by Mark Silva
Iowa was good to Barack Obama.
The state's presidential nominating caucuses gave the long-shot candidate for president the first boost for a campaign that overcame all the odds against him.
The economy, however, has not been as good to Iowa.
Tomorrow, as Obama travels to an Iowa town once known as the home of The Maytag Man, he will be celebrating the movement of The Green Man, and Woman.
In celebration of Earth Day, Obama plans a trip to Newton, Iowa, with Tom Vilsack, secretary of agriculture and former governor of Iowa.
They will our Trinity Structural Towers, the business that has taken over a former Maytag plant. Instead of washing machines, they now make towers for wind-generated electrical energy.
The White House calls it "a perfect example of how a community can rebuild a local economy with investments in clean energy and efficiency.''
Trinity employs "dozens of former Maytag employees,'' the White House says. The only problem is, there were many hundreds of them at one time - more than 2,000 lost their jobs when Whirlpool, which had taken over Maytag, pulled out of Newton.
Iowa still has Maytag Bleu Cheese, and now, green jobs.
Comments
So BO is going to visit the non-union Trinity Structural Towers. Wages for these facilities are good according to the attached from goodjobsfirst.org.
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:2U6zN_zWQ1wJ:www.goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/gjfgreenjobsrpt.pdf+Trinity+Structural+Towers+non-union+wage+structure&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
The wages at these facilities are paltry as compared to those paid by Big Oil to their field and refinery workers. Where is the left demanding fair wages for the workers of these green companies?
Posted by: Terry | April 21, 2009 9:11 PM
Thank you, Terry, for standing up for the union workers. Good for you, Terry. I bet you love the UAW too. Good boy!.
Posted by: mort | April 21, 2009 11:34 PM
Tomorrow, as Obama travels to an Iowa town once known as the home of The Maytag Man, he will be celebrating the movement of The Green Man, and Woman. ~ M.S.
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I, too, shall go Green. Some anonymous gentleman pulled up to the Dodgers-Astro game at Minute Maid Park in a fiery orange Dodge Challenger. License plate said, and I quote here: "HEMI V-8 ". It took only a nano-second to realize that Django, too, needs one of those. I shall seek out a slightly less ostentatious Green one for my transportation needs. Happy Earth Day, Amerika.
Posted by: Django - N Exile somewhere in/around the 30th Parallel | April 22, 2009 8:58 AM
Yes Django, please buy a gas-guzzling automobile which will require more refineries to keep producing gas, which will increase the opportunities for more BP refinery explosions, like the one you had in Houston in 2007. How many died in that explosion again - needlessly, because BP was cited for ignoring federal safety standards?
Posted by: BC | April 22, 2009 11:03 AM
The BP Texas City explosion occurred in 2005, in the Isomerization operating unit, a unit that I am intimately familiar with. 15 workers were killed that March day. No one could have expected an explosion and it was very tragic. I would have to tell anyone, however, that my personal safety was more at risk on a daily basis, during the two years that I spent teaching high school math in a surburban school district, than the three years that I spent in the BP Tx City Refinery working on the Isom Unit and MORE potentially dangerous units. Would go back TODAY, if I had to. No Hardware built by man will ever be 100.00% safe, but it is safer than the public school system. Just my opinion. Don't worry, BP, no one is really looking to invest in more refineries. It could be an issue of National security for this country, but who really cares about any of that.
Now, how about that Challenger R/T, with the racing stripes. 0-60 n less than 5 seconds. Challengers, Guitars, Pretty Latinas, and me. Maybe I will get a Green Stratocaster too. That, BP, is the High Life. Earth Day Amerika, that's what I'm talking about.
Posted by: Django - N Exile somewhere in/around the 30th Parallel | April 22, 2009 12:59 PM
Mort,
Do you think the unions will try and unionize these plants? No way - BO and the loons can't allow this industry to become any less competitive than it is already. Unionize the "green jobs" would cripple them before they even start.
Just pointing out the hypocracy of the left.
Posted by: Terry | April 22, 2009 9:47 PM