Superior Industry news - so you get a press release and don't even think of asking any more questions?
One of the security officers at the Fayetteville Superior plant would often say to people on their way out the door, “Have a Superior day!” Guess they aren’t having such great days now, with the news that there will be only three Superior plants left operating in the United states.
This interesting paragraph was in the NWA Times article on Saturday:
In addition to the plant closing, the company said in a press release that it would lay off 65 employees at other plants and not fill 90 open positions.
Neil G. Berkman, a spokesman for the company based in California, said," All we're willing to say is (the layoffs ) will be spread out across our employment base in the United States," Berk- man said. "We're not disclosing how many employees we're going to lay off at each individual plant."
And that, as far as the newspaper was concerned, was it. Nothing more to see here, folks. Just move along, now. Because, after all, a press release written by a PR flack is gonna tell all the story, isn’t it?
Maybe the reporter could have written about the Superior plants located in parts of the world, other than Mexico?
Or - and this might have been a lot of fun - maybe someone could have spoken to some of the actual hourly employees here in Fayetteville, to hear what they have to say on the subject, and how concerned they are for their jobs?
Because they are . . .
******
The Day when the Snow Turned Green
I remember the first chemical leak from the Superior Chrome plant in Fayetteville, back in the mid-1990s. Nickel (I believe it was) on top of snow is a pretty shade of green. There were all kinds of media outside the plant gates that day. A plane even flew overhead, getting aerial shots of the garish snow.
Now we can’t even get reporters to look up past the press releases.
*****
War on Crime - Just be glad you ain’t naked!
Standing around the county courthouse in Sayre, Oklahoma, on Wednesday, and a group of prisoners were herded in for arraignment. I guess the county couldn’t afford to keep clean uniforms on hand; some of the striped outfits looked pretty filthy.
And ill-fitting, too. It looked as if a few of the guys’ pants would fall down on the spot.
Nothing like stripping an inmate - whether they’ve been convicted of a crime or not - of their essential human dignity.
****
Quote of the Day
Scientists were rated as great heretics by the church, but they were truly religious men because of their faith in the orderliness of the universe. - Albert Einstein
