The Joplin Globe's editorial board has come out in favor of O'Sullivan Industries' emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The Tuesday edition features this hard-hitting editorial. Rumors are it will be followed up by an editorial proclaiming that apple pie is tasty and another saying that puppies are adorable.
Seriously, the part of the Globe editorial that caught my attention was the mention of O'Sullivan's Lamar workforce of 600. It was just a couple of years that the company employed more than 1,200.
Perhaps this would have happened if the Newell Rubbermaid Mafia had not been placed in charge and the corporate headquarters moved from Lamar to an Atlanta, Georgia, suburb. Somehow, it is not difficult to believe that things would have been handled better, and in a far more humane fashion, by the people who preceded Million-Dollar Bob Parker, Rick Walters, and their fellow Newell Rubbermaid expatriates.
Unfortunately, the timing of the Globe editorial could not have been worse, since the message boards at Lamarmo.com have been lighting up with comments about another layoff at O'Sullivan, which supposedly took place earlier today. Hopefully, things are not as bad as they seem
4 comments:
I appreciate your coverage of the situation that has gone on at O'Sullivan's the past couple of years. As you continue to slam the events that have taken place, I have missed any good alternative solutions that you may have recommended. As you mentioned, the workforce is considerably less than it was in during it's peak. I presume that you, as some others, feel the best option would be to close the plant? Ideally, the business would have continued to grow, but the fact is that O'Sullivan Industries was a dying company due to the debt load that it was carrying. I admire the work that you do, so please help me understand what should have been done to save the company and the jobs that are so important to Lamar, Barton County, and the State of Missouri?
Randy it looks as though you may have hit a nerve.
So, did the decrease in sales have to do with the debt load?
Just how many people do they employ in Atlanta?
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