What happened to all the workers????

[capnjuan]

Why would you uproot your family and move clear across the country for a company like that ? Would you have confidence in the stability of your job ?

Well ... the money, prospects for promotion, and ease of finding another job in CA would have entered into it for me but ... assuming even money and without a contract or enforceable guarantees ... no ... to both questions.

 

[AlohaJoe]

Did any of the workers in Westerly come from the Hoboken plant?

 

[cuthbert]

housing costs were just a small part of it.

for 5 years they told us that they'd never move us and they'd invest in the facility.
then another day the head of HR appears unannounced and told us it was over.
What they said they'd do, they didn't do.
what they said they'd never do, they did.

Why would you uproot your family and move clear across the country for a company like that ?
Would you have confidence in the stability of your job ?

Unfortunately it's always the same story, in every business, in every country.

At the beginning of this year our CEO said that they wouldn't have closed any plant here, and after six months they shut down the operations in one of these plants...what I learned is that when a corporation says they will never do a certain thing, they already scheduled to do it in the next six months.

I can sya that it happened the same thign to me several times...forced to relocate and then coming back home after some time, it really sucks, fortunately I didn't have a family.

 

[workedinwesterly]

There were some workers from Hoboken I believe but they are all retired now and have been for some time. I knew a few of them, remember that was 40 years ago .

 

[hansmoust]

Did any of the workers in Westerly come from the Hoboken plant?

Hello Joe,

There's a bit about that on page 18 ( left column, bottom part) of The Guild Guitar Book.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

 

[West R Lee]

housing costs were just a small part of it.

for 5 years they told us that they'd never move us and they'd invest in the facility.
then another day the head of HR appears unannounced and told us it was over.
What they said they'd do, they didn't do.
what they said they'd never do, they did.

Why would you uproot your family and move clear across the country for a company like that ?
Would you have confidence in the stability of your job ?

And if you would have, let's see, you'd have moved to California for a couple of years, then to Washington for a few years, then I guess you'd have almost come full circle Workinwesterly......back to Connecticut.................................sheeew.

I hope all worked out for the best for you, and all of the Westerly workers my friend. You folks built the finest production guitars ever made in my opinion.

West

 

[JDWags]

I wonder where the present workers in New Hartford came from? Are they Ovation people? Did Fender go out looking for quality workers to build quality guitars and restore the pride in Guild or did they give little thought, other than profit, to the final product?

There must be someone from that New Harford factory that tunes into this website. We would like to hear from you.

 

[chazmo]

I wonder where the present workers in New Hartford came from? Are they Ovation people? Did Fender go out looking for quality workers to build quality guitars and restore the pride in Guild or did they give little thought, other than profit, to the final product?

There must be someone from that New Harford factory that tunes into this website. We would like to hear from you.

JD,

The New Hartford facility is an existing part of the Kaman Music Corporation (KMC) that owns, among others, the Ovation and Hamer brands. They were acquired by Fender (FMIC) a couple of years ago. It's my understanding that part of the existing factory had been redone to support the Guild production, and in fact some Ovation production has gone overseas. I don't know if this "made room" for existing workers to shift over to Guild or if new folks had to be hired in. I think it's the former -- I really doubt they had to hire a lot of outside people to get this going. Then again, I'm making this up.

The good news here is that KMC seems to remain somewhat intact as a hierarchical structure. I don't know for sure. What you *can* be sure of is that Fender is calling the big shots (like, for example, moving Guild there), but I do get a sense that Kaman is a strong entity in itself, and hopefully will stand up for the Guild brand as things get rolling.

It's hard to imagine a worse time for higher-end guitars to try to be finding a new footing in the market. I am extremely skeptical, and I fear more of the Guild line will ultimately get offshored until it's basically done. That's a doom-and-gloom scenario, but I guess we have to face up to the fact that Tacoma wasn't successful despite doing a good job with the Traditional series... Again, the good news is that KMC knows their stuff. Cross your fingers.

 

[workedinwesterly]

housing costs were just a small part of it.

for 5 years they told us that they'd never move us and they'd invest in the facility.
then another day the head of HR appears unannounced and told us it was over.
What they said they'd do, they didn't do.
what they said they'd never do, they did.

Why would you uproot your family and move clear across the country for a company like that ?
Would you have confidence in the stability of your job ?

And if you would have, let's see, you'd have moved to California for a couple of years, then to Washington for a few years, then I guess you'd have almost come full circle Workinwesterly......back to Connecticut.................................sheeew.

I hope all worked out for the best for you, and all of the Westerly workers my friend. You folks built the finest production guitars ever made in my opinion.

West

I suppose it worked out better for some than for others.

To part of the 80 or so workers at guild it was 'just a job'. But for others it was something special...their 'dream job'. Can you imagine walking thru a building filled with hundreds and hundreds of guitars and parts ? Rack after rack of necks, bodies, fingerboards...then the product hanging in the finishing department...every color imaginable...and the shiny product sitting in final assembly just waiting to be strung up.
Sure it was hot in the summer and cold in the winter, noisy, dusty and smelly...but that didn't matter when you saw somebody on tv playing a guitar you had a part in...how could that not make you proud ?

Some employees retired, some tried going into the guitar business for themselves, some are in the guitar repair business, some just got another job, some have since passed away.

It's a waste of talent on the most part...hands that used to build musical instruments now just a cog at Electric Boat, building submarines.
2 guys are still building guitars at Campbell American, 1 is at the Ovation plant seeing the fender nightmare happen all over again.

I can't say it worked out for the best for me....but it's just life, we survive and move on.

 

[jazzmang]

Can you imagine walking thru a building filled with hundreds and hundreds of guitars and parts ? Rack after rack of necks, bodies, fingerboards...then the product hanging in the finishing department...every color imaginable...and the shiny product sitting in final assembly just waiting to be strung up.
Sure it was hot in the summer and cold in the winter, noisy, dusty and smelly...but that didn't matter when you saw somebody on tv playing a guitar you had a part in...how could that not make you proud ?

Some of us can only dream of such things! To work in a place with that kind of legacy would have been a surreal experience.

 

[onewilyfool]

Did Fender do a hostile takeover of Guild....or was Guild on the market? Very interesting history....

 

[Dr. Spivey]

Thanks for your posts, WIW. Guild was a unique company, loaded with talented workers. It would be interesting to hear from a Tacoma worker as well.

Unfortunately, most companies large and small in any business value their employees very little, in spite of what they say.

 

[dv52burst]

The New Factory in New Hartford is actually the "Ovation/Hamer" Factory. In this man's opinion, FMIC has made an err in judgement. There is no way a worker making Ovations one minute can jump over to making Guilds the next.. Two entirely different animals. Maybe some of the Hamer guys could do it. Kent Untermeyer knows what he's doing.

 

[dv52burst]

After reading every single reply to this topic, I will add that "WorkedinWesterly" has it right. For the best, it would be a Dream Job. I used to make regular visits to Mossman drive. And to walk through the Plant with every imaginable combination of Guitars, Basses, Mandos, Banjos in several phases of production, parts everywhere, raw materials stacked as high as OSHA would allow. The most memorable was the Passion in the people's eyes. In their Hands, and in their attitudes. I'll only imagine it was the same in Westerly. I'm confident it was. Talking to a person on the Loading Dock or in a spray booth, Passion was everywhere. And everyone knew how to play 300 times better than I. LOL

 

[6L6]

Unfortunately, most companies large and small in any business value their employees very little, in spite of what they say.

Sadly, I have to agree with this statement.

During my working career I went through EIGHT corporate buyouts and, while I didn't lose my job, many high quality fellow workers did. The takeover companies just told them, "You were paid for the job you did. We owe you nothing more."

They say you should start looking for your next job the day you start your new one. Pretty darn good advice IMHO.

And, if you can do it... marry money!

Now to the Guild guitars. From the limited reports I've heard/seen, it looks like the folks in New Hartford are putting out the same fine product we're used to seeing from US made Guilds. To those turning out the product I say, "Keep up the good work!"

6

'74 D-40
'06 D-55
'06 D-40BJ
'06 F-412

 

[chazmo]

I have been fortunate to work for nearly 20 years at one company where employees do matter. I left it and came back to it last year, and I now recognize the difference. The "labor" that I do, system software, was highly valued for the first few years of my career, but like most other fields it has contracted severely over the years and is treated very much like factory work. There's very little loyalty (in either direction) out there.

So, finding a company that "cares" is surely rare, I agree, but it can be found. I don't know if Martin or Taylor fit the bill in this modern day... They seem to.

As dv52 mentioned above, Untermyer has the creds to make this Guild thing work. Will it? That depends on many factors, not the least of which is an economy that may well kill most of the 2nd tier players.

 

[West R Lee]

After reading every single reply to this topic, I will add that "WorkedinWesterly" has it right. For the best, it would be a Dream Job. I used to make regular visits to Mossman drive. And to walk through the Plant with every imaginable combination of Guitars, Basses, Mandos, Banjos in several phases of production, parts everywhere, raw materials stacked as high as OSHA would allow. The most memorable was the Passion in the people's eyes. In their Hands, and in their attitudes. I'll only imagine it was the same in Westerly. I'm confident it was. Talking to a person on the Loading Dock or in a spray booth, Passion was everywhere. And everyone knew how to play 300 times better than I. LOL

DV,

"Mossman drive" as in Mossman guitars? You a X-Texas boy?

West

 

[fungusyoung]

I have been fortunate to work for nearly 20 years at one company where employees do matter.

I'm with you 100%, Chazmo. And, I couldn't be any luckier especially knowing what other family members & friends have gone through on the work front in recent times. I'm also extremely fortunate to enjoy what I do for a living.

I hope things get better out there and soon... and I also hope some of the dwindling employee appreciation (and vice versa) rubs off from these sorts of companies that survive to those that are either reconstructed or born in the months/years to come.

 

[fronobulax]

There's very little loyalty (in either direction) out there.

<VEER>I have learned the hard way that loyalty to organizations rarely pays off but that loyalty to individuals can often be rewarding (and rewarded). Hopefully this is good advice and will be useful to someone who is much further from retirement than I am.</VEER>

 

[onewilyfool]

Here are some pics of a Guild Factory Tour in N.H., Conn. Note you don't see ovations side by side with Guild, they have separated the shops it seems.....small output it also seems.....would love to take a tour myself....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHJMmupp3IU