Bad News about Cross

"DovR" wrote:

Cross was never one of my favorites, but as good soiled pen.
Made in Ireland today and some in the US.

Cross stopped producing pens in Ireland in 2000.

"'AT Cross, which was in Ballinasloe, was profitable but they decided
to take the jobs back to the US,' said Gibbons.'

http://www.galwayindependent.com/issue_3_3/ditch.asp

See also:

http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2000/12/29/current/bpage_4.htm

--
Steve

My e-mail address works as is.

Paul has hit the nail on the head. The global economy has extensive
tentacles. Move the manufacturing to where it's cheapest, to hell with the
workers and lost jobs. So long as the bottom line increases and managers get
their bonuses and perks.

Competition sure, but keep jobs and factories operating wherever possible.
Whatever happened to Buy America, the Union Label. Here they tried buy blue
and white campaign, support the local product, but cheap imports from the
far east with little or no duty in the interests of business has driven many
companies sand workers out of business. So it's kicking yourself in the
leg.

As far as pen co's go, it's always sad to see another leaving or going
under. Cross was never one of my favorites, but as good soiled pen. Made in
Ireland today and some in the US.


"Paul" wrote in message
m...
(In a friendly tone)

You must be someone who's employed.

I suspect that your emotions and view on US business would be different if
you were kicked out of a thirty-year career, only to have untrained
foreigners take over and set out to ruin American business. Bank of
America, DELL, IBM, and scads of others use offshore resources (cheap) to
aid their profits. None of those companies and others think about the
mis-communication aspect of business requirements and customer
satisfaction.
They've shucked the customer only to satisfy their small population of
corporate executives who make huge salaries and huge-er perk/benefit
portfolios. They kicked the American worker in the butt and said... "too
bad, so sad, but we don't care".

Hope you have a remarkably satisfying and profitable Monday at your job.

(still friendly)

=Paul




"Tim McNamara" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Paul" wrote:

As you all know the IT industry has taken (and continues to take) a
huge hit with regard to jobs and skills going "offshore". So now
we have manufacturing (which of course is not news). One needs to
look at what else is happening i.e, where other skills are going...
Keep in mind that I understand that other countries have the same
problem...

Your understanding seems a bit out of step with what's in the business
news media. Or perhaps, given the tenor of the rest of your comments,
you're just a bigot.

The list is as follows: Medical (Doctors and medical technicians,
nurses, scientists), mechanical engineering, electrical
engineering, Information Technology, banking, insurance... and
specialized areas of the above.

Er, dude, those are people with those skills coming INTO the US, not
leaving the US to work elsewhere. Lots of doctors, nurses, etc got
all of their training and experience in other countries before moving
to the US. Ditto the rest of these jobs.

You probably WON'T see agriculture, warehousing, and the like going
offshore, (since you really can't move it there - and THEY don't
want it since it's DIRTY WORK to them (too much sweat and dirt).

Foreigners (to the US) don't want to take jobs that are sweaty and
dirty. What planet are you living on?

They probably won't take SALES... they just don't have the finese.

You don't actually shop much, I'd guess.

I imagine at some time they will take over organized crime... but
that might be the last one they take over.

Yah, I'd hate to see foreigners take over the Mafia.

In article ,
John F. Nixon wrote:

On Sun, 27 Jul 2003 23:39:56 GMT, "Paul"
wrote:

In the never-ending pursuit of "the bottom line" US management has
sacrificed quality for money.

Management gives consumers what they will buy, not what they say
they want.

Almost. Business gives consumers that which sells *and* makes a
profit. Without a profit, most businesses are not long for this
world.

Other than that minor quibble, your overall gist is quite correct,
IMHO. People say they want all-natural organically grown apples, but
what they buy are commerically produced apples in plastic four packs
at $1.19 a pound rather than organic apples at $2.49 a pound. Etc.

In article ,
"Paul" wrote:

(In a friendly tone)

You must be someone who's employed.

I suspect that your emotions and view on US business would be
different if you were kicked out of a thirty-year career, only to
have untrained foreigners take over and set out to ruin American
business. Bank of America, DELL, IBM, and scads of others use
offshore resources (cheap) to aid their profits. None of those
companies and others think about the mis-communication aspect of
business requirements and customer satisfaction. They've shucked
the customer only to satisfy their small population of corporate
executives who make huge salaries and huge-er perk/benefit
portfolios. They kicked the American worker in the butt and
said... "too bad, so sad, but we don't care".

Not that I disagree with what you saud above, but the post to which I
was responding pretty much sounded like a white guy blaming all the
darkies for his troubles.

Hope you have a remarkably satisfying and profitable Monday at your
job.

(still friendly)

Thank you, yes, I am still employed as of Monday. But then I work in
a field that really can't be replaced by offshore cheap labor. OTOH,
I have little control over how much I work and therefore how much
money I make, I get no paid vacation or sick leave nor many of the
perks that American workers have gotten for years thanks to unions. I
didn't even get health insurance or a 401(k) plan through my employer
until 6 or 7 years ago. I'm a psychologist, and this type of
arrangement is the norm for health care professionals. While I am a
W-2 employee according to IRS rules, in fact I am for almost all
practical purposes self-employed. I earn less that your typical union
plumber.

satrap wrote:

They certainly need to, as my junior high students have terrible penmanship.
Dave, I think they need "handwriting boot camp"! (just KIDDING!)


What do handwriting boots look like? Do you wear them on your hands or
your feet?

(Maybe they're a German invention: glove = Handschuh (hand shoe).

I love the way German re-uses words - especially scarf = Halstuch
(throat towel)!) :-)



Dave

"James Goodwin" wrote in message
om...

Many retailers are cutting back on selling pens as the profit margin
is being squeezed by sellers such as Staples, Office Max, Office Depot
and other discounters. We do not like to pay retail for something and
we are always looking to get a good buy.

This is such an unrecognized factor in the loss of so many jobs here in the
US. A vicious Catch-22. No one is purely a consumer or purely a worker.
All of us do both. Sometimes as consumers we expect to pay too little.
Conversely, as workers, sometimes we expect too much. At some point, the
whole thing falls apart.

I know I'm oversimplifying a bit because so many other things go into the
big economic picture. It also varies widely from industry to industry.
Bill Gates ought to burn in hell for keeping software prices so
unjustifiably high. For a niche product like fountain pens, where no one is
getting really (Bill Gates type of) rich on it, the consumers really do have
to look at themselves in the mirror a little.