Well, it has happened again.
 
GE is the largest private employer in Erie, Pennsylvania, where I now live (Government is of course the largest employer in any town). This particular division make locomotives. Just before Christmas, there was a big front-page article in the Erie Times-News featuring an interview with the young CEO. When asked about the health of the division and whether layoffs were eminent, he replied that things look stable and that none were planned.

That, of course, was the cue.
 
By New Year's Day, the radio news had announced that unpaid leave for some workers would be mandated. This morning, a big newspaper headline told of layoffs to come.
 
These are all union guys and gals that are getting laid off. They all bloc voted for Obama, who was of course endorsed by the unions, and were promised they would be taken care of. I guess they can be retrained to be part of the New-New Deal Civilian Conservation Corps or that mysterious new protection force Obama mentioned on the campaign trail that will patrol the land and will be as well funded and as well supplied as the military.
 
What the heck, we don't make anything in America anymore anyway. We don't need no stinking skilled industrial workers. Right?

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- Kirt Blattenberger 
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster

We keep being told the economy is on the mend, but where are the employment ads and worker recalls? In a few weeks the news will be reporting the thousands of auto worker and sales and maintenance people who will be laid off across America. I don't know if this affects Americna car company outlets overseas or not (hell, are there even Chevy and Pontiac dealers in Europe and Japan?)

The example you give of companies announcing that there will not be layoffs just weekes before actually having one has been around for a long time. I remember back in the late 1980s and early 1990s the defense contractors pulling that trick. I was one of the casualties from Westinghouse.

The more things change, the more things stay the same. But I'm afraid the intensity will be much worse this time around. How is your advertising doing on RF Cafe? I notice the number of job postings is way down. Yikes