The Ford Motor Company and Georgia-Pacific are sending hundreds of people into the ranks of the unemployed. The State of Alaska will, too.<\/p>\n
But whereas the chief executive of the two industry giants can acknowledge the contributions of their affected workers, Gov. Mike Dunleavy would be contradicting himself to express an appreciation for the work done by the people he’s about to lay off.<\/p>\n
The explanations for disrupting the lives of working-class people almost always begins with “it’s not personal.” It’s a business decision driven by profit and loss math coupled with changing technologies in a competitive environment.<\/p>\n
Ford isn’t losing money like they did between 2006 and 2008. But sales have fallen for the past several years. CEO Jim Hackett was brought on to reverse that trend.<\/p>\n
[Opinion: Cutting government services will hurt Alaska’s quality of life]<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n “Ford is a family company and saying goodbye to colleagues is difficult and emotional,” he wrote in a letter to employees explaining why the automaker is cutting 7,000 salaried positions. “I hope that you take a moment to thank them personally for their service and commitment to Ford.”<\/p>\n Obviously, Hackett hasn’t met most of those he’s laying off. But even while inferring their jobs would negatively impact Ford’s bottom line going forward, he isn’t suggesting they’d never been part of a team working to make the company successful.<\/p>\n The Georgia-Pacific case is a tale of two cities. Last month, the Atlanta-based wood products manufacturer closed a lumber mill in Coos Bay, Oregon. And they’re reducing the product line at a plant in Port Hudson, Louisiana.<\/p>\n In a formal statement, Georgia-Pacific claimed Asian competition for raw logs and a railway bridge closure had made the lumber products produced at Coos Bay unprofitable. Some in the industry and a state legislator are blaming the federal and state governments for reducing the timber harvest on public lands by more than 70 percent since the mill opened in 1994. But no one is saying the workers never helped the mill turn a profit.<\/p>\n