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Friday, November 05, 2010

Union Drives 800 Jobs Out of Illinois

The Olin Corp. announced Wednesday that it will suspend production of centerfire ammunition at its plant in East Alton, Illinois, and re-locate the manufacturing operation to Oxford, Miss.

The move comes less than 24 hours after members of the union representing over Olin 800 workers rejected concessions that would have allowed them to keep their jobs.

"Our focus always has been on ensuring that we continue producing high-quality products for our customers in an increasingly competitive market," president and CEO Joseph D. Rupp said in a prepared statement.

"While I am disappointed that employees represented by the International Association of Machinists chose to reject a proposal that would have allowed us to remain competitive in East Alton, we look forward to expanding our existing operations in Mississippi."
More here

6 comments:

American Values said...

This is the same thing that happened here at Dresser, Crown Cork and Seal and Campbell soup. Unions believe that they are in charge and deserve an unrealistic salary. The average man would be happy to have and keep a job in this economy, but not the union worker. The postal service and the phone company is todays poster child for poor production with the expectation of ever increasing salaries. Entitled would describe it best. These two companies employ and keep workers that would be fired or never hired by others. Once on the job they are vertually untouchable for bad behavior.Eventually they will fail and the unions will be useless. Without jobs, the unions have nobody to suck the lifes blood out of. I applaud this company for moving because the people of Mississippi want to work.Lets see how those folks in Illinois pay their bills now.

Anonymous said...

It's called American Greed. They wiil go Mississippi. Offer the citizens cheat wages because the people are desperate for job. When they work these people to death leaving in finanical disarray, this company will go oversea and pay pennies in wages.

Anonymous said...

9:28AM You don't know what you're talking about.

I worked at the aforementioned Dresser for 16 years. I was not overpaid. I worked hard around hazardous materials and unbelievable noise.

The company made record profits the year before they closed, so there was no threat - just a need for more money.

While crying poor they gave the Halliburton CEO $20 million parting bonus so he could run for vice-president.

Many years of service from many people helped build that company into an international player.

It is too simple to blame and spew venom.

BTW, I work and have worked hard SINCE!!

Here's my name:

Bob Pinto
Hebron, MD

Anonymous said...

Unions used to be a good thing. Not no more.The funny thing is they don't give a crap about american workers.It's all about the Mexicans now.thats where the $$$$$ at

Anonymous said...

Ever hear of ear plugs? Not many people would think they are overpaid. It's never enough.
I have never seen an union worker work harder than was necessary to meet their quota then skate the rest of the day.
Unions are a good thing in theory but they almost always end being greedy and corrupt.
I knew a worker at Dresser who never voted for a pay increase because he said it would never be enough to suit him.
Just like at Crown, you can only bleed the company so long then they move to a cheaper and more reasonable workforce. So congrats.

Anonymous said...

Bob Pinto,
I was there, I too worked at Dresser and don't doubt you are a hard worker but to sit here and say that you think that the work force overall was "hard working" is a lie and you know it. There was no more noise there then an average construction site and only in certain areas. I saw the union protecting lazy unproductive workers as well as some good workers. I personally was told numerous times to slow down, as I was working too fast...i could go into exact detail if needed....was told to vote against our contract by older worker when it looked very fair to me. I worked both before Dresser and post Dresser in construction and I'll tell you, comparing the two, the employees of dresser had it made. Good wage, good work environment, excellent benefits and even on job training. It was never enough though, Union Greed killed Dresser