Freightliner says one thing, Mexico plant says another
I have never been so irate as when I read the March 4 article about Freightliner opening up its Saltillo, Mexico, plant. I am so sure the employees at the Cleveland Freightliner plant who have lost their jobs are “so happy” Freightliner has a $300 million plant that measures 1.3 million square feet on a 740-acre greenfield site. Why doesn’t Freightliner just smear this in their face because we in Salisbury couldn’t care less about their great plant in Mexico!
There are other companies like Freightliner that pay an enormous amount of money for a Mexican plant, so they can pay a much lower wage. Well, this may bite them on the rear when the “quality control” of these trucks goes down the tubes. Freightliner spokesmen are giving nothing more than lip service to the people of Rowan County when they tell the Post that the Cleveland plant is still their main truck-building facility.
According to Roger M. Nielson, chief operations officer for Daimler Truck North America, the Cleveland facility is now the “overflow” plant. That makes the Saltillo Mexico plant the main plant for the Cascadia model, with the plant here in Rowan County filling orders that are beyond the capacity of the Saltillo plant and for those companies who do not want an inferior truck from Mexico. Do not believe the deceitfulness of Freightliner.
ó Glenda Barber
Salisbury
Tobacco’s deadly toll
This is in response to the recent letter about alcohol needing to be taxed more than tobacco. According to Tobaccofreekids.org, smoking kills more people than alcohol, AIDS, car crashes, illegal drugs, murders, and suicides combined ó and thousands more die from other tobacco-related causes such as fires caused by smoking (more than 1,000 deaths/year nationwide) and smokeless tobacco use.
The number of U.S. citizens who die from tobacco-related disease each year is 440,000, and many people are suffering with health problems from tobacco use each year without actually dying.
ó Tommie Estes
Salisbury