Phred,

You're a little late to the meeting. Those of us having a serious debate relaxed back on Fri, Dec. 02.

I have an Aunt and Uncle that live in Barnesville, New Brunswick. I've been there. Nice place.

Thanks for getting me such a great deal on my DS. If I had known you paid for part of it, I would have at least sent you a card.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

Welcome to the forums phred.
Never meant to stir up this much controversey.
Factory jobs were/are considered good jobs. Put's food on many tables. Those "with" could care less about those things.
In USA, anyone can make it if they try. Those who are okay with folding unions and ending jobs are proof. I think quality is lower with non-union. Not in every case but in most. Crooked unions are, of course, bad.
Oh well, never meant to come off as a hater of Mexico. Just confused.
I live in, arugably, the wealthiest part of the nation. Jupiter, Florida. Jupiter Island is home to the very people who run the country and abroad. No S.
I befriended at a young age a kid who was son to a safty enhancement corporation. The company makes safty equipment for most, if not every, vehichle made after 1993.
They also have goverment contracts in the defense dept. and several other businesses.
I was just going to college and NAFTA was going into effect. They were estatic! They were moving the plants out of Vermont to Mexico! They were going to make the product for less and the consumer was not going to feel anything. No lowering of prices for the consumer. They were really pumped up for the time up to the inaction of NAFTA. All their troubles were over.
The consumers never saw or see anything but an increase in price. Name one thing that costs less since NAFTA. Just one.

 

I bought my DS650X, cause it does have made in USA all over and made in Canada I think USA and Canada manufacture better product's even has a swing arm that says made in the USA on the bottom of it. every time one of are plant go to Mexico ,people loose good jobs and it not something that we wont do the work, Its greed!! Man i don't like it. I guess there not much we can do about it. DARREN

 

I was mistaken, the debate goes on![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

I think this debate will go on forever

 

For the folks that wanna help keep jobs here in the US check out:

http://buyamerican.com/

Some items may cost a bit more, but at least your neighbor will still be paying taxes instead of you paying for his wel-fare.

 

I live in Quebec, less than 20 miles from the Valcourt plant. I know many people who actually work at the plant where they make the ATVs. Let me clarify a few things a read in this tread.

1) Being laid off is always sad, but at least BRP was decent enough to to give employees a 1-2 year head start to look for another job. Perhaps, most of these employees will be relocated to another production line if things go well.

2) Bombardier and BRP are now two separate companies. Originately when Bombardier received grants from the governments, it was mainly to allow expansion in the train / airplane division. I don't think BRP ever received grants for the recreational division.

3) Surprisingly, from what I heard, the BRP plants do not have a union. The Bombardier family always treated their employees with respect, so nobody wants in union in the shop. I was very surprised when I learned this, because Quebec has the largest percentage of unionized employees, 40% of the work force (in my opinion, a very sad statistics ...)

4) When the announcement was made, employees were sad but not angry against BRP. The ATV division is still very young, so volume is still not high enough to produce profits. It was better to move the ATV manufacture to Mexico and keep the more profitable SKI-DOO and SEE-DOO divisions in Quebec, instead of risking to loose all of them in a few years.

P.S. I don't work for BRP, but I own a 2003 Bombardier Traxter Max.

 

Thank you Jack rabbit
You have opened my eyes.

 

JackRabbit,

Fantastic information! There were some panties in a twist over this move by BRP but based on your account it sounds like it was wasted panty twisting!

I love facts! So hard to refute[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

Ron

 

Sad about the jobs/ YES! Said enuf on this ! ((Do NOT want to lose my invite to Oregon to go riding (;> )) All be Safe!!!