This is a Foretaste of Things to Come

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

This seems to happen in my area of Central Virginia right around Christmastime every few years. I've retyped the first few paragraphs of an AP story appearing in the Lynchburg News & Advance and a choice several paragraphs from later in the article. When I first read the piece, I only read the front page. Imagine my surprise when I reached the paragraphs highlighted with ****!

100s will lose jobs at Tultex Martinsville clothing maker files for bankruptcy

MARTINSVILLE (AP)-- Clothing maker Tultex Corp. filed Friday for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and laid off 2,600 of its 4,300 workers in Virginia, North Carolina and Jamaica. The company sought protection from its creditors after its stock dipped to about 9 cents a share Thursday, prompting the New York Stock Exchange to suspend trading in Tultex stock. Officials of the exchange said they will apply to the Securities and Exchange Commission to delist Tultex from the exchange. The Martinsville-based company,k whose brands of sweats, T-shirts, caps and jackets include Discus Athletic, Tultex, and Track Gear, dismissed the workers Thursday, said corporate spokeswoman Kim Adkins. Among those who lost jobs were about 1,400 workers in Virginia -- 1,000 from its Martinsville-area distribution and manufacturing centers and 400 in its South Boston manufacturing plant, Adkins said. One of the laid-off workers, Chris Draper, said there was no mention of plant closings or layoffs when he picked up his paycheck on Wednesday. "I'm upset by the way they handled it," said Draper, a five-year production worker in Martinsville. "They knew about it. They should have warned us."

SNIP SNIP SNIP

****News of the layoffs and the bankruptcy rocked businesses in Martinsville, where Tultex was once the city's largest employer. Tim Hilliard, owner of Captain Copy, a small printing and copying service in town, said he has already felt the pinch of Tultex's problems. "Everyone's in a panic, like Y2k or something," Hilliard said. "They're afraid everything is going to board up and everyone's going to move away to get jobs." *****

Sooooooooo, is this indicative of how corporate America has been telling the nation of its Y2k compliance? Keep the real story covered up and then hand out pink slips three weeks before Christmas? How many hundreds of businesses, how many thousands, perchance, are going to follow Tultex in springing surprises upon customers, vendors and employees?

-- Kurt Ayau (Ayau@iwinet.com), December 04, 1999

Answers

Kurt: Did the newspaper article indicate the reason they went down?

-- Neil G.Lewis (pnglewis1@yahoo.com), December 04, 1999.

From the article:

"Tultex was profitable for decades until imports prompted a price war less than three years ago, causing financial problems for many American sports apparel companies."

But that's not the point. The point I was trying to make is that they short-sheeted their employees without advance warning. Sure, if the average line workers had been reading the financial or business sections, they may have seen it coming, but the responses I've seen in two papers now was along the lines of, those bastards never told us this was coming.

-- Kurt Ayau (Ayau@iwinet.com), December 04, 1999.


Kurt,

Around here in Central Arizona, the labor market is very tight and companies are scraping the proverbial bottom of the barrel.

I have told my wife that after the first of the year, she will have her pick of qualified workers and to use that opportunity to build a loyal permanent staff.

Yes, I expect it to be horrendous...think of it this way: how does a business survive without books? It is THAT simple. Many small businesses will be driven to the wall. Even larger businesses are running 1999 code, not remediated stuff. How do we know?? Because we know who IS runnung 2000 code now...Hershey, Samsonite, Royal Doulton, the World Bank...'Nuff said.

-- K. Stevens (kstevens@ It's ALL going away in January.com), December 05, 1999.


Amazing, Seatle was only what! well people who want to cause trouble, they are not important. Well thats the way it goes, after a while people get tired of the stuff corporate america feeds them. In my part of the country things aren't good and I've got a feeling it not good elsewhere. We hear lies and more lies and the rich are getting richer and may they go where it does not snow, in other words, Hell.

-- ET (bneville@zebra.net), December 05, 1999.

Sheesh, employees these days, think they're entitled to a job, and the respect and trust of management. Obviously, none of these poor, suddenly-laid off employees have ever been an executive manager, or they would know how hard it is to respect, trust and show loyalty to the common employee. I mean, its just dang tough to trust the unwashed masses. No telling what they'll do. Better just to fire their @$$e$ and glide free on a golden parashute!

And the TPTB wonder what the ruckus was about in Seattle this past week. There's a quiet revolution going on against THE MAN, er I mean the NWO. Maybe not so quiet from here on out, eh, my brother? After midnight of the new year, me thinks the gloves come off.

And Kurt, yes, there is the stench of deception about the Tultex lay offs that reaks of the carcuss rotting behind the Y2K curtain. It's fascinating that so few of us have gotten a whiff of the future, and peeked behind the curtain. It's little wonder no one believes us when we try to tell them what we've seen, because the future that awaits us is quite unbelieveable when compared to the golden age most Americans have enjoyed for 50 years.

Some days I feel like Rutger Hauer's character in Blade Runner, where in the final climatic fight scene with Harrison Ford, he reflects on places he's been and things he's seen no human could ever im

-- Zen Angel (NoLongerAcorporateslave@getreal.com), December 05, 1999.



[finish thought] places I've been and things I've seen no human could ever imagine.

or words to that effect.

------------@@

-- Zen Angel (NoLongerAcorporateslave@getreal.com), December 05, 1999.


There is supposed to be a federal plant closing notification act-- with about 60 days notice to employees required. Whatever happened to that?

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), December 05, 1999.

Mara, you are right in the concept but not the delivery. Tultex will use the excuse that since the stock dropped so precipitously they had no chance to notify employees (and the government will let them do it). The plant closing act is intended primarily for plants being shut down to move the jobs to other countries or within the US. It's not intended to notify the worker if his employer is d/cing business totally. Neverless, I believe Kurt has a valid point in that this is something that DID NOT sneak up on management. They at least owed a warning to the old guard. I'd be greatly shook up and alarmingly pissed.

-- Lobo (atthelair@yahoo.com), December 05, 1999.

Well, say bye-bye to American business folks. Why pay an American $12.00 an hour to make something when you can pay an Asian or Mexican 10% of that and still have the same product ?

Good ole World Trade Organization. Kudo's to the Free Trade Agreement. Ya gotta hand it to Willie, he really stirred the pot when he came to town. Yep, he deserves a standing ovation indeed.

-- Rob (maxovrdrv51@hotmail.com), December 05, 1999.


I understand the frustration Rob.......but what is the solution.

The West has been built on paying Brazilians five cents an hour to pick bananas so we can live in luxury...........

Now it's coming back to haunt us...........]

Can anyone here spell KARMA............

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), December 05, 1999.



Kurt,

What horrible news for those families!!!

Two years ago I was fired from a job in Virginia when I confronted my supervisor about a fraudulent grant proposal he submitted, and was awarded. I spoke with a PhD that works for the Virginia Beach branch of the Virginia Employment Commission (don't remember her name, but there is only one, so if you're anal, feel free to call and check yourself). Anyway, she freely stated that Virginia'a true unemployment rate is over 30%. Roughly one is three is outta work each year. She said this state reports its unemployment rate within national avg. only by defining that rate as "persons on unemployment benefits". However, for "political reasons" the definition of those who qualify for that benefit gets tighter each year....I wonder how many other states play this game.

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), December 05, 1999.


ITS THE BOTTOM LINE STUPID! (i didn't mean that personally-just a phrase) don't forget, soon we will begin hearing about the end of the year rounds of layoffs that happen every year and make the corporate bottom line look good for investors.

gotta keep those bonuses and incentives coming at the corporate level.

-- tt (cuddluppy@nowhere.com), December 05, 1999.


Yes, this is proof positive that there will be major problems come 1-1-2000.

No company in the history of this planet has ever laid people off without warning, or gone into chapter 11. Yes, I can see how this means there will be Y2k problems.

I can also see how someone needs to take a bit of time to study history, and current business statistics, all freely available at the Department of Commerce website, and many others.

How many other straw men will you people create? Going for the record? I think you've already set it. Relax.

-- Chicken Little (panic@forthebirds.net), December 05, 1999.


and by the way, Martinsville and Danville are not "central Virginia".

-- sugarpie (sugarpie@sugarpie.com), December 05, 1999.

Are you posters old enough to remember how GM killed Flint, Michigan and put a real dent in the Lansing ecomony when they put 22,000 of us out of work by sending our jobs to Mexico?

I have no wish to rehash the event, but I wanted to remind you that it did happen and such will happen again.

If you haven't seen Michael Moore's film, "Roger and Me," see it -- it's a history of what we went through in the early 1980s, but it's also a foreshadowing of the next Depression, I fear. I fully expect Ford, UPS, et al to use Y2K "problems" to their advantage and to the detriment of the American worker.

Angie, a 50-Something

-- (WannaMove@Flint.gov), December 05, 1999.



Chicken Little, the point was that corporations lie, that simple. They lie under normal circumstances, they've lied about Y2k. If you can't understand that, then please report to the appropriate facility for a brain implant.

Sugarpie, around here they alternately call Martinsville and Danville "Central Virginia, South Central Virginia, Southside." Take yer pick, I guess.

-- Kurt Ayau (Ayau@iwinet.com), December 05, 1999.


Well being actually FROM central Virginia, we refer to those places as Southside Virginia, a distinctly different area of the state, economically and culturally...

-- sugarpie (sugarpie@sugarpie.com), December 05, 1999.

I live in the NRV of VA. We have always considered Danville and Martinsville to be Southside, but I have also seen it refered to as south central and central VA. When I hear central VA I primarily think of Lynchburg, Amhearst, Appomatox, Nelson Co. etc. Either way not a big deal, I get the picture.

I have been following the Tultex layoffs to some extent, and do feel angry because management knew and did not inform the plant employees. I have seen layoffs occur in the area before, especially during the recession of the late eighties and early ninties. Some employers gave their workers enough notice and others did not. Depended on the company and what their situation was.

I think the analogy with Y2K related layoffs is extremely valid. Most in corporate/business management, if they know they have big problems, are most concerned with CYA and passing the blame to others because there is no time left. They will not release bad news because employees would begin looking for new jobs, stock prices would be affected (if public), and business continuity would be affected, leading to business disruptions even before rollover. Companies want to avoid this as much as possible. Non-compliant companies will rather look like a victims rather than incompetents so they will wait and react to the event, especially since its magnitude is largely anybody's guess.

If it is bad it might go something like this: "We had no idea that Y2K would result in the failures we have seen, our remediation consultants hired in 1998 indicated that with the upgrade of several of our systems we would be Y2K compliant(omitting that most of their systems have been down, off and on since june due to reparing bugs found in the new software). Two of our primary suppliers who had expressed their Y2K readyness have been unable deliver materials crucial to our business continuity citing failures of raw material suppliers in (pick one) country. Those suppliers indicate that basic infrastructure failures resulted in the inability to process raw materials. Because of our lack of materials we have been unable to deliver many of our finished products to our customers. Since or business capacity will be reduced by over 50% for an indefinite period of time we will have to close our (pick a number) processing plants in three states (pick three). We regret that these plant closures will result in (pick a number) layoffs. We regret having to make this decision but because of these circumstances beyond our control we have no choice."

It is my guess that the notice of plant closings and the pink slips will hit at about the same time....there will be little warning.

Hope it doesn't come to that.

Stay nimble and keep your Antennas up

-- loveitinthecountry (marshall2@iname.com), December 05, 1999.


Kurt Ayau - It shouldn't come as a surprise to any of those that were laid off. How long have we been exporting manufacturing jobs? Especially the clothing industry!!! The reason its a $1.00 an hour or less in Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia etc etc is because there is a HUMONGOUS surplus of people. But its better to export the jobs to Mexico because transportation costs are so much cheaper. Again, Mexico has a high birth rate so there is no shortage of labor.

A lumberjack is another trade that shouldn't expect lifetime employment. I'm sure you can think of some more.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), December 05, 1999.


Yes, times are changing. The old loyalty between employee and employer has long vanished and it's truly "dog eat dog." But for heaven's sake, why on earth do they always decide to let people go just before Christmas?!! I hope there is a special furnace in Hell being prepared for these jerks.

In a larger sense, I am deeply ambivalent about this whole economic trend. On the one hand, new jobs are being created just about as quickly as the old jobs are being discarded. On the other hand, changing jobs means accepting a new line of work with often lower pay and in a region far from friends and family. Also, the massive die-off of our industrial backbone could have severe national security consequences. How on Earth could we mobilize for a WWII style conflict when we no longer have factories or workers to man them?

-- coprolith (coprolith@fakemail.com), December 05, 1999.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ