Even Less Gloom?

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
It also appears that Mr. Bass has fostered good will with those whom he
leads. That is not a typical characteristic of a "slash & burn"
executive.

Yes, Mr. Bass spent much of his speech telling us how wonderful his
labor relations were now, even to the point of breaking the union.
(They supposedly voted themselves out of existence, because they are
now so happy.)

In the very next segment of his speech, however, he complained about
the absurdly high cost of doing business in Florida (thanks to those
pesky hurricanes) -- and made it quite clear that he was willing (and
planning) to move Piper, lock, stock, and barrel, to whatever state
offered him the most "incentives". (AKA: "Bribes")

Now, you tell me how his wonderful labor relations skills jibe with
the fact that he is willing to rip all 1100 jobs out from under his
employees, and move the company to Mississippi, if they pay him the
most money?

Even *I* was appalled -- and remember, I'm writing this as a
conservative Republican, who (a) doesn't believe in unions, and (b)
believes that customers -- not employees -- come first.

America works best when you say "Yes, Union. Yes!"

("Ken Finney" wrote)
America works best when you say "Yes, Union. Yes!"


I hear you Ken.


Paul-Mont
http://davidgardiner.net/The_Ballad_of_Joe_Hill.mp3
I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.

On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 11:10:18 -0700, Jay Honeck
wrote:

It also appears that Mr. Bass has fostered good will with those whom he
leads. That is not a typical characteristic of a "slash & burn"
executive.

Yes, Mr. Bass spent much of his speech telling us how wonderful his
labor relations were now, even to the point of breaking the union.
(They supposedly voted themselves out of existence, because they are
now so happy.)

In the very next segment of his speech, however, he complained about
the absurdly high cost of doing business in Florida (thanks to those
pesky hurricanes) -- and made it quite clear that he was willing (and
planning) to move Piper, lock, stock, and barrel, to whatever state
offered him the most "incentives".

Last time I heard him talking about this kind of stuff was when I was
at Simcom for my Malibu training and he was having some off-the cuff
musings about the analysis of where to put the jet plant due to cost
of facilities, lack of room, and anticipated difficulties in finding
the additional skilled employees that will be needed for jet assembly
in the VRB area. Since it's also been said that the 25 year comments
were also in the context of future airframe (composite?) life
expectency, perhaps context has been lost. It seemed like staying in
VRB for the piston/Meridian line (which seemed quite active when I was
there, with a number of Meridian, Mirage and Saratogas in various
stages of assembly, with the occasional Seminole and Seneca sprinkled
in. I can't say that to my eye there appeared to be any excess room
for airframes which could have been in process if they wanted to be
building any more right now) wouldn't be that big an issue.

But that's just my two cents.

In article ,
"Gig 601XL Builder" wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net wrote:
It also appears that Mr. Bass has fostered good will with those whom
he leads. That is not a typical characteristic of a "slash & burn"
executive.


JKG

I don't see how basing their future on a VLJ that will just be one among
many in a yet unproven market is a good idea.

There is significant interest and demand already in the small jet/VLJ.
With the innovation happening in the industry, no one can wait until the
market is "proven," for by that time it will be too late. That's the
huge problem with the piston business--Piper missed the boat big-time
years ago.



JKG

In article . com,
Jay Honeck wrote:
In the very next segment of his speech, however, he complained about
the absurdly high cost of doing business in Florida (thanks to those
pesky hurricanes) -- and made it quite clear that he was willing (and
planning) to move Piper, lock, stock, and barrel, to whatever state
offered him the most "incentives". (AKA: "Bribes")

Now, you tell me how his wonderful labor relations skills jibe with
the fact that he is willing to rip all 1100 jobs out from under his
employees, and move the company to Mississippi, if they pay him the
most money?

Who says that he's planning to leave the employees? Bass has to do
what's best for the business, and if that means move the business,
that's what it means. It also means that Piper should offer most, if
not all, employees an opportunity to move as well, and retain their
jobs. If an employee chooses not to go, that's their choice.

Employees ALWAYS come first in business--at least if you want them to
put your customers first. If you don't treat your employees well,
chances are that they won't treat your customers well.

I have a huge problem with corporate welfare, but it isn't going away.
If you don't take it, your competition is going to take it, and then
you're at a competitive disadvantage.


JKG

In article ,
"Ken Finney" wrote:
Even *I* was appalled -- and remember, I'm writing this as a
conservative Republican, who (a) doesn't believe in unions, and (b)
believes that customers -- not employees -- come first.

America works best when you say "Yes, Union. Yes!"

It may work best for YOU, but not for the consumer.

Personally, I have no problem with employees who want to organize.
However, I do have a problem with the huge bias of labor laws toward the
unions that shut out competition (non-union workers). Unions are
nothing but big corporations that sell a service--labor--and are granted
a government monopoly when workers vote to become represented by a
union. It's a lose-lose between the consumers who have to pay more, and
the high-quality union workers who cannot be rewarded based on merit.
For the unions themselves, the lazy union workers (of which there are
many), it's a win, at least until the company you work for goes bankrupt.


JKG

Who says that he's planning to leave the employees? Bass has to do
what's best for the business, and if that means move the business,
that's what it means. It also means that Piper should offer most, if
not all, employees an opportunity to move as well, and retain their
jobs. If an employee chooses not to go, that's their choice.

Don't get me wrong -- I agree 100% with what you're saying. If an
airport in (fill in the sunbelt state) offered me ten million bucks to
move our operation, I'd be there tomorrow.

That's corporate welfare, and -- as long as it's there -- Bass would
be crazy not to jump all over it.

But, given that attitude, you can't then say how "great" Piper's (and
Bass's) labor relation skills are. When the time comes he's not going
to lose ten minutes of sleep over his decision to uproot 1100 families
(nor should he, in my opinion) -- and that's just the facts.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

If an
airport in (fill in the sunbelt state) offered me ten million bucks to
move our operation, I'd be there tomorrow.

That's corporate welfare, and -- as long as it's there -- Bass would
be crazy not to jump all over it.

What's the difference between that and airport subsidies? In both
cases, the idea is that the added commerce brought to the area offsets
the direct costs.

Jose
--
You can choose whom to befriend, but you cannot choose whom to love.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Ah, Matt, Pennsylvania is part of the rust belt for a reason.

There is a strong union tradition there, both among steel workers and
miners. You will find very few labor intensive companies moving TO
Pennsylvania, and many moving away from there. Too bad, there's a
wonderful hard working labor force there, especially in the coal
regions of central/eastern PA.

It was a long time ago, but the children and grandchildren of the
"Molly McGuires" (spelling?) still pass along the oral history of
labor relations by explosive during the 30's, and John L Louis is
still a hero to many. By the way, I'd agree reform was badly needed in
that era.

My husband, who had in fact relocated a company or its divisions
several times, avoided PA even though he was born there. He had been
considered a 'gun-slinger', but not with his current employees here in
North Carolina.

I hope Piper finds a happy home. It's worth remembering, though, that
the failure of one general aviation company just means there's a
bigger market for those companies that are left. We did own an Arrow,
but are really big Mooney fans now (but why the heck did they hang a
540 cubic inch engine on the front of the newer ones, the IO 360 that
pulls along our 201 does very well?).

That's my fairly uninformed 2 cents worth.

Tina

Jonathan Goodish wrote:
In article ,
"Gig 601XL Builder" wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net wrote:
It also appears that Mr. Bass has fostered good will with those whom
he leads. That is not a typical characteristic of a "slash & burn"
executive.


JKG

I don't see how basing their future on a VLJ that will just be one
among many in a yet unproven market is a good idea.

There is significant interest and demand already in the small jet/VLJ.
With the innovation happening in the industry, no one can wait until
the market is "proven," for by that time it will be too late. That's
the huge problem with the piston business--Piper missed the boat big-
time years ago.



JKG

The problem with the interest and demand for the VLJ market is that a
significant portion of it comes from yet another unproven market, on demand
air taxi.