Ok does any body know of a manufacture that does this? I mean being so ready to abandon a new idea or product? And now this year even before it was released .... at least last year the 35 Whelen and 7.62 went into production and a few were in circulation.
-Aaron
Sadly, I know several. Worked for one, and am currently working for another. If things keep going in the direction they are, will probably be working for another one soon. If you only knew the effects of these big buyouts, I see it every day. The good old days of customer appreciation are gone, today it is the bottom line, PERIOD! You can be assured, Big Green, is only going to be worried about making big green, not what it's customers would like to have.
This is for anyone that feels like reading how I really feel,
I worked for a family owned company that started in 1873 (yes eighteen-seventy three), they were profitable every year over the next 121 years. They sold the business to one of these big companies that go around buying up smaller companies in 1994. They went public about a year later, the bean counters inflated the stock prices, people were buying it like it was going out of style. They started buying several other companies, going from 2 business units to over 40 in a couple years. Buying and building in Europe, Asia, South America, etc. The big shots had tons of shares in the stock, the workers bought several shares through initial an buy-in and payroll. Once the stock was built up to it's obviously over inflated price, the big shots cashed in and bailed, leaving the poor workers holding the bag. Only took the leadership 10 years (2005) to run the company into bankruptcy, but the catch was all the foreign business units in Europe, Asia, and other places that were purchased/built with the American workers blood, sweat, and tears were exempt. They were able to keep building and buying, while everything in the U.S. came to a screeching halt. The stock that the workers were left holding quickly dropped off the charts, leaving the workers without not only no retirement to look forward to, but also during reorganization through the bankruptcy, shutting down several business units in the northern U.S. even the building I worked in where it all started back in 1873 was shut down. I must add that this location was also turning the highest profit in the Corporation, and never was in the red. The lowest year I can remember in the last 10 years was in the low teens, with an average in the high teens. The last employee standing walked out of there in early 2007. They even took away the retired peoples health care and other benefits that were promised to them.
Companies like this are fleecing the American workers. The big shots are sucking the life blood out of these companies, then leaving the workers with nothing, not even a job. Convincing the workers to invest their hard earned dollars into the company stock, the big wigs suck out their several millions while trying to get their workers to take pay cuts, pay for insurances, etc,. I am currently working for another company that is just reorganizing from bankruptcy. They have a HUGE new state of the art plant in China, we are manufacturing "World Class" parts with machinery that is over 50 years old. How long do you think it will take them to start manufacturing most of our parts over there on their brand new "World Class" Machinery? They have already started cutting the fat, several supervisory positions were terminated a couple weeks ago and the layoffs have started. Same old song and dance all over again. My father gave 40 years to this company at a different location. They already closed that location and left several hundred people without a job. Some of the guys were able to get hired on at the location where I work , driving an extra hour one way each day for several dollars an hour less money, and had to start all over as NEW employees. Some of these guys already gave that company over 30 years of there life, but can't retire due to there retirement score. Need 85 points (55 years old & 30 years of service or any combination adding up to 85) to retire, in my case starting all over last year at this new company I would have to work 20 years and would be 66 for the standard retirement. They also have a 401K based retirement, but several of there employees were dumping there money into the company stock before they announced their bankruptcy, and now they have nothing to show for their years of investing.
The good old days of working for a company for 30 years or so, retiring with a comfortable retirement and medical benefits to get by on are over. It is a dog eat dog world out there, and the Big Dog usually wins.
Now, what does this have to do with H&R/NEF? If we don't let our position as customers be known, you will probably not have a choice where your Handi-Rifle will be built, if at all?
If you can't tell by now, I work in the Automobile Industry. I don't care if anyone wants to drive a Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Subaru, or whatever, most of these are now built in the States now anyways. If we stand by and let these companies move all of their production overseas, yeah you can still buy several American Name Brands guns, but how many of them are actually built here?
Have you ever heard the old commercial "This ain't your fathers Oldsmobile"? Now there isn't even an Oldsmobile! I know of over 3000 employees that worked at a major appliance manufacturer, a few years ago, the company just came out and told them they were moving to Mexico. Down there they don't have to worry about paying the workers more than a couple bucks and hour, no benefits, retirement, insurance. They can ship these same appliances back to the U.S., and charge YOU, the customer more money than you paid for the U.S product. Where do you think all those extra dollars are going? Surely not the laid off U.S. workers or the new Mexican workers. You can bet there is some fat cat in Sweden getting fatter by the minute.
Sorry for the rant, but we need to let some of these companies know how we feel. Hopefully there is some company out there, that actually cares about their customers, employees and this country! There have been to many companies ruined by the big dogs of these buyouts, they can't see past their greed for the almighty dollar, no matter how many lives they ruin. Some of these men that started these great American companies must be spinning in their graves. My Grandpa used to say "Give an honest days work, for an honest days pay". I think there are a lot of CEO's out there that never met my Grandpa!
I know I feel better getting that off my chest.