This is something that many of us don’t want to hear but the fact is they can do layoffs in this way because there is no unity among the workers and we show little or no resistance to whatever they do. They can lay us off, discriminate us based on our age, hell they can do whatever they want.
The fact is that most of us don’t really care what happens to our coworkers, or care very little. Sure, we all feel bad for a colleague in our group that’s been laid off, or folks at our location, but let's face it, most of that comes from our own fear of suffering the same faith. From the moment we know we are safe that empathy seem to become weaker and weaker. The sad thing is that that’s the exact reason why they feel they can do this to us.
But what if we were more unified. And to clarify , I’m not talking about joining the union or any of that union -non-union c-ap, but basic human solidarity. Imagine if all GM plant workers stopped production symbolically for half an hour, to show solidarity with the workers which plants were set to close. It would at least send a message, and what are they gonna do, fire us all? Unfortunately our empathy doesn’t go any further than chating around the cafeteria or the water cooler.