So, point number one, it's REAL. And it shows they planned to deceive EVERYONE.
Why should ANYTHING they say hold water?
If they've been VERY OPEN ABOUT THEIR PLANS, why didn't they announce THIS plan last May?
Well, here's their statements from yesterday's Eagle story, and this is part one, about the story:
Hawker Beechcraft spokesman Andrew Broom said the company would not confirm the strategy outlined in the document.
"We have internal documents that are plans and analysis, and we don't always go forward on all of those," Broom said.
The company has been "very open about our plans in Mexico," he said.
And here's part two, the spin:"The real story is what's going on in Wichita," Broom said.
In the past 12 months, Hawker Beechcraft has added 1,287 employees, he said. There are currently 700 open positions.
"So regardless of any plans in Mexico, we are growing like crazy here," Broom said.
And...Hawker Beechcraft lags other planemakers in opening facilities in Mexico, Broom said.
"We are well behind the times," he said.
The "everyone else is jumping off the ledge" argument.Now, remember that HBC was approached about this Monday evening, before the story broke. By Tuesday, they had the lawyers and spin doctors huddled, and the smooth "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" spin emerged.
Here's their spin from the KAKE article/video:
Company spokesman Andrew Broom said that it's a non-story and the proposal is from over a year ago that didn't come to fruition.
The fact that it was even considered internally, while telling the public that only low-skilled work was being outsourced is upsetting to the union.
Broom said the company is growing in Wichita with 700 job openings now, after adding 1,200 locally last year.
He also said the company will always look for ways to save money.
And last, here's the spin from the KSN article/video:Instead, Broom says the company opened a small facility in Mexico in October. Initially it would have 250 jobs with the possibility to grow to 650 positions. He says the company has been very open about that move.
Broom claims the new plant south of the border has had no impact on Wichita. He points to the fact that the company has hired more than 1,200 people over the past year in Wichita and says they are hiring to fill 700 positions.
It's great they've been open about the move. If you look at slide 44 of the presentation, it's according to plan:
Announce Decision to Establish a Small HBC Facility in Mexico To Expand Our Manufacturing Capacity
- Our Increasing Business Local Labor Constraints Necessitate Additional Capacity Other Than Wichita
- Part of Our Aggressive New Investment & Growth Plans to Meet Future Demands (22$M in ICT, $12M in Little Rock, India Service Center ect)
- We Will Establish a Small Low Technology HBC Owned and Managed Manufacturing Facility in Mexico
- With Increased Assembly Manpower Demands We Do Not Anticipate any Impact to Existing Wichita Workforce
- Never mention the potential of Full Aircraft Assembly
- Caveat Announcement with Longer Range Plans To Grow Work Content To More Complex Parts and Assemblies Based On Market Conditions - Let's Only Announce this once!
- Growth Plans Also Include In-sourcing Work to HBC Mexico From Other Existing Suppliers.
Looks to us like it's right on track. How is it not?
Bottom line: This is nothing but dishonest spin.
Hawker Beechcraft owes the Legislators, taxpayers and employees the TRUTH.
7 comments:
I was at the town hall meeting with Plant Manager Mike Hammond on Tuesday June 24th. He was asked if he would like to comment on the article about the plant that was in the morning edition of the Wichita Eagle that day. He said he hadn't read the article. He is in charge of what goes on in Mexico. And he knew nothing about any work and final assembly going to Mexico.
It appeared to me that he did some dancing around the question. Plus if it is true that he doesn't know (which I doubt) Then even his bosses the SLT aren't keeping him in the loop either. What a sad state of affairs when the people who are supposed to be in the know don't know. But I feel he was doing his best to not answer the question. So the best way to not answer is to play stupid. He did a fine job from my point of view.
Let's not forget the Brothers and Sisters of the Union in Salina. They Project only talks about the jobs or head count coming from Salina sounds like Salina will lose all of it's work all together.
I'm curious why you feel that Union employees need to know any of the strategic planning done by this company?
You state, "...why didn't they announce THIS plan last May?"
I'm sure they go through dozens if not hundreds of business scenarios a year. If they had to run every proposal through the Union I'm sure it would cripple the company more than the Union currently does.
Also, why do you ignore the part of the presentation that states, "With Increased Assembly Manpower Demands We Do Not Anticipate any Impact to Existing Wichita Workforce..."
I imagine you ignore this part of the proposal because it is much more fashionable to run around like Chicken Little informing all your other Union brothers and sisters that the sky is falling!
I for one hope you do strike. The way your members live paycheck to paycheck it won't be long before you're begging for the scraps from the table.
But since this post has to be approved by you, I imagine it will never see the light of day.
Good luck with your strike and enjoy your $35 a day stipend your beloved Union will bestow upon you.
First, as long as a comment is reasonable and respectful, we'll allow it. But, daring us not to is kind of silly, too.
Second, this company, as well as all the other aircraft companies, gets incentives from state and local government. That's taxpayer money, and they've made assurances to the future employment, and they've obviously been deceptive in those assurances.
The city and state has put a TON of money into a new training center for Wichita, to be built at Jabara.
They said we need more trained workers, and the city is taking care of that, aren't they?
Let's talk about the impact: You should know that this industry is cyclical, and historically, it's been boom and bust.
Right now, there is plenty of hiring. But as parts, assemblies and maybe whole airplanes are sent to Mexico, when they slow times come, there will be no jobs left here. We've seen it time and again. During the good times, the move the machinery out, and they tell the operators they won't be affected, that they'll just be moved to another area. But those jobs are gone forever.
It's like a game of musical chairs. When the music stops, the jobs will be in Mexico and Wichita will be left with nothing.
This is your community too. Are you so pro-company and anti-union that you'd enjoy seeing Wichita become a ghost town just to spite us?
You may not like unions, but corporations have lawyers, PR flacks, industrial associations and plenty of others to speak for them. The working men and women only have the unions to speak for them. We have a place. These things need to be said, and someone needs to speak truth to power. It's the American way.
What bothers me here is this only seems to be talking about Wichita and that bothers me. I work in the Salina Hawker plant and what most people are failing to mention here is that the jobs that are mostly being effected is the jobs from Salina, yes there are jobs leaving the plants in Wichita going to Salina but just as fast as they are moving them in they are moving them out.
I see cart after cart of parts go past me everyday to shipping to be sent to Mexico. The reason you do not see Salina menitoned to much in the Pelican Project is because there will not be a Salina plant if they continue with the plan that they say is old news and not current. That is pure BS and anyone who says it is not is totally delusional. Salina does not have the option to go to another aviation company like Wichita does.
Uh, when you open a power point it puts the current date on it. So who ever printed the document and scanned it did it on May 19th. So someone sat on this for a few weeks...
Not necessarily. It may also mean that's when they held an update meeting on Project Pelican.
It's one big web of deception from Hawker Beechcraft. Read the document, it's a road map and we're right where they planned to be one year later. Nothing's changed.
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