UPDATED — Factory now closed Gibson Guitar Forces Its Factory Workers in Nashville in the midst of the Coronavirus

UPDATE: According to the Tennessean, they’ve now closed too:

Nashville-based Gibson guitars closed facilities Friday in an effort to combat the spreading of the novel coronavirus.   

Gibson confirmed a temporary closure hours after an order Sunday from Metro Public Health Department to stop all non-essential Nashville business, beginning Monday, for the next 14 days.

The Les Paul and SG model guitar maker operates facilities in Nashville and Bozeman, Montana. In Nashville, Gibson employs about 350 to 400 factory workers and about another 120 in a Nashville-based custom guitar shop. 

There were no known coronavirus, or COVID-19, cases among employees at the time of closure, said J.C. Curleigh, Gibson CEO and president. Curleigh began leading the 126-year-old company in late 2018, after Gibson filed for bankruptcy.

“It’s unprecedented, and I think what we’re reading from the board to the leadership team to every individual at Gibson,” Curleigh said, “is no one’s been through this. It’s not as though there’s a playbook.” 

Gibson plans to pay factory employees a $1,000 stipend for the two week closure. Company leadership will re-evaluate production after two weeks, with guidance from city, state and federal officials, Curleigh said. 

“(There are) a lot of ways, as leaders, we’re navigating this unprecedented time together,” Curleigh said, later adding, “We have a prerogative as a leadership team … two weeks of a factory (closure) or a month of factory (closure) pales into insignificance of the rebuild we’ll all have to do.” 

The Montana-based Gibson facility, which manufactures acoustic guitars, also closed Friday. 

In Nashville, the brand migrated primary offices last July to Cummins Station. Gibson office employees, about 100 total, began working remotely last Wednesday, Curleigh said. 

Good job Gibson. Music is great, but not right now.

Original Story below…

This is not good, Gibson Guitars had better rethink this.

Via the Payday Report:

Nashville-based Gibson Guitars last week ordered its headquarters employees to work from home to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

However, out at its factory, on old Massam Drive in Nashville, over 300 blue-collar factory workers are being forced to come into Gibson’s factory to build guitars.

“The temperature in the plant is 80 degrees with 50-60% humidity. which is really not good if you are trying to keep a virus down,” says “Mel”, a Gibson Guitar worker, who declined to give their name out of fear of retaliation.

Workers at the plant say that it’s impossible to maintain 6 feet of social distance in the plant. Likewise, many workers haven’t been given protective gloves or masks to wear on the shop floor to spread of COVID-19.

“On the assembly line, people are working closely together. we all touch the guitars,” says Mel.

There is one turnstile in the plant and twice a day more than 300 workers try to exit the plant through the same turnstile. Likewise, all the workers use the same timeclock to check-in, a dangerous vector point for COVID-19.

Fear of the plant being a site of a potential outbreak of COVID was so intense that a local food truck that typically services the plant at break has stopped showing up.

However, workers say that Gibson Guitar management has told workers that they are going to continue production at the plant until there is a positive case of COVID among workers at the plant.]

Also the report says this:

In 2018, the company emerged from bankruptcy and has struggled since then; leading many to wonder if the company is risking workers’ lives for financial reasons.

“I don’t believe it is a necessity,” says Mel. “I realize they got a lot of backorders, but they are putting a lot of people at risk. There are a lot of people at this plant, who are older people, 50 and above, who have been there for many years and they are more at risk than others.”

Workers estimate that approximately 30% of the workforce is over the age of 50; making them at great risk of contracting COVID-19.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” says Mel. “We have the auto industry closing, the Nissan plant in Smyrna, Tennessee is closed because of coronavirus”.

Gibson Guitar has long had a reputation of being a hard-nosed employer.

In 1985, Gibson Guitars famously closed its unionized factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan to set up shop non-union in Nashville. The shop has remained non-union up to today, leaving many workers at the mercy of their employers as the pandemic strikes Nashville.

 

Blacks are whining in Detroit….Again

It seems that the “social justice” crowd is at it again, trying to subtly suggest that because Detroit has a white Mayor, that blacks are being discriminated against.

Via NBC News black division:

Downtown Detroit has been fashionably in redevelopment and undergoing resurgence since the economic downturn, but not everyone is feeling welcome.

With its shiny new facades on chic eateries, cafes and microbreweries, the bright transformation and new attitude has often been called “New Detroit.” It’s all a point of pride for Mike Duggan, the first white mayor elected in 40 years who took office last year. His efforts ranging from urban landscaping to lowering the crime rate to incubating booming businesses have brought new hope for the Motor City—consistently plagued for decades with scandals, crime and blight.

Yet, many black Detroiters are crying foul, saying Detroit is becoming a tale of two cities; while young, white residents enjoy a stylish, prosperous downtown, black business owners say they are being systematically forced out of business.

Not everyone is buying that little lie however:

Charlie Beckham, Detroit’s Group Executive for Neighborhoods, who invited the first group of business owners to talk, is adamant there is no effort to push out black businesses. Instead, he said, the economy has changed, and people are repositioning.

“There are plenty of successful black business owners doing the right thing. They scratched and saved and paid their workers before they bought the Cadillac,” said Beckham, who has served six mayors since the late Coleman Young, the city’s first black mayor. “The responsibility is on us. When you’ve had a month-to-month lease for 25 years, and you get pushed out of your lease or when you lose your property because you didn’t pay your mortgage or taxes, that’s just bad business.”

Meanwhile, Smith negotiated a lease with new building owners and Spectacles is staying put. Mo’ Better Blues, which in October won a $50,000 Motor City Match grant from the city of Detroit, is celebrating its grand opening in another downtown location on November 7. The Mongos continue to run Café D’Mongo’s Speakeasy, a downtown bar/restaurant.

“We’ve got to tighten up in this new environment,” Beckham said. “Buy the building. Negotiate a strong lease. If the economy goes up or down, you will not get pushed out. Is there still racism? Yes. But we can’t let that be an excuse.”

Here’s what I wrote in the comments section of this story:

Amazing, the same people that are largely responsible for the downfall of my great city are now @!$%#ing because they’re not being allowed to do it again. How quaint. 

The truth is, if you don’t have the money to be in business, you shouldn’t be in business to start with! NO ONE is entitled to anything! If you can’t hang with the big dogs, get off the porch!

Racist? No. Racial Realist? Yes. 

If you ain’t got the flow to be in business, than take your broke black a$$ on down the road and let someone who does have the building, it is just that simple. 

Amazing how blacks think that they’re entitled to everything. This is what happens when you give them special treatment. Give them an inch and they try to take a mile. 

I stand behind that comment 100%.

 

What happened to CEO Don Gillispie?

I received an e-mail from someone linking to the story below. It sounds like an interesting one. Please, go check out:  Divine America: When Using Your Powers for Good, Expect Government Delays

 

Trader Joe’s drops plan to build store in Portland, Oregon because of black racism

No, this isn’t a joke.

This story comes via TopConservativeNews.com, who notes the following:

Notice that it is perfectly acceptable for black people to oppose the demographic change of their neighborhood. If the races had been reversed, the national media would be screaming “RACISM!”

Consider this statement from the Portland African American Leadership Forum. They “remain opposed to any development in N/NE Portland that does not primarily benefit the Black community.” This would be a national controversy if the races were reversed. They would be denounced as the Ku Klux Klan.

The story via AP:

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Trader Joe’s grocery-store chain has dropped a plan to open a new store in the heart of the city’s historically African-American neighborhood after activists said the development would price black residents out of the area.

 

The grocer, whose stores are found in urban neighborhoods across the nation, said Monday it wouldn’t press its plan, given community resistance, The Oregonian (http://bit.ly/1n7Jyqb ) reported.

“We open a limited number of stores each year, in communities across the country,” it said in a statement. “We run neighborhood stores, and our approach is simple: If a neighborhood does not want a Trader Joe’s, we understand, and we won’t open the store in question.”

The Portland Development Commission had offered a steep discount to the grocer on a parcel of nearly two acres that was appraised at up to $2.9 million: a purchase price of slightly more than $500,000. The lot is at Northeast Alberta Street and Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and has been vacant for years.

So, why did Trader Joe’s decide not to build there, well for two reasons:

Critics said the development would displace residents and perpetuate income inequality in one of the most rapidly gentrifying ZIP codes in the nation.

…and the biggest reason? This:

The Portland African American Leadership Forum said the development commission had in the past made promises about preventing projects from displacing community members but hadn’t fulfilled them.

It sent the city a letter saying it would “remain opposed to any development in N/NE Portland that does not primarily benefit the Black community.” It said the grocery-store development would “increase the desirability of the neighborhood,” for “non-oppressed populations.”

Mayor Charlie Hales and the urban renewal agency’s executive director, Patrick Quinton, signed a letter in January that described what they said was the commission’s contributions “to the destructive impact of gentrification and displacement on the African American community.

Translation:

We don’t want no honkeys in our neighborhood! If you ain’t black, we don’t want your business here!

Now, could you imagine, if a business, who was owned by a black man, wanted to open a store, say in like Troy, Michigan or Rochester Hills, Michigan; which are, for what it is worth, predominantly upper middle class/wealthy class, white neighborhoods and a group of white people starting complaining about it and starting saying that it would cause the neighborhood to go into decline? Man, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would be all over it!

There would huge protests and it would be all over the media. However, because this is a black thing, and the company is white owned; it is no big deal, nothing to see here, move along. 🙄

This is why I continue to run this blog; regardless of the fact that I make little or nothing on this blog at all, despite the fact that I make little or nothing on this blog, since Google Adsense dropped me. Because this sort of stuff is NOT reported by the national media; least of all by MSNBC and CNN. Fox News most likely will not touch it either, because of the taboo subject.

Furthermore, I believe that the Conservative right just will not touch this one; because they are afraid of being called racists. I do not have such issues. I simply do not care what blacks really think of me; least of all black liberals. Considering what happened to my cousin and myself; I think I’ve earned the right to point this stuff out.

By the way; these are Obama’s people and don’t you ever forget it. 😡

 

Blockbuster Video RIP

Some shocking news, Blockbuster video goes the way of the 8-track tape.

The Story:

Englewood, Colo. — The final curtain is falling on the Blockbuster video-rental stores that Dish Network Corp. owns in the U.S.

The closures announced Wednesday will affect about 300 Blockbuster locations scattered across the country. Dish Network expects the stores to be closed by early January. Dish Network says about 2,800 people will lose their jobs.

There are over a dozen Blockbusters in metro Detroit.

The Englewood, Colo. satellite-TV provider also is shutting down Blockbuster’s DVD-by-mail service next month.

Dish Network’s retreat will render Blockbuster’s once-ubiquitous brand nearly extinct. About 50 U.S. stores operating under franchise agreements will remain open.

Blockbuster’s downfall began more than a decade ago with the rise of Netflix Inc.’s DVD-by-mail service, followed by the introduction of a subscription service that streams video over high-speed Internet connections.

Dish Network bought Blockbuster out of bankruptcy court in 2011.

via Blockbuster shutting down 300 remaining U.S. stores | The Detroit News.

I am old enough to remember when Blockbuster video started back in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s.(*) Sad to see them go; but times change, the advent of high speed internet, basically rendered the rental of Video tape and DVD’s old hat.

Still though it is a bit of a shock to see something like that go away.

* = Update: Least I that should be accused of not knowing what I am talking about; According to Wikipedia, Blockbuster Video was formed in 1985. However, I lived in Southwest Detroit from my date of birth, which was in 1972 till 1989 and we never saw them there at all. My family moved from Detroit to the southern suburbs of Detroit in 1989; and around 1990 or 1991 is when we noticed the first blockbuster opened around here. I guess I am showing my age a bit. 😳 

 

 

JCPenney, Business and Snobbery

It is a sign of the times, but it is happening:

Thompson talks about the economic trends that spelled doom for JCP. I don’t know about economics, but I do know that it’s strange, in an emotional sense, for me to see so many of the iconic retailers from my childhood fall by the wayside. I couldn’t tell you the last time I shopped at Penney’s. Probably when my mom took me there as a kid. Sears was the big retail presence in our family’s life in the 1970s. I went to a Sears store for the first time in decades last fall, looking for a kid’s coat, and I was shocked by how depressing and low-rent everything looked. This is not a store that has life in it, I thought.

Montgomery Ward used to be a big part of my childhood too. It died a while back.

via Poor JCPenney | The American Conservative.

A couple of things:

  1. Low rent. Low Rent?!?! Seriously? 😯 Is this the image that Rod Dreher wants to convey? As an snobby asshole, who thinks he is better than anyone else? I do not know the guy — but as someone who grew up in Southwest Detroit in the 1980’s, that little remark really tripped my “this guy is a racist, elitist asshole” alarm. Also too, I still have family, in the form of Cousins who still live down there, including the daughter of my Father’s kid sister, who works TWO jobs to survive down there. She also is a registered gun owner. Something that I just found out here recently. Needless to say, I was most impressed with that! 😉 😀 😛
  2. JCPenney, Montgomery Wards, Sears are all relics of the past. They are pre-internet businesses that did well, when brick and mortar businesses ruled the world. K-Mart is having the same problems. But, K-mart learned to adapt to the changing business world. Sears and the others, have not been so smart about it and because of it, some have failed and others are coming close to failing.

But still, Low Rent?!?! Egad.  🙄 It just struck me as quite snobbish and bit racist. Why didn’t he just say that the place looked bad and had black people in it or something? It would have had the same effect. One thing I have never done is judged those who live in different situation as me; money-wise or whatever. Because I well know that I could very be in that place myself. I mean, I  not might have the best circumstances, but things could be much, much worse for me. For that, I am very grateful. I have said that before and I try to keep it in mind.

Here is a good way to get sued

He is making a good point, but this guy is literally begging to get sued by someone.

VERNAL — When George Burnett first set up shop in Vernal, he knew he had to find away to connect with his adopted community if his custom seat cover business was going to survive.

So, armed with a sandwich board emblazoned with the phrase “Honk If You (Heart) Drilling!,” Burnett took to the corner of 500 East and Main Street and began his one-man crusade to boost the spirit of a community that was getting its first glimpse of another oil and gas bust.

Fast-forward nearly five years and Burnett — now a local celebrity for his tireless support of the Uintah Basin’s energy industry — has launched a new business that’s earning rave reviews just weeks after opening its doors.

“I love this place. I will support this place with every fiber of my being,” said Corey Peterson, a personal trainer who stopped by the I Love Drilling Juice & Smoothie Bar on Monday morning for a thick, green drink filled with avocado, spinach and fresh apple juice.

“It’s a good place to come for lunch,” added customer Shauna Snow, “or for a good snack that’s healthy, not processed and also can give you good nutrients.”

But there is one thing about Burnett’s latest venture that’s left some folks with a bitter taste in their mouths.

“I’m very open about it, very public about it, that I’m going to charge them a little bit more, and I have liberals come in and pay the extra dollar surcharge,” Burnett said, referring to his unique pricing structure.

via Liberal tax leaves bitter taste in some smoothie drinkers’ mouths | ksl.com.

Charging one price to a conservative and another one to a liberal? That is grounds for a discrimination lawsuit. I wonder, would he charge a black man one price and a white man another? The point is, you charge everyone the same or you don’t stay in business, at least not for very long. I am just waiting for some black liberal to come into that shop and get charge a higher price. The lawsuit would be good!

Stupid Conservatives. This is why I quite supporting them. 🙄 Especially when they started lying to the people that voted for them.

Trickle down recession

This is what happens when Washington DC scares the living crap out of everyone:

SINGAPORE: Oil prices fell in Asian trade today on signs of weaker US energy demand and as positions hardened in a fiscal showdown in Washington that could push the world’s biggest economy back into recession.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January was down 16 cents to USD 87.72 a barrel in the morning and Brent North Sea crude for January shed nine cents to USD 108.72.

A weekly US government report released yesterday showed a surge in supplies of gasoline and other products, indicating softer demand in the world’s biggest oil consuming nation.

The supplies of distillates, which include diesel and heating fuel that are closely watched at the onset of winter, rose by three million barrels, while gasoline inventories leaped by 7.9 million barrels, five times more than forecast.

“Oil prices fell… after data showed a huge increase in gasoline stockpiles in the United States last week,” Phillip Futures said in a market commentary.

The political impasse in Washington over avoiding mandatory fiscal cliff of tax increases and spending cuts in January that may toss the US economy back into recession was casting a cloud on sentiment.

via Oil prices down in Asian trade – The Economic Times.

This is what happens when you scare the living crap out of everyone with a chicken match. If you are invested in oil, get out while you can. On the other hand, gas prices are going to come down and for we middle class, that is a very good thing. But, for those in the market, it sucks. Good time to get out of futures and get into gold or something.

Oh yes, and the Democrats are owning this one too.

BP should tell the USA, “Hasta la vista!”

Because this is nothing more than this Presidential Administration trying to run this oil company out of business:

WASHINGTON — Government officials have temporarily banned BP from new federal contracts because of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill that killed 11 workers and polluted hundreds of miles of Gulf of Mexico shoreline.

The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that it was taking the action because of BP’s “lack of business integrity” demonstrated by the accident and the company’s inability to curb the flow of oil into the gulf. BP pleaded guilty earlier this month to federal criminal charges arising from the disaster and agreed to pay $4.5 billion, including $1.26 billion in criminal penalties.

The suspension will be effective “until the company can provide sufficient evidence to E.P.A. demonstrating that it meets federal business standards,” the agency said in a statement. The action does not affect the company’s existing federal contracts.

BP had no immediate comment on the announcement.

The British oil company is one of the American government’s largest contractors, 45th with $1.47 billion in federal business in 2011, according to a ranking compiled by the General Services Administration. The company’s biggest customer is the United States Department of Defense, to which it provides more than $1 billion a year in fuel.

via United States Temporarily Suspends BP From New Contracts – NYTimes.com.

If I were BP oil, I would tell the EPA and the Obama Administration, “When your reign of terror is over, we will come back. Until then, we are out of here.”

Because it is quite obvious to this writer that the Obama Administration trying to break this oil company’s back or force them to leave the Country. Therefore, I would give them what they wanted and I would end the North American Operations of BP and sell off all the American company assets to the highest bidder and get out of the American oil business until the end of Obama’s term.

If Obama is that desperate to see the American oil industry handed over to his Arab friends, than I would allow that to happen; so that Americans can see just what kind of person that he really is. Which is someone who cares about American workers and America itself, as he does about his own socks.