Re: Anilam Crusader II - how many "event's"?

On Tue, 28 Mar 2006 17:57:37 GMT, "RogerN"
<regor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<snip>
Continental Tire has been cutting our pay and benefits a little each year.
This year they took a pretty big chunk, 10% of wages and another 13%-15% on
our benefits. I guess this is how they thank us for voting NO on the Union.

Anyway, these pay cuts at work, combined with decrease in overtime, has me
looking to either make some money in my shop or sell some equipment to pay
down bills. Any ideas how to make some money in the home shop? (Billet
Keychains?)
<snip>
A quick google search indicates that you may need to be taking
bigger steps and putting more sandbags on the bunker. See some
articles below.

FWIW - I note that the workers are providing the money for the
required investments but that corporation will own these. The
brave new world order capitalism in action?..

FWIW -- with the iminent implosion of GM/GMAC and current
bankruptcy of Delphi, Dana, etc. this is most likely the tip of
the ice berg. Titanic tickets anyone?

==========================================
New York Times article
[So where did all this money go? Stock dividends? Taxes?
Executive bonuses? Or did it just disappear? - If so grand why
so poor? If so poor why so grand? Unka George ]

April 15, 1999
INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS; Continental Tire Forecasts Profit Growth
Continental A.G., the world's No. 4 tire maker, forecast
double-digit profit growth this year with sales growth of 33
percent, as its strategy of diversifying into car parts helped
results. The company, a German concern that makes Continental,
General and Uniroyal tires, said sales this year would climb to
17.5 billion marks ($9.66 billion), from 13.2 billion marks in
1998. The prediction includes 4.5 billion marks from its
Continental Teves automotive systems unit, which was acquired
last year from ITT Industries for $1.93 billion.
Despite 22 million in good will charges, Continental said its
first-quarter operating profit rose 9 percent, to 108 million
euros ($117 million), as sales climbed 50 percent, to 2.1 billion
euros.
====================================
Posted on Fri, Jan. 13, 2006
Continental to cut wages in Ill.
Mount Vernon workers face 10 percent pay cut

[and why dosen't this count as an "investment?" Could this be
one of the reasons personal savings are down?]

GILLIAN MAY-LIAN WEE
gwee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Days after saying it could halve its Charlotte work force,
Continental Tire North America Inc. said Thursday it plans to
shrink the paychecks of workers at a non-union Illinois plant
while sinking millions into that facility.
Continental, one of Charlotte's largest manufacturers, plans to
cut wages of hourly employees at its Mount Vernon plant by 10
percent. Those cuts will allow Continental to invest between $60
million and $70 million in new equipment to make the plant more
efficient, said company spokesman Rick Holcomb. The company calls
the move its largest-ever U.S. plant investment.
"Like the announcement regarding the Charlotte plant, it's part
of CTNA's overall strategy to reduce its manufacturing costs,"
said Holcomb, also Continental's senior counsel. "Our intent is
to continue producing tires in Charlotte and Mount Vernon."
Earlier this week, company managers told union leaders it would
proceed with layoffs in March and June unless workers agree to
reduce their wages and benefits by 35 percent. A company
executive suggested the layoffs could be reduced if the union
agrees to the pay cuts. Continental also filed the layoff notice
under the federal law that requires companies to warn workers of
impending layoffs.
Continental has said if it cuts workers in Charlotte, some
production would move to the Mount Vernon plant.
By lowering production costs in Mount Vernon, Continental is
ratcheting up its pressure on its Charlotte plant's union
workers, said Mark Cieslikowski, the president of United
Steelworkers Local 850, which represents the plant's workers.
"What they're doing to those people is exactly what they're
trying to do to us," he said. "It's going to make it even more
difficult."
Continental's announcement didn't surprise Tom Juravich, a
professor of labor studies at the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst, who said companies are doing all they can to move away
from unions. Using the federal layoff law to threaten union
leaders is also typical, he said.
"Unfortunately, the very law that was supposed to protect
workers' interests ends up being used against that," said
Juravich, the director of the school's labor research center.
Union workers may be higher paid than non-union ones, but they
also tend to be more productive, he said.
Continental employs more than 1,000 workers at its Charlotte
plant, while about 2,100 work in Mount Vernon. Workers at both
plants earn an average of about $21 an hour, excluding benefits.
But it costs more to make a tire in Charlotte than in Mount
Vernon, Holcomb said. The Steelworkers are trying to find out why
as part of their negotiations with the company.
In addition to the wage cuts at Mount Vernon, hourly workers will
contribute more to their health insurance, the company said.
The company doesn't have plans to lay off workers there.
Continental's management is meeting Steelworkers' representatives
in early February to continue bargaining, Holcomb said.
Otherwise, Continental said it could lay off about 241 salaried
and hourly employees on March 15, then 272 more in late June.
Cieslikowski still hopes to save jobs.
The Steelworkers' current contract expires April 30. A strike is
not out of the question, Cieslikowski said.

Gillian May-Lian Wee: (704) 358-5160

==============================
[and another for-profit corporation prepares to dump their
pension obligations by stiffing their loyal workers for some and
unloading the rest on the US taxpayers via the PBGC. Ain't
trans-national corporation ism wonderful? Any possibility of
local property tax abatements, tax increment financing, ID bond
interest subsidy, etc. being "clawed back?" -- I didn't think
so. Take the money and run!!!!]

Steelworkers Not Surprised by Continental's Threat to Cease Tire
Production at Charlotte Plant
"Another step in CTNA's pre-determined plan to abandon the North
America market," says USW

For Immediate Release
March 10, 2006

(Pittsburgh, PA) -- The United Steelworkers (USW) said today that
Continental Tire North America's (CTNA) announcement to suspend
tire production in September 2006 is not a surprise.

"The news today is totally consistent with CTNA's inability to
understand and operate in this environment," said USW executive
vice president Ron Hoover. "We view it as another step in CTNA's
pre-determined plan to abandon the North America market."

"CTNA is incapable of devising business and marketing strategies
to enable them to compete here," said Hoover. "Instead of
conducting the required research and product development and
making the needed capital investments to improve its plants, this
company just looks to take money out of the pockets of its
workers."

The USW and CTNA have been engaged in talks to see if maintaining
the Charlotte productivity is possible. The company has demanded
$32 million in yearly concessions, without ever really
demonstrating the need for these savings. The USW has offered
proposals to reduce costs and to improve productivity and
efficiencies. CTNA has flat-out refused to look at ways to
enhance productivity.

"Its refusal to provide necessary information and its inadequate
bargaining proposals have hindered negotiations and violate
federal law," said Hoover. "Unlike other companies in this
industry, CTNA refuses to engage us in a productive process that
would yield a business plan to preserve the production of tires
in Charlotte and the long-term viability of Continental in North
America."

"It stopped production at its plant in Mayfield, KY about a year
ago and is now actively seeking to sell its Bryan, Ohio facility.
It has extracted concessions from workers at its Mt. Vernon,
Illinois plant and is spending enough money there to patch
together production as it brings its new Brazilian plant up to
speed."

CTNA claims that it made the announcement due to the pressures of
the global market and to the skyrocketing costs for raw
materials, energy and health care. While acknowledging the fierce
competitiveness of the current marketplace, Hoover noted that
Goodyear announced earlier this week it's highest net profits in
seven years and that Bridgestone/Firestone recently declared a
rise in net earning of 58 percent. Like CTNA, both companies have
master contract agreement with the USW.

The USW represent more than 850,000 workers in the U.S. and
Canada. Some 70,000 are employed in the tire and rubber industry.

CONTACT: Wayne Ranick (412) 562-2444



Unka George
(George McDuffee)

I sincerely believe . . . banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies,
and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding,
is but swindling futurity on a large scale.
Thomas Jefferson (1743?1826), U.S. president.
Letter, 28 May 1816, to political philosopher and Senator John Taylor
.

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