Part of the Reason Why Industrial Towns Are Shutting Down

This is an interesting article about the town of Ravenswood West Virginia turning into a ghost town because the aluminum plant there is shutting down. I found this part striking:

The plant paid Tim Shumaker his first living wage, and he won the right to keep it two decades ago after his union was locked out for 19 months.

Today, that victory seems hollow. Shumaker, 49, has been laid off. Part of the vast aluminum complex is closed, and the rest is for sale — its orders down, its workforce reduced, its future uncertain. Shumaker stands at the locked plant gate and, after a year without work, worries what's next for him and his community. "The way things are going," he says, "there's not going to be anything here."

That first sentence is exactly why aluminum plants are moving to Brazil or where ever. The union sets the wages too high and contains all sorts of pension problems for the parent company so they shut down the plant and move to a place where cheaper workers live.

Too bad there is no tax incentive to keep this plant in the US instead of moving it. I mean the Red Chinese are throwing cash at their companies so that they can expand. While America is trying to run their companies out of business on behalf of the unions.