Bose to layoff 160 at Blythewood (South Carolina) plant

[UpInArms]

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1651957

Blythewood) Feb. 18, 2004 - The Bose Company has announced that it will move one of the products currently made in Columbia to a plant in Mexico.

Company officials were in town Wednesday for a meeting with employees. WIS News 10 spoke with several of the employees in the meeting. They told us the company plans to layoff 160 workers in March.

...very short newsblurb...

[gmoney]

1. I understand Bush's statement...

when he said the recovering economy would create 2.6 Million jobs this year, he was referring to creating jobs in Mexico, India, China, Honduras...

the race to the bottom continues.

[Sugarbleus]

2. So true, gmoney... great reply. Sad for our workers though..eom

[kysrsoze]

5. I feel bad for the workers, although Bose equipment generally sucks

It's overpriced, pseudo-hifi equipment. It's no wonder they don't sell anything with the prices they charge. $300 for a tabletop radio w/o a CD player is ridiculous. There is way too much great sounding, affordable equipment out there. I haven't even been overly impressed with a lot of their factory car systems either.

Maybe if they charged a fair price, the demand for their equipment would increase, thereby sparing their workers' jobs. Is it bad economics or just plain bad business decisions?

[Elwood P Dowd]

12. Bose is overpriced junk

Now it's going to be even more overpriced and an even bigger pile of junk. Besides that $75.00 radio they sell for $300.00, they make these little Mickey Mouse speakers with a $3.00 full range driver in them along with a $2.00 crossover in a plastic box, and they sell the damn things for hundreds of dollars. Bose = the biggest ripoff in the history of audio!

[kysrsoze]

17. Monster Cable is a similar ripoff

$130 for a 12 ft component video cable? People are getting shucked badly for stuff like Monster Cable and Bose equipment. These companies deserve to lose business. Again, I feel extremely sorry when the workers suffer.

As a public service, Acoustic Research cables are as good or better than Monster and cost half as much. You can get it at Best Buy. And you don't need any of this high-end cable if your entire system cost $300.

Avoid Bose at any cost. There was a time when they made phenomenal speakers like the 901s, but those days are dead and gone. We can now put Bose completely out of business after it screwed both its customers and its workers.

[4morewars]

3. Of all the third world countries...

the USA is my favorite !!
I was just about to bye a BOSE stereo, but I don't think i will now. Not only will I not bye it, I am going to call them and let them know !!! Who is going to bye any of this stuff if none of us has a job ???? :wtf:

[chasqui]

4. Yes, and NAFTA is good for the US economy

Today, listening to news radio 780 in the Chicago area, they had one of their 'economists' trotted out to say how BAD for the US economy going against outsourcing would be. This was, of course, immediately after their reporting of the stances that Kerrey and Edwards had on this issue.

[4morewars]

6. If you think it's bad now....

wait untill they fast track the FTAA !!!

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[waywest]

8. Bose a big Hate Radio advertiser

Limbaugh/and I think hannity?
I own a Bose product, (before I knew) and won't shed a tear when they go down. Sorry for the employees, but not the company. There.

[kskiska]

10. I know someone who works there

My son-in-law's childhood friend relocated there from Connecticut. I'll have to find out whether he's still got a job.

[Oreegone]

13. Dammit...

Maybe the Southerners who are losing jobs quicker than a star next to a black hole will finally see the light....how many jobs do they have to lose anyway?

[Elwood P Dowd]

14. The south is getting clobbered

Textiles, electronics, tools, information technology, agriculture, you name it, and the jobs are either leaving or illegals working for peanuts take them. Universities are even importing engineering professors from India and China because they will work for $30,000 a year less than Americans.

[Atlant]

15. Don't count on it.

And, as you'll recall, the one guy who was speaking the truth about
the reality of the common interests between Democrats and Southerners
was pilloried for it.

Atlant

[SCDem]

16. I conducted a Lead Safety Training at that plant

The plant is real clean inside and they tested their workers often for lead levels and had a good policy for workers that were found to have even slight lead levels... a model company in those respects. It sure is sad and unfortunate that BOSE is downsizing and moving to Mexico.

South Carolina is really hurting for jobs... one county about a half hour north of the BOSE plant has an official unemployment rate of 12.6%.

[Atlant]

18. You know, though, they did (and will) vote for Bush.

> South Carolina is really hurting for jobs... one county about a half
> hour north of the BOSE plant has an official unemployment rate of 12.6%.

You know, though, they did vote for Bush. And probably will do so again.

We could spend 1,000 replies speculating on why, but apparently, for
some people, God, guns, and gays* is more important than keeping food
in the children's mouths.

Atlant


*And one more topic that Randy Newman once sang about,
but that I won't mention here.

[SCDem]

19. Oh yeah I agree

I live here though so I just have to hold on to hope. If I write the state off entirely that would be no way to live.

Yeah my husband works in a union shop just above the state line in NC. There are so many guys at his work that voted for Bush in 2000 just because "Gore is gonna take away our guns." My husband works on his fellow employees though, brining in articles or just spouting off the facts (job losses etc) that they seem to ignore.