Tougher Times Ahead

[Mat]

That sucks Dags, will your job be safe? As much as I sound like a *beep*, you gotta look after #1 first....

This is our strongest February since we stareted (about 4 years). January was the same. My staff are also due for a 6% payrise this month.

Interestingly enough, I've had almost 20 really good resume's since Monday and a bucketload of people asking for jobs. People def starting to feel the pressure :(

[hypnodoc]

Not good Dags, bloody horrible having to do that even during the best of times, and I sincerely hope all stays well for your good self.

Being in the Motivation and feel good business, and ironically being the forums officially titled Recession Stooge I will say this.

"All of the positive thinking in the world doesn't come to much when realty rears its often ugly head. It just makes you feel a bit better until the ugliness goes away"

At least we live in a country that has a good social ethos, well better than many others at least.

[Dagabond]

what do you do dags?

I work for Ryco Hydraulics Australia's largest manufacturer of Hydraulic hoses and fittings as a Shift Supervisor/Toolmaker/CAD draftsman/Storeman......./Maintenance/Fitter & Turner/Quality Controller/R&D/after hours IT support/Ear to whinge into/Person that yells and screams a lot/Fire Marshal/5S Supervisor/silly prick that EVERY bastard turns too....and the shell shocked bloke nobody wanted to have tap them on the shoulder this afternoon....

Across Manufacturing, Assembly and Warehousing there was over 60 personal under my supervision...ironic isnt it given what I do on here in my down time...

Given our major supply market is the mining industry you can see how and where we have hit a major hole in the last three months, before Christmas we were struggling to keep up with market demand pumping out fittings 24/7 on over 30 machines with 50-60,000 runs on each machine. Tonight we had 8 running machines with 1000-3000 runs on them and 6 machines in set up phases with 1000-4000 runs on them as well.

The majority of machines we run are Acme-Gridleys these were designed and built in the 40's during the war efforts to manufacture shell casings and the likes and still going strong today. As can be seen in the video below (not one of ours)

Bloody old but bloody efficient...when running at full capacity...

They can take up to 24 hours to set and on a 1000 run using a six spindle machine with probably 2 sets for the run (1 set being 6 bars of 2400 long mild steel hex or round) they finish a job in 8 hours.

Unfortunately the decision makers/bean counters upstairs called the shots and went with whoever was the cheapest to pay out, with no communication as to who we thought would be the best workers to keep, so we lost a number of great workers with a wealth of experience we will never replace when dealing with the machinery we run. But I guess thats how it's gotta play in the current climate.

Sorry for the long winded reply...bloody good to vent though...and hopefully I wont be posting to much more in this thread...

At least we live in a country that has a good social ethos, well better than many others at least.

If Rio Tinto and the like sellout to China like its looking, we will be owned by them within a few years and under communist ruling before we know its hit us...it wont be a communist government but we'll still be under they're control...

We are also in the hands of these negotiations atm as well...

AUSTRALIA'S once-triumphant iron ore and coal miners are facing price cuts of between 30 and 50 per cent, which would slash export income by the equivalent of 4 per cent of GDP and increase the likelihood of recession.

Secret annual iron ore contract negotiations are under way at Baosteel's Shanghai steel works and Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are on the back foot for the first time in six years.

Zou Jian, a director of the China Iron & Steel Association and head of the China Metallurgical Mines Association, told BusinessDay that benchmark iron ore price cuts of 30 to 50 per cent would be "reasonable" — on top of eliminating a large "freight premium" handed to Australian miners last year.

Australia's coal negotiators face an even tougher battle because of their dependence on the crippled markets of Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

Australia earned $31 billion from exporting iron ore last year and $46 billion from coal.

"The lost export revenue from cutting iron ore prices by a third and coal prices by a half would be equivalent to 3.8 per cent of GDP," said ABN Amro economist Kieran Davies.

"It is unprecedented in the postwar period for Australia to have this big a shock to income," he said, with the exception of the wool price spike associated with the Korean War.

Australian miners privately say a 30 per cent iron ore price cut would be unacceptable but they concede this year's talks are the most unpredictable in decades.

They are taking place against a backdrop of surging Chinese resources investment, which some say could save thousands of Australian mining jobs and others say could compromise Australia's future price bargaining power.

Last I read it had gone out to a 60% cut...

[senna_T]

Farken near sighted bean counters! With the skilled employees you've lost dags, there is a good chance the compnay will be cost more money due to in-experience/incompetance....

[tab]

That's just f*cked, sorry to hear Dags.

You're spoton about China, won’t be too long before we are all speaking cantonese....just like our prime minister

[Iconic Bionic]

How true is it. Throughout Sydney you cant go anywhere now without having to deal with someone who only speaks limited English and the difficulties this causes.

I.B.

[RHR]

So dags how do you do it. I bet its the hardest job telling someone that they have to go

[Dagabond]

Fortunately I wasnt the one to take them through the actual process and details, I dont think I could have done it.

But I was the one to pull them off the floor and asked each one if they wanted me in the room for them unfortunately none of them said no...so I got to go through the process multiple times I just hope that we dont have to do any more in the near future. All of the guys were great about it and all understood why it was happening and surprisingly fairly upbeat about it all. Although a couple of guys were a bit upset as they were TWO WEEKS short of being eligible for seven years long service pro rata.

Silly part is we have one guy who wants to take a package and go but he's been there longer and his payout would be larger so the ones that didnt have a say in it go and he has to stay....for the time being.

[RHR]

Surely you could keep the bloke with 2 weeks to go.

[Dagabond]

Decision was made and they werent going to reverse it, they started to bleat on a bout how they made decisions for the best way for the company to move forward I immediately shot that down and pointed out that I was never consulted as to who would be the best people to keep on and that one of the guys in question was one of my best workers having progressed from being an operator up to a setter in a very short period of time.

They have said they are going to look at it this week so hopefully they will reverse the situation for one of the guys....but given they like to stand on the principle of 'They did it for him why not me' I'm not getting my hopes up to far.