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  1. #1
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    Arrow Seed company sells out, hundreds out of work

    Seed company sells out, hundreds out of work

    Reporter - Jason Hibbs

    Story Created: May 18, 2012 at 8:22 PM CDT

    Story Updated: May 18, 2012 at 10:48 PM CDT

    FULTON, Ky. — Terminated: a large employer lets almost everyone go and the community can't believe how they did it. Employees returned to the job after lunch only to learn they no longer have a job.
    It happened just after noon Friday at the 53-year-old Ferry Morse Seed Factory in Fulton, Kentucky.

    A company spokesperson had no comment but people in the community had plenty to say about the way the company let workers go.
    Jiffy Products owned and operated the factory. But now, Massachusetts-based Plantation Products owns the home and garden division of Jiffy, and in turn, owns Ferry Morse.

    While they won't tell us their plans for the Fulton factory, they made it clear they don't want nearly all the workers who depend on the garden-growing company to feed their families.

    The company that started sending seeds in the mail seven generations ago hand-delivered a letter to nearly 200 factory workers just after lunch. It stated their position was terminated, effective immediately.
    "I can't believe that, because things were going so great," said Fulton resident Judy Green. "People had been there a long time."

    Economic Development Director Eddy Crittendon said he was caught off guard like everyone else and is surprised the company gave no notice.
    "There's folks who've been employed out there for thirty to forty years, have given their whole life to the company," he said.

    More:
    http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/home/ticke...152115545.html
    "But none of the wicked shall understand [that the End of the Age is upon them]."
    [Daniel 12:10b]

  2. #2
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    Unfortunate that people lost their jobs but times change and companies are bought and sold....opened and closed. Nothing in life is certain except for of course...death and taxes.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fawlty View Post
    Unfortunate that people lost their jobs but times change and companies are bought and sold....opened and closed. Nothing in life is certain except for of course...death and taxes.
    Exactly! And the half a dozen guys who owned the place made a fortune!

    Hooray for those half a dozen guys, huh?

    Bet those other schmucks could have done better if they hadn't been so lazy, huh? Why can't they just work harder and get ahead like REAL people, huh?

    You know, we all like capitalism, but if it keeps on going like this the capitalists are going to get strung up by all the newly-minted communists who lost their jobs when the capitalists sold out....

    Because you know, there's a whole lot more sold outs than there are sell outs. And when their tummies start to rumblin', Ayn Rand will prove no comfort. Nor will little things like the "rule of law". And they won't just starve quietly, cursing their own ineptitude and lack of ambition. Because funny thing...there will be plenty of former business owners in there who didn't get the chance to sell out.

    Best stock up on ammo lest someone get to thinking you're a "have" because you live indoors and eat.

  4. #4
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    I get your sympathy, BN, but what's the alternative? Sacrifice best business practices to accommodate "fairness"?

    It's a rough world out there; if they run the company in a way that's not best for the SURVIVAL of the COMPANY, then far more will lose their jobs.

    I just can't understand how folks don't see that...especially on a liberty-loving board such as this.

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    Quote Originally Posted by bbkaren View Post
    I get your sympathy, BN, but what's the alternative? Sacrifice best business practices to accommodate "fairness"?

    It's a rough world out there; if they run the company in a way that's not best for the SURVIVAL of the COMPANY, then far more will lose their jobs.

    I just can't understand how folks don't see that...especially on a liberty-loving board such as this.
    BBK, I'm not so sure it has anything to do with running a company properly. There are lots of times, especially in a buy-out or remote ownership situation it has to do with write-off of debt or balancing out losses in the parent company. In other words it is strictly a bookkeeping necessity and has nothing to do with how the Ferry Morse portion of the company is doing. In fact, they may have been doing well enough to have caused their demise. There may well have been profits or losses elswhere in the parent that make Ferry Morse a weak link but not necessarily unprofitable.
    Last edited by 4Him; 05-30-2012 at 07:16 AM. Reason: Addition
    --------------------------------------------------
    There are two ways to be fooled.
    One is to believe
    what isn't true;
    the other is to refuse
    to believe what is true.
    ~~Soren Kierkegaard 1813-1855

  6. #6
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    The bottom line is that the seed supply is rapidly diminishing. For a seed company to go belly up in days like this is unlikely. There's more to this story than an acquisition. I'd like to know names and associations.

    I'm saving seed....are you?
    But what weapons can you use to dispossess someone who will not accept anything except Holy Scripture interpreted according to his own rules?...Where Lutheranism reigns, learning dies. They seek only two things: good pay and a wife. The gospel offers them the rest — that is, the power of living as they please.

    I understand now how Arius and Tertullian and Wickliff were driven into schism by malicious clergy and wicked monks.

    (Erasmus regarding Luther and the church, 1527, 1529)

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by bbkaren View Post
    I get your sympathy, BN, but what's the alternative? Sacrifice best business practices to accommodate "fairness"?

    It's a rough world out there; if they run the company in a way that's not best for the SURVIVAL of the COMPANY, then far more will lose their jobs.

    I just can't understand how folks don't see that...especially on a liberty-loving board such as this.

    As so as companies cannot become as big and evil as Monsanto things like this won't happen. Mother Jones magazine did a story about "what if we acknowledge congress by who sponsored them instead of the state that elected them?". As in the gentleman from Monsanto yields the floor to the gentleman from GE....

    It is not that seeds aren't selling like buggy whips. Gardening is up, way up. Power is being concentrated in the hands of the few. We have to decide if that is good for society not just business. Hell, I could make a great business selling drugs to teenagers but is that good for society and should we allow it?

  8. #8
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    Wait. Since when does an employee get notice that he's about to be let go?

    At best, that costs the company money because they'll have everyone taking every available sick day before they leave, and stealing everything that's not nailed down. And who's motivated to work when they know they're about to be let go? What gets accomplished in that period of time?

    I suppose if the whole location is closing down and everyone is being eliminated I could see letting people know in advance, but they'd have to offer a nice severance package to everyone, to ensure they stay on their best behavior and keep working.

    But generally, I've never known a company to give notice before firing.

    This is the new reality, folks; IMO, companies don't have the luxury of being "employee-loyal" now. Times are tough.

  9. #9
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    Default In a world where owners make a fortune....

    Quote Originally Posted by bbkaren View Post
    I get your sympathy, BN, but what's the alternative? Sacrifice best business practices to accommodate "fairness"?

    It's a rough world out there; if they run the company in a way that's not best for the SURVIVAL of the COMPANY, then far more will lose their jobs.

    I just can't understand how folks don't see that...especially on a liberty-loving board such as this.
    become an owner. Start a small biz or buy some stock. If buying stock doesn't sound so lucrative once you actually have to pony up a few months of cable TV bills, then maybe the "fortune" you envy owners of is not quite so certain or so lucrative.

    I liked Ferry Morse seeds. (If I remember, they had a nice little how-to booklet, very concise, on growing vegetables.) But if workers don't have the message these days that jobs requiring no particular skills are not secure, they simply don't want to listen.

    If you bemoan the ruthless efficiency of the Market, then first examine your own purchasing closely, and make some changes to use your dollar vote to support your beliefs. If it is one thing the Market respects, it is dollar votes.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Yoda View Post
    become an owner. Start a small biz or buy some stock. If buying stock doesn't sound so lucrative once you actually have to pony up a few months of cable TV bills, then maybe the "fortune" you envy owners of is not quite so certain or so lucrative.

    I liked Ferry Morse seeds. (If I remember, they had a nice little how-to booklet, very concise, on growing vegetables.) But if workers don't have the message these days that jobs requiring no particular skills are not secure, they simply don't want to listen.

    If you bemoan the ruthless efficiency of the Market, then first examine your own purchasing closely, and make some changes to use your dollar vote to support your beliefs. If it is one thing the Market respects, it is dollar votes.

    I would like to know, RIGHT THIS MINUTE, what company can be bought in sufficient amounts for even a year's worth of cable TV bills that both will make anything even approaching an income and is not a total scam. That's just under $500 you're talking about, and I would cheerfully buy into such an enterprise.

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