Colt Teetering On The Brink Of Bankrupcy

[in625shooter]

I have had ladders stolen/tires sliced and FTF confrontations. The latter did not end well for them but the local Cops suck as well or at least they did back in that time frame. They could have give a crap.

My dad was a union carpenter in Terre Haute and seeing him bite his tongue A LOT so I don't disagree. The Terre Haute area does exceed it's per capita amount of scum bags and general all around butt heads and blow hards. Their PD while better than it use to be is more of family linage and pledge drives than real abilities but seems to be better than Vigo county these days.

 

[in625shooter]

They'd be picking up a ton of debt.

Yes now they would however. if (more of when) Colt goes Bankrupt someone could resurrect their name without the debt. Not a big buisness expert but have seen strange marriages by businesses after one goes broke, in debt etc etc Look at the whole Sears/Kmart merger. Hopefully if Ruger or S&W or whoever acquires Colt (if it happens) will have a better result than Sears/Kmart etc.

 

[Arthur Dent]

Yes now they would however. if (more of when) Colt goes Bankrupt someone could resurrect their name without the debt. Not a big buisness expert but have seen strange marriages by businesses after one goes broke, in debt etc etc Look at the whole Sears/Kmart merger. Hopefully if Ruger or S&W or whoever acquires Colt (if it happens) will have a better result than Sears/Kmart etc.

The whole Sear/Kmart thing is still a complete mystery and debacle. Kmart changed CEOs like girls change clothes, paying each one huge amounts of money during their tenure and even more to leave. All the while circling the bottom of the toilet. Then they somehow bought Sears which really wasn't doing too bad at the time. Should have been Sears buying Kmart. Although now both are doing lousy.

 

[88E30M50]

Just ask firestone about that dilemna....lock out union workers...hire temps....train overnight and you have tire blowouts on some Ford vehicles that those specific tires were contracted to be made for. It happened at the Decatur, IL. plant and it was shutdown shortly after. Remember all those rollovers and tire blowouts? Firestone Tire Accidents - Defective Tire Injuries and Death Would "you" rather have someone experienced (its their trade) making car parts, tires, etc for your car or would you rather have a high turnover rate for various reasons of employees that make those same parts, tires, etc. ? More than likely the union person will have been doing it for most of their life and it is their forte.
Many union workers still take pride in their work and the finished product. How many temps do you think truly care as long as they get a chump change paycheck?
I am a Federal Union member and President for the state of Indiana for my Chapter. I take pride in my work and nothing less than perfect will do. I will not accept any less from a manager when it comes to whether or not my equipment that I service is working perfectly or taken out of service because it does not meet tolerances even though there is a manager whining about "the numbers" aka metrics. I dont care....if it does NOT meet tolerances, it is removed from service.
Now when my equipment is removed from service it isnt as easy as a drill press doesnt work or a milling machine is loose. I work for the Federal Aviation Administration and it is part my responsibility to make sure the flying public are safe in the air when navigating using the signals from my equipment. If I were to slack...People....lots of people could die. You want a temp in my spot (one every other couple weeks or so) or do you want me to do my damn job and get paid what I deserve considering my level of training and experience?
All this anti union mentality comes from the ignorant and uniformed or they just have never seen the better parts of a Union. Listened to too many UAW or Steel worker stories....from the 70-80's maybe? **** just is not like that anymore...atleast no in my union.
Nothing less than perfection...my family and friends are part of the flying public too.

I used to work as a union aircraft mechanic back in the 80s and 90s and the union had nothing to do with the quest for perfection. Aviation demands it. The people that got into aircraft maintenance back then often paid big dollars for years of school to get their A&P license. Being union was just an unfortunate part of being in the industry. They did nothing for mechanics but to use them for leverage to raise the wages of unskilled aircraft cleaners to ridiculous levels. After 2000 hours of schooling, I was paid $11 an hour and every time I signed my name, my career was riding on the quality of my work. Senior aircraft cleaners were earning over $17 an hour to swab wax on the outside of a 747 with a mop and carried no career threatening responsibility over their heads. Even years later, when I was working as an aircraft inspector, I earned less signing my name to the airworthiness certificate on a wide body jet after a two week overhaul than the eldest cleaners earned while they did little to no actual work. The union had zero role in the quality of the work we did. The FAA raised the bar to the level we had to meet and we knew the consequences of doing low quality work. The only impact on the work the union had was that the more senior the mechanic, the less work they tended to do. A senior union member could easily spend the night 'chasing parts', 'researching documents' or whatever else that called it but several of them I knew would put less than 3 hours of productive effort a day into their jobs.

Other industries may be different, but back in the day in aviation, the union had nothing to do with the quality of the work and would often defend a crap mechanic that had no business working in the industry.

 

[danielson]

These stories go on and on and on and they're completely endless. Unions had their place back before labor laws, when a boss could make you work 16 hours a day and not give you a lunch. Things have changed and now the unions are just as crooked as that which they fought against initially. They've gone the same direction the government has. Started out as the solution to a problem and slowly became the problem.

 

[gundoc111]

Gee I admit I am new here but I thought sending insulting P.M.'s were against the rules. Isn't that right remauto1187 or doesn't that apply to you?

 

[Rookie]

Gee I admit I am new here but I thought sending insulting P.M.'s were against the rules. Isn't that right remauto1187 or doesn't that apply to you?

No, it doesn't apply to him, but he will certainly whine if someone does it to him.

 

[churchmouse]

No, it doesn't apply to him, but he will certainly whine if someone does it to him.

Yup.

 

[churchmouse]

Gee I admit I am new here but I thought sending insulting P.M.'s were against the rules. Isn't that right remauto1187 or doesn't that apply to you?

Hang tough new guy.

 

[jdmack79]

Gee I admit I am new here but I thought sending insulting P.M.'s were against the rules. Isn't that right remauto1187 or doesn't that apply to you?

Don't feel bad. He made a explicative laden post criticizing me too. Those on the losing sides of arguments tend to get childish.

 

[remauto1187]

If I remember correctly the problem with Firestone tires was not the design of the tire it was the improper use of that design of tire for a vehicle that heavy and large. Ford later tested the same tires in the same conditions on the Ford Ranger and had no problems. Also there was a miscommunication between the manufacture of the tire and the manufacturer of the vehicle about proper inflation pressure, which led to the tires being underinflated even when they were inflated to what they thought was a proper specs. I'm not sure what unions have to do with that. Unless you're suggesting that and employer utilizing unions will make no mistakes while an employer that does not utilize unions will make mistakes which is completely preposterous.

It had nothing to do with the design of the tires (Engineers design). It was the assembly of the tires by people (non union temps) that were literally hired over night and trained in the same timeframe. These temps were tasked with building these tires which is obviously an art in itself. They obviously didnt do a very good job considering the loss of life and lawsuits.

 

[remauto1187]

I'm glad you could finally make a post without profanity and personal insults.

Well ive overcome my hurdle....how long will it take you too overcome your condescending and arrogance?

You're constantly talking up unions and how great they are. Why should I, as a cost conscious consumer, buy a union made vehicle? Are GM cars better than Toyota cars?.

You can buy whatever you want....its your money. I never told anyone to buy a union made vehicle or not too.

If you are going to ramble on about how great unions are, I'd love to see some evidence as to how they help this nation today. How do unions help Colt, GM, or any other cash strapped business? They don't.

Unions exist to protect workers from unfair wages and working conditions and many other things. I have no idea where you learned the union is designed to do anything for or against a nation.

You're in Terre Haute, so I have a union story that hits close to home. I used to work for an attorney in Terre Haute that was trying to get a non-union business to town. The unions were adamantly opposed to it coming. The lawyer's garage was torched. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of antique cars burnt, including a Lotus, E Type, and XK-150. As if the unions burning his garage weren't enough, they fire bombed his house. Tell me again how great unions are.

My office is in Terre haute. I dont even live in the same county as Terre Haute (Vigo). Until I see copies of police reports and proof the firebug was a union member and did these crimes on behalf of the union....its just useless rambling. I can say Reindeer peed on my front lawn....doesnt make it true.

 

[remauto1187]

Gee I admit I am new here but I thought sending insulting P.M.'s were against the rules. Isn't that right remauto1187 or doesn't that apply to you?

You being new and all, I can understand that you dont know the difference between a PM and a Negative Rep Comment. But you are certainly welcome to look up that info.

 

[88E30M50]

It had nothing to do with the design of the tires (Engineers design). It was the assembly of the tires by people (non union temps) that were literally hired over night and trained in the same timeframe. These temps were tasked with building these tires which is obviously an art in itself. They obviously didnt do a very good job considering the loss of life and lawsuits.

There are two sides to every story. From one point of view, the company screwed the production workers by locking them out and hired unskilled workers to take their place. From the other perspective, the production workers screwed the company when they stopped doing what they were paid well to do and tried to strong arm the company into paying more than they could. The company, after having trained and paid those workers well for years suddenly found themselves without production workers and had to resort to bringing in new team members to get things going again.

In union vs. mgt fights, it's rare to find either side completely in the right. One man's collective bargaining is another man's attempt to force wages that are above fair market value through threats to shut plants down. It all depends on which side of the table you are sitting on.

 

[easy]

So, let me get this all straightened out. Colt makes Firestone tires using unskilled apes?

I guess this makes Colt "too big to fail" too?

 

[in625shooter]

There are two sides to every story. From one point of view, the company screwed the production workers by locking them out and hired unskilled workers to take their place. From the other perspective, the production workers screwed the company when they stopped doing what they were paid well to do and tried to strong arm the company into paying more than they could. The company, after having trained and paid those workers well for years suddenly found themselves without production workers and had to resort to bringing in new team members to get things going again.

In union vs. mgt fights, it's rare to find either side completely in the right. One man's collective bargaining is another man's attempt to force wages that are above fair market value through threats to shut plants down. It all depends on which side of the table you are sitting on.

True but in the case of the Firestone tires it was funny that Firestone was the only one held responsible in the whole Ford Explorer fiasco because I am pretty sure that same model/size etc tire was on other makes of SUV's and trucks and it didn't cause them to go flipping down the highway.

As stated there are two sides. There are a few people that happen to be Union members that are tubs of crap, just like their are several people that happen to be managers that are arrogant unethical pieces of crap that would rather outsource to save a dime than have a goo product. What the Unions main goal now a days is to protect the process which means make management play by their own rules. We all know that one or two folks that should be fired (even their own union members will agree they need let go) however the Union can not pick and choose who they represent. Thats why some are under the impression every dirt bag is protected. There is a process and getting rid of bad employees is very easy IF the process, rules and their own policy is followed.

In the case of Colt even though I am not a Colt fan I hope they not only stay in business but expand to what they once were. but in today's world of mergers and such profits worth more than history. Sad sad times!

 

[danielson]

I don't understand why we keep bringing up the firestone tires thing. That model tire was used on other vehicles without any issue. There was no proven flaw in manufacturing, and some of the tires that were on the vehicles at the time of failure were manufactured by Union workers. So its irrelevant. It was a combination of Auto manufacture demanding too low of a tire pressure be put into a tire that needed the pressure to be higher in order to handle the weight of the vehicle, and idiotic people who don't realize they're driving an SUV and you shouldn't be chucking it into a clover leaf at 80 miles per hour. There's a lot of blame to be thrown around in several directions but I don't think any of that has anything to do with unions. Or colt...

 

[BE Mike]

So, let me get this all straightened out. Colt makes Firestone tires using unskilled apes?

I guess this makes Colt "too big to fail" too?

This thread has taken some weird turns.

 

[churchmouse]

This thread has taken some weird turns.

Yup

 

[gundoc111]

No, it doesn't apply to him, but he will certainly whine if someone does it to him.

Wow. Looks like remauto1187 is a real credit to the site. It has ben my experience that people like that, that have to sneak behind your back for insults, probably developed that talent coming out of closets. Live and let live I guess.