GE'S "ABANDON AMERICA" CAMPAIGN

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Thu., 6/1/00

Jack Welch, CEO of megaconglomerate General Electric, has a favorite business mantra:

"Squeeze the lemon." He wants his managers con- tinuously squeezing costs from the company—and by 11 costs' he means workers and wages. His insatiable appetite for downsizing and outsourcing has made Welch the Count Dracula of the corporate world, skulking around the globe to suck ever-greater profits from ever-cheaper labor.

In the last 15 years, GE has moved 150,000 U.S. jobs to Mexico and Asia. Now GE is oressuring its suppliers to move to low-wage countries, too! By abandoning the U.S. to exploit dirt-cheap labor elsewhere, suppliers can charge lower prices to GE, so Welch is demanding that they move or lose their GE business.

The company has even been holding "supplier migration" seminars. An internal memo from one of these says: "Migrate or be out of business; not a matter of if, just when. This is not a seminar just to provide information. We expect you to move and move quickly."

To learn more about GE's ugly war to snuff the life out of America's middle class, call the Contract 2000 Campaign: 202-785-7214.