by area hospitals to reduce costs by outsourcing. The 66 nurse anesthetists who lost their jobs Dec. 31 at St. Over the past couple of years, a number of hospitals in Southeast Michigan have signed contracts with regional or national anesthesiology groups that employ both CRNAs and anesthesiologists. The outsourcing of hospital employees — also including housekeeping, food service, laundry, information technology, supply management and emergency services — is driven by the broader need to reduce costs and improve efficiencies because of federal and private payer reimbursement cuts stimulated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

Jean Meyer: St. St. In the Providence case, St. "St. Other examples The drivers. Whites moving into Detroit, blacks moving out as city shrinks overall - Crain's Detroit Business. White people are moving back to Detroit, the American city that came to epitomize white flight, even as black people continue to leave for the suburbs and the city's overall population shrinks. Detroit is the latest major city to see an influx of whites who may not find the suburbs as alluring as their parents and grandparents did in the last half of the 20th century. Unlike New York, San Francisco and many other cities that have seen the demographic shift, though, it's cheap housing and incentive programs that are partly fueling the regrowth of the Motor City's white population. "For any individual who wants to build a company or contribute to the city, Detroit is the perfect place to be," said Bruce Katz, co-director of the Global Cities Initiative at the Washington, D.C.

-based Brookings Institution. "You can come to Detroit and you can really make a difference. " In the three years after the 2010 U.S. The city's black population was nearly 776,000 in 1990. Elizabeth St. St. Anesthetist job fight reflects health outsourcing trend. Almost 70 Metro Detroit nurse anesthetists are set to be out of work Friday due in part to a nationwide trend in which hospitals are increasingly contracting out to private firms entire departments to trim costs. Sixty-eight certified registered nurse anesthetists at St. John Providence Health System hospitals in Southfield and Novi expect to be out of a job because they didn’t agree by a 11 p.m. Thursday deadline to work for a private vendor instead of the health system. Southfield attorney David Shea, who represents the group calling itself the “Michigan 68,” said nurse anesthetists were privatized at McLaren Macomb Hospital and Detroit Medical Center hospitals without acrimony because employees were included in the process.

Nurse anesthetists at the Providence-Providence Park hospitals in Southfield and Novi were told in mid-October they had until the end of 2015 to apply for jobs with PSJ Anesthesia PC. According to a St. Sixty-eight of 74 nurses affected are fighting the plan. How Detroit Went Bottom-Up. In the spring of 2005, David Stockman at last reaped the reward of the monopolist. Stockman, who once served as Ronald Reagan's budget director, spent two decades on Wall Street preparing for this moment.

After stints at Salomon Brothers and the Blackstone Group, Stockman in 1999 set up his own private investment fund, Heartland Industrial Partners. He then used Heartland to shape a set of companies -- mainly in the automotive sector -- each dedicated to dominating a particular group of production activities. Of all Stockman's efforts, his most audacious centered on a firm named Collins & Aikman. Stockman used C&A as a vehicle to buy up small producers of interior components like dashboards and seats, and he swiftly captured a position supplying parts to more than 90 percent of all cars built in America.

Although the acquisition spree left C&A saddled with debt, Stockman was so pleased with C&A's prospects that in 2003 he assumed control as chief executive officer. Advertisement PinIt. How Detroit, the Motor City, turned into a ghost town | US news. Try telling Brother Jerry Smith that the recession in America has ended. As scores of people queued up last week at the soup kitchen which the Capuchin friar helps run in Detroit, the celebrations on Wall Street in New York seemed from another world. The hungry and needy come from miles around to get a free healthy meal. Though the East Detroit neighbourhood the soup kitchen serves has had it tough for decades, the recession has seen almost any hope for anyone getting a job evaporate.

Neither is there any sign that jobs might come back soon. "Some in the past have had jobs here, but now there is nothing available to people. Nothing at all," Brother Jerry said as he sat behind a desk with a computer but dressed in the simple brown friar's robes of his order. Outside his office the hungry, the homeless and the poor crowded around tables. Officially, America is on the up.

But for tens of millions of Americans such things seem irrelevant. For them the recession is far from over.