Once upon a time I worked for a division of a large American company. This large company sold the division to another company. That company is owned by a foreign company, which is owned by a really large foreign company.
When the company I worked for was purchased, the new owners said our location was going to be the global headquarters for our product line. Then we got a bad financial report. Our division wasn’t making enough money to pay for the purchase of our division.
This struck me as odd. Rather than expect a good return on investment, our new owners expected us to repay the principle on our purchase price. We had to pay the parent company back for purchasing our division.
We were profitable, but not profitable enough to satisfy our owners. As a result, we had a layoff. Those of us who survived shook off the bad news and went back to work to make the division more profitable, but despite our best efforts, we again got a bad earnings report. This bad report wasn’t the result of anything we did, or failed to do. It was the result of some externality, but we still had to do something, so we had another layoff.
This was becoming a pattern. Our division was like Shrinky Dinks. That is the children’s toy that shrinks when heat is applied. Any application of economic heat to our division resulted in another round of downsizing.
Our division had almost seven hundred employees when I hired into it. After six, or so, layoffs, we had about a hundred and twenty employees when I received my pink slip. I was kind of proud that I had survived so long, but relieved to be “let go” at this point because the “fun level” of working at our division was low… very low. The division lasted another two years at our location, then a few remaining employees were relocated to the parent company’s headquarters, and our building was left vacant.
The parent company still makes our product. They use American vendors to produce pilot runs of new products. When the production kinks are worked out, the production is then moved to Mexico or China depending on whether or not the product has to be NAFTA compliant.
Rather than becoming the global headquarters for our product line, we got globalized. Looking back on this sad, boring history, it seems as though the parent company’s intentions were not honorable from the start. I harbor suspicions. As a result, I have avoided buying products marketed by the parent company and its parent companies. It’s not so easy. The multinational company that is at the top of this pyramid owns a lot of companies.
This morning I was watching TV and an ad for a home improvement store came on. One of the featured products was from the parent company that exported my job to Mexico. In the ad, the announcer makes a point of mentioning that the featured product is produced in an American town in an eastern state. It struck me as a bit disingenuous.
Sounds like the company I am currently working for. I don't know from day to day when I will be let go. I am a "temp" at this company and they have let go a good majority of the people that have been there over 20 years and kept us because we are cheap labor. Just seeing how they treat their "lifer's" has let me know how I would be treated in the long-run and I currently don't give a shit about production or pleasing these soul-sucking money-monger's when I make a crap wage and they are all driving new vehicle's and buying houses for three hundred thousand of my hard earned bucks. It seems like a lot of these company's know that they have us by the balls because of the current economic status. I'm not afraid to say that we make parts for Harley-Davidson and that their so called "American made parts" are made mostly by illegal immigrants now. Maybe they should put that on their t-shirt's. American made, by illegal immigrant's. SAD SAD SAD AMERICA
ReplyDeleteI recently bought a giant refill twin-pack of hand soap from a well known brand. I noticed on the label another label had been applied over it saying that product had been "Made in USA." Really? I suspect they were covering up the original label that said "Made in China." I tried to peel the label off but it's super-glued on and the original label ripped so I was unable to tell what it said. Like your company, my bones are telling me they are hiding something and trying to trick the consumer into thinking it's an American made product. Unless the company in China is made in a town called USA.
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