Dell Closes Ireland Plant; 2nd Largest Employer

Wide Angle writes in with a PBS report on tough economic news from Ireland: Dell announced that it will relocate its manufacturing plant in Limerick, Ireland to Lodz, Poland. "Dell's announcement... is a severe blow to the Irish economy, which has been hit hard and fast by the global economic crisis. Dell is Ireland's second-largest corporate employer and the country's largest exporter. Nineteen hundred shift workers will lose their jobs. ...Dell's closing is not a result of the economic downturn, but of a pattern all too familiar in the United States — corporations' perennial search for cheaper labor. Since 2000 several companies, such as Procter & Gamble, Intel, Gateway, and NEC Electronics, have moved manufacturing jobs from Ireland to China, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere. When Poland joined the European Union in 2004, it became an attractive place for companies to set up manufacturing plants. ... However, Ireland has managed to maintain and attract... 'knowledge-intensive jobs.' Google's European headquarters are based in Dublin, and Facebook announced late last year that they would locate their international headquarters there. But the overall economic picture for Ireland is bleak."

Comments

Re:willingness to relocate

[Anonymous Coward]

You say "destroy national sovereignty" (and all of the restrictions therein) like it's a bad thing.

Re:willingness to relocate

[Klaus_1250]

Agreed. The Dutch voted against the constitution the first time (which was a surprise to the government, especially since they invested million in a semi-propaganda campaign) and weren't given a vote for the revised treaty because the government feared a rejection again.

Democracy 2.0. Give people a vote if you think they'll agree with you, take the vote away when you fear disagreement.

Re:Unskilled laborers act as a warning to the youn

[ultranova]

Life's a bitch. Thanks for playing...better luck next reincarnation.

So let's have the government hold a gun to your head, take the fruits of your labour and distribute them to unskilled labourers. That should be okay, since life's a bitch and you might have better luck next reincarnation, right ?

Or we could try to make the life a little less of a bitch to everyone, including those unskilled labourers.

The fair consequence of never developing skills is subsistence living.

The fair consequence of being an arrogant jerk is to get whatever fate you callously wished upon those you considered lesser beings.