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Thread: Seed company sells out, hundreds out of work

  1. #11
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    as others have mentioned, why the outrage? What does the company owe the employees? Should they drag it out and have two costly, unproductive weeks before letting them go "with notice"?

    Not to be callous but business is business.

  2. #12
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    So then, do I understand correctly that the company should have...by some moral mandate...kept these people employed because things aren't going that badly?

    Again, I get that it's tragic for the families; really, I do. But not being directly involved with these companies, who are we to judge the decisions they make?

    Should they be held to some government means-testing standard, and if the government says they have to keep these people employed, well, that's that? Or perhaps the public should decide based on how badly they feel for the employees?

    I don't know the solution, but I also can't assume that these companies are automatically doing something evil by letting these folks go.

  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Blacknarwhal View Post
    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.
    Well said. Ripping people's lives apart with no advance notice is gonna get ugly sooner or later. The reason does not matter.

    We had an automotive company nearby go through a costly strike a couple years back, it lasted far longer than anyone expected and took a heavy financial and psyhcological toll on the workers, their families and everyone involved. After nearly a year the union leaders agreed to a contract to reduce existing wages by as much as 50% and require workers to pay substantially more for insurance benefits. Three months later it was reported in the news that the CEO of that local branch factory was given a multi-million $ bonus for 'gettin 'er done'. I was amazed that peace was maintained.

    Capitalism is a wonderful thing, but like anything else in this world controlled by men, it can be used in selfish and harmful ways. Just because it's legal it doesn't make it right.

    “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."- Frederic Bastiat
    Last edited by kiawahman; 05-30-2012 at 08:06 AM. Reason: Quote added

  4. #14
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    Clearly there's something I'm not understanding. Nevermind -

  5. #15
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    My first thought is that, somehow and some way, the purchaser will be traced to Montsanto

  6. #16
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    Looks like thats not the only place laying off:

    MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta, Maine, is cutting 47 positions as it tries to meet a $400 million operating budget for the next fiscal year

    http://www.beckershospitalreview.com...t-47-jobs.html

    Novant to lay off 289, including 150 jobs in Winston-Salem

    http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/new...89-mainly.html

    Vantiv, a financial services company that has had several rounds of layoffs in Evansville since last fall, will say goodbye to another 24 employees beginning Friday.

    http://www.courierpress.com/news/201...e---ev_vantiv/

    Humane Manufacturing Co., Baraboo, will lay off 19 employees starting immediately

    http://host.madison.com/business/art...#ixzz1wMIS56hu

    I'm sorry that they are laying off, but on the flip side, here is a little good news:

    Ashley Furniture Industries Inc. is spending more than $6 million to double the size of its reclining upholstery plant in Whitehall in western Wisconsin and add 225 jobs.
    http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee...5-jobs-in.html

    Wells Fargo added up to 200 full-time customer service and sales positions to their Salem call center

    http://www.katu.com/news/local/Wells...155482945.html

    Mail America Communications Inc. plans to invest more than $5 million to expand its facility in Forest, and add 75 new jobs during the next three years.

    http://www2.wsls.com/news/2012/may/2...bs-ar-1950213/

  7. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by bbkaren View Post
    So then, do I understand correctly that the company should have...by some moral mandate...kept these people employed because things aren't going that badly?

    Again, I get that it's tragic for the families; really, I do. But not being directly involved with these companies, who are we to judge the decisions they make?

    Should they be held to some government means-testing standard, and if the government says they have to keep these people employed, well, that's that? Or perhaps the public should decide based on how badly they feel for the employees?

    I don't know the solution, but I also can't assume that these companies are automatically doing something evil by letting these folks go.
    We did have working anti-trust laws, once.

    They went by the wayside for expediency in the M&A madness over the past 30 years.

    It kills small towns.

    This is the town that just had it's primary employer nuked:

    http://www.city-data.com/city/Fulton-Kentucky.html

    Here is a bird's eye-view of it:

    http://www.bing.com/maps/default.asp...435&FORM=MIRE1#

    The company had been there since 1856

    http://national.citysearch.com/profi...e_seed_co.html

    Well they can just get another job. Where?

    http://westkyeconomic.com/industrial-sites.htm


    There are a handful of cities in ths country that have systematically asset-stripped towns all across America, leaving them little more than hollow shells. NYC, Boston, DC, anywhere you find management experts "rationalizing shareholder value" (pumping the stock to collect heartstopping bonuses, and exiting before the inevitable crash). The value that generations built into their companies and communities is being raped for short-term profit.

    The company that runs the mess won't even put the pictures of their execs on the site. Private firm, acquire, rationalize, and to hell with the people who worked there. It's just business. Just soulless business. Every man for himself. Promise anything and deliver nothing. It's just business. Thanks for your years of service, but no gold watch or even a thank you. It's nothing personal, it's just business.

    Besides, it's tough making a go of it in the big Apple. Look at how much a decent place to live costs: http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2011/0...on_mansion.php

  8. #18
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    I agree with bbKaren's logic, but the situation is still ugly and and it sucks. Now that its taken over, Ferry Morse has lost my good will. I have had good luck with their seeds. How appropriate that the take over was done by a company called, Plantation.

    Here is what I think is the rub. Companies like to talk about loyalty, and they will make every empty promise they can get away with. I learned very early on to be darkly cynical, but I have seen plenty of people waste good productive years, even decades with companies because they wanted to believe. It is their fault for remaining naive, but I'm not giving credit to those taking advantage of them.

  9. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Faroe View Post
    ... I learned very early on to be darkly cynical, but I have seen plenty of people waste good productive years, even decades with companies...
    I agree it sucks too, no doubt.

    But I don't consider years that a company has paid me a paycheck every week, to be wasted.

    Three weeks ago I was laid off from the company I worked at for twelve years; I don't consider those years wasted. I think that's kind of an old-fashioned philosophy (take a job and work there your whole life) and hasn't been applicable for probably decades now. I know it hasn't for me...

  10. #20
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    seems to me, the issue is more of how they handled the mass firings.

    I doubt if the company found out during lunch hour that they had to fire everyone and couldn't give advance notice.
    Sounds like they wanted to keep the workers working until the last minute for whatever reason.

    People will take action to protect themselves if they think their job may be in jeopardy by not taking out loans, saving more, cutting expenses in anticipation or having back up plans.
    These folks had no concern or courtesy shown to them and that is what stinks and will cause plenty of anger and resentment, imho.

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