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by Alexvale Furniture...it's a subsidiary of Kincaid Furniture, which is a subsidiary of LaZBoy. Up until a few years ago it was locally owned, but the owners sold it to Kincaid. They've laid off at least 2 dozen people here since the so called election - and right before the Xmas closing (saving money by not having to pay the Xmas bonuses). They laid off a lot of the higher wage earners and long time employees - like supervisors and lead people who had been with the company close to 20 years. They've been laying people off for a while now, in fact our plants had been doing some of the Pennsylvania House manufacturing after they had closed plants down here in NC. Please, everyone - if you plan on buying any furniture investigate and do not buy from any company in the LaZBoy corporation. These include but aren't limited to LaZBoy, Kincaid Furniture, Pennsylvania House, Alexvale Furniture, American Drew, Clayton Marcus, Hammary Furniture. They don't give a shit about the people who are doing the actual work, yet the top executives (at Kincaid anyway) are making a million a year (some 2 mil and more) and plenty of benefits - like paid insurance, etc. and other perks. The plant workers are on production, get 3 paid holidays a year (not including the vacation week of Jul 4 and bonus week of Xmas - if you'd been there long enough and qualified), and they have to pay "part" of their own insurance (I was paying over $200 per month just for me and my husband) and get treated like crap because the corporate honchos are so concerned about making money. BTW, the average hourly wage of the women in the sewing depts was about 12-14 $$ per hr.; cutting dept., about 16-22 $$ per hr.. And none of the depts were getting 40 hrs a week. If you figure a yearly wage of one million per year at 52 weeks (after all, we know THEY'RE getting paid vacations) even at 60 hrs per week that's over $300 per hour. As a plant secretary I (after 2 yrs) was making $9.00 per hr. A couple of weeks ago I ran into the sewing supervisor (who after one supervisor and two lead people were laid off was supervising over 50 people) and she told me about one of her employees, a long time employee...she and her family had been called to the hospital by her mother's doctor because her mother was dying. The employee asked her if it was ok for her to go or would she be laid off because she would not be at work, or if she should come to work instead. When someone is afraid to go to their parents' deathbed because they might get laid off things have gone too far. There are virtually no other employers in this area except furniture. And furniture is dying due to the destructive policies of this govt. No one around here is hiring much at all - and I mean in about a 30 mile radius of my hometown.
Oh, and a lot of these people working in these plants voted for you know who - because he's a "good christian" ... HA, sure you betcha.
One man at work told everyone that if they voted for Kerry they were communists. I was harassed by this old guy regularly, but I gave as good as I got. (He didn't like that, he goes to the church that has a sign over the door saying women who are wearing pants aren't welcome - that is not a joke it is real and factual). Last year, when the Iraq war was beginning I expressed disapproval and questioned the so called evidence - very mildly since I know how uninformed and jingoistic these people are - I had my car keyed the next day - my new car. I was treated like a pariah, whispered about and in general treated like an outcast in junior high school hell. I didn't grow up around here (thank the gods), but I was born here, and I've got over 250 years worth of dead direct line relatives in a couple of graveyards right up the road (right up the road is about a 45 minute drive around here!) I was afraid to put a Kerry sticker on my car for a long time. When my husband put one on his truck, the first one got torn off, the second one got a Bush sticker stuck over it. Both in the WalMart parking lot. Sorry this is such a long post, but I've been really disheartened and frustrated since Nov 3 and it's just getting worse. I feel isolated and opressed because I cannot get anyone that I dare talk to to understand how serious this is...and I include my mother in law who is an educated woman, from an educated family. I know everyone thinks I'm a conspiracy fruitcake. My husband agrees with me, but says I'm obsessed - and I am, because I see the fascist theocracy taking hold, and I cannot bear to see the Orwellian nightmare our country has become. What's next...are we going to have to have big L's or D's tattooed on our wrists? I'm angry and I'm scared and I feel totally alone out here in the right wing boondocks.
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