Not with a bang but a whimper."
T.S. Eliot
By Juan Montoya
When Convergys came to Brownsville, the Sunshine Boys over at the Brownsville Economic Development Council emitted a torrent of press releases announcing the latest feather in their caps.
"The potential is there for more than a 1,000 jobs," they crowed. "Eventually, that number did rise to more than 600.
That was in 1999. Last year, the company celebrated being here for 14 years amid a glowing report from the Brownsville Chamber of Commerce's Community Business Guide.
The celebrations took place on Wednesday, September 11. Local dignitaries, including the President of the Chamber of Commerce, Maria Hall, will be in attendance for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate the opening of the site.
What the company didn't say was that less than five months hence, it would be closing its doors and letting go of the vaunted loyal workforce.
''Convergys is proud to have been an active member of the Brownsville community for the past 14 years,'' said Norma Silva, Senior Operations Manager then. ''During that time we have grown along with the city, and want to recognize every one of our talented employees for the difference they make for Convergys and the city of Brownsville every day.''
The next domino to fall was Maximus Inc., which moved in to the former T-Mobile call center building last summer.
It announced that it was laying off 750 employees out of a work force of 1,135.
Now, if you drive past the Convergys building on W. Price Road, a carcass of a building stands in an empty parking lot.
According to some of our commenters, this was a something that was to be expected.
"Call centers sure seem unstable, and come and go," said Joe Linck. "Sad day for those folks losing their jobs. More permanent industrial activities such as international trade, especially imported fresh fruit and vegetables, tourism, and port-related heavy industry is more sustainable. Another bad blow to our already weak economy."
Although Joe will probably not admit it, what he is really saying is that Brownsville's (and the BEDC's) approach to economic development is skewered. Instead of laying the groundwork through education and infrastructure to accommodate a sustainable local economy, we seem to be content to lure the low-skilled, low-wage paying companies to come here, take advantage of the incentives offered by the city, and then, when the gravy run out, dump the workers and get out of town.
Randy Tridw, another commenter, said that perhaps Jason Hilts or Gilbert Salinas could travel to Indiana and lure the call centers there to come down here.
"I wonder if the President of the BEDC will take a trip to Indiana to offer them to move their call centers to Brownsville," he wrote.
Another pointedly stated that even though Convergys closed its doors on Jan 21, it was more than two months later – on March 21 – that the demise of that company and the massive layoffs at Maximus were announced in the local daily.
There were no grand pronouncements, no predictions of a bright economic future, no mention of the fact that the latest unemployment rates for the city stood at more than 10 percent.
Time for Hilts and Salinas to drag the Port of Brownsville's Ralph Cowen and Da Mayor Tony Martinez on a junket to China or Latin American to hustle some jobs for the locals. On the other hand, all that travel and wining and dining has not exactly paid off in the past, has it?
There were no grand pronouncements, no predictions of a bright economic future, no mention of the fact that the latest unemployment rates for the city stood at more than 10 percent.
Time for Hilts and Salinas to drag the Port of Brownsville's Ralph Cowen and Da Mayor Tony Martinez on a junket to China or Latin American to hustle some jobs for the locals. On the other hand, all that travel and wining and dining has not exactly paid off in the past, has it?
6 comments:
It is not necessary to travel to India or China to bring jobs to the valley, any one with knowledge in the maquiladora industry, can go knock doors up north and bring labor intensive manufacturing and assembling jobs, if they know what to offer
The reason for this situation is lack of leadership . The bottom Line is the people here don't really give a damn. Just look at the City Commission, School Board, County, they are a dismal sorry state. The people don't get their butts out to vote. Look at BISD as an example; with 6000 educators voting, progressive and vigorous people with vision would be elected instead of political hacks and bag-men and others.
ok folks its a common ground here in brownsville for the city, bedc, united brownsville to give away our taxpayers monies to these nice firms to entice them to come here and when the gravy train stops just pull the plug. its ok taxpayers like me enjoy these ventures, hey just look at the port of brownsville and our $21 million dollar international bridge project-poof,, now you see it and now you dont? hocus/pocus. abbracadebra. Lots of magic here to make our taxpayer monies disappear. adios
Look at the bright side. Now you have two more buildings Antonio Martinez can purchase at exorbitant prices with tax payer money. Everybody wins.
Brownsville has no one to blame but themselves. In a time when companies are fleeing India and South America to bring their call centers back, a company like Convergys should be expanding, not closing their doors. But as the poster above mentioned, there is a serious lack of leadership in the city. They're too busy lining their own pockets instead of attracting businesses to the area. It doesn't help people are lazy and don't vote. What's worse, the people who do vote are stupid and vote Democrat.
Brownsville. Now you see it now you don''t. Abra-cada bra- hopus- pocus- Mocos-locus!!!!!!! da Mayor'!
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