GST Steel

BlueStreak · #1 07-01-2012, 04:02 PM

There has been much adoo about this now defunct steel mill in Kansas City.
The Obama camp points to it as a shining example of Mitt Romneys way of "saving a company", which is to say that after Mitt "saved" it......it no longer exists. (But, his ever fatting personal, financial "worth" certainly does.)

The right counters with this BS;

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...651845802.html

A coworker recently challenged me with the GST Steel saga.

My response?

"Go to that computer, right there, and find me some recent pictures of that mill that Mitt saved."

Dave

Oerets · #2 07-01-2012, 04:19 PM

Dave, what your missing is that is what the Right wants to do. I mean to say is to pick to meat off the bones of this country while they still can. The Right just looks to making a quick buck for themselves their friends and benefactors plan and simple.

Why to them it was "Union Jobs lost anyway"!

Barney

BlueStreak · #3 07-01-2012, 04:20 PM

"At the time, GST's union blamed the company's bankruptcy on the political class, for failing to hamstring imports. "We can't compete against the steel imports that are being sold under cost," said the president of GST's union in 2001. "Our pleas fell on deaf ears in the political arena." The Bush administration would ultimately slap on giant tariffs."

No mention of the fact that these tarriffs were temporary, only lasting what, a few months, if that? Killed by the free traders? Oh, I know. If this mill hadn't been sacrificed, the entire company would have gone down.

Prove it.

Mitt couldn't strap on his cape and "save" it again?

Please.

Dave

BlueStreak · #4 07-01-2012, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oerets

Dave, what your missing is that is what the Right wants to do. I mean to say is to pick to meat off the bones of this country while they still can. The Right just looks to making a quick buck for themselves their friends and benefactors plan and simple.

Why to them it was "Union Jobs lost anyway"!

Barney

Oh, I'm not missing that at all, Barney. I am painfully aware of just how "tragic" the right in this country really thinks it is when we lose our jobs and communities are ruined. You can tell by the smirks on their faces and the smart assed comments they make. I've been listening to it for decades, believe me.

I could tell you tons about the non-union plant I worked in that went under. The right-wingers were shocked---they had no union to blame. It was ALL managerial shenanigans and incompetence and I can prove it. But, to those guys, THAT NEVER happens.....Ohhhhh, nooooo....

A**holes.

Dave

Oerets · #5 07-01-2012, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

"At the time, GST's union blamed the company's bankruptcy on the political class, for failing to hamstring imports. "We can't compete against the steel imports that are being sold under cost," said the president of GST's union in 2001. "Our pleas fell on deaf ears in the political arena." The Bush administration would ultimately slap on giant tariffs."

Dave

Like I said "it was Union Jobs lost anyway"! That is why the political classes did nothing until much to late.

Barney

Oerets · #6 07-01-2012, 04:34 PM

I should not be worried at my age with a retirement and healthcare. If I was a person leaning to the Right then all would be fine because I am doing great! But I want the same for all behind me. It should not be like winning a lottery now a days for the lucky ones. Trust me that is all it is. Hard work does not always pay off you know.

But keep closing the good manufacturing jobs and replacing them with service ones. Then one needs to look and see what is happening right now.

Barney

merrylander · #7 07-02-2012, 07:27 AM

We try to do our small bit against all this out sourcing. Whenever Florence or I have to call "customer Service" we ask "Where are you located?". If not here then we ask for a telephone number for the USA.

Especially banks and credit card sompanies, I can't think of a better way to have your identity stolen.

piece-itpete · #8 07-02-2012, 10:05 AM

All we have to do is slap tariffs on everything? Does Obama know about this?

Yeah. Well he did once. During the last election anyway

Pete

BlueStreak · #9 07-04-2012, 01:54 AM

Interesting, and IMO a fairly balanced article.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...nment-44m.html

Sounds about right to me. In my lifetime, I've seen a lot of utterly insane and bizarre things done by managers frustrated with their own failure and incompetence. I was nearly fired once, for FIXING a machine that had run for days and not produced a single useable part.

Why?

"Because we could not afford the downtime."

Ummmmm, how is running directly into a scrap bin for FOUR DAYS wasting thousands of pounds of materials, better than spending three hours to fix it, so it would produce something we could use???????

Another excellent example was the day a plant manager made us shut the department down and polish all of the diamondplate on the machines.

Why?

He was angry that we were standing around, watching the equipment run and not fixing it..........

Ummmmmmm.....It was running great. There was NOTHING to fix...

BTW, the following morning, when he went over the previous days efficiency report, he exploded and wanted us all written up.......because we had four hours of downtime across the board.

No shit, Sherlock. That's about how long it took us to make the diamondplate pretty.

Dave

merrylander · #10 07-04-2012, 07:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

Interesting, and IMO a fairly balanced article.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...nment-44m.html

Sounds about right to me. In my lifetime, I've seen a lot of utterly insane and bizarre things done by managers frustrated with their own failure and incompetence. I was nearly fired once, for FIXING a machine that had run for days and not produced a single useable part.

Why?

"Because we could not afford the downtime."

Ummmmm, how is running directly into a scrap bin for FOUR DAYS wasting thousands of pounds of materials, better than spending three hours to fix it, so it would produce something we could use???????

Another excellent example was the day a plant manager made us shut the department down and polish all of the diamondplate on the machines.

Why?

He was angry that we were standing around, watching the equipment run and not fixing it..........

Ummmmmmm.....It was running great. There was NOTHING to fix...

BTW, the following morning, when he went over the previous days efficiency report, he exploded and wanted us all written up.......because we had four hours of downtime across the board.

No shit, Sherlock. That's about how long it took us to make the diamondplate pretty.

Dave

The Peter Principle in action?