You don't build a house with 1" x 1" wood.

[APPLE314]

When you frame a house you use 2x4 2x6 2x10 lumber. You don't do it with 1x1 sticks. This is what your leaders are asking you to do. How can you compete in this world's economy with people who do not have the required skills?

I was a Quality Control manager in a textile factory. We had 27 illegals working for us. Over half of them did not speak English. That was not the big problem though. Our problem was that 1/4 of them could not read their own language. What chance do you have when 30% of your work force is illiterate?

One day in May one of our people came to me with a note that I know someone else had written, because I knew that he was illiterate. The note said in broken English - My father is going to be sick in September. Can my wife and I have our jobs back when we get back in January?

This is what I call a 1x1 type employee. There's very little you can do with 1x1's, even though they may work hard, your chances of winning with this hand are very very slim.

When I complained to the owner he said, with his finger in my face " You are either for us , or against us." . I said, just before he fired me " If I follow your orders , I am neither one."

Our factory is now closed, having tried and failed with the Slave Labor route. There is work to be had for anyone interested, in cutting weeds, in the parking lot. That's an easy job now because there are no cars there to get in the way.

I worked over 50 years of my life and I have seen and done it all but it saddens me to look around and see that America has joined into this mad mad race to the bottom and has agreed not to win.

We can stop this mad dash into oblivion if we just stand up and be Americans.

The America I know is 5% of the world's population, 25% of the world's economy and I believe we can do better for our children and grandchildren than we currently are.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

1. That's really surprising.

When was this, and where were the workers from? The literacy rate in Mexico these days is around 90%. I think it's even higher than that for men.

[enfield collector]

3. I don't doubt you, however we seem to be getting the 10%

that vincente fox doesn't want. he's doing a slightly more humane "ethnic cleansing" by sending his undesirables to el norte.

[FloridaPat]

2. Thanks for sharing about the other side of the coin, so to speak.

What a hard way to run a factory. Do you have any insight or opinion why the factory closed? Was it from internal problems, or just so much cheaper to send the jobs overseas?

[tech3149]

4. Welcome Aboard Apple

There are a lot of us out here with stories that parallel yours. I spent 15 years trying to save the last company I worked for from itself. It wore me down and I haven't worked for the last three years. I can't understand the mentality of managers and owners that don't understand that quality employees are worth their weight in gold. Whatever the business, it's much easier to do quality work with quality employees.