Vise-Grips moving to China.

[Bill Heinbach]

Workers at Neb. Vise-Grip plant told of closure
Employees at decades-old Vise-Grip plant in Nebraska told operations moving to China

Another one bites the dust. Unibit is moving but staying in the US. I wonder how long that will last.

[DougWojtowicz]

Corporate headquarters needs to be smacked with a kinetic dart from low orbit.

[chrisb]

Time to go stock up on the American made ones I suppose.

On second thought, I don't think so. I sent them this email.

I was very sad to see that your company has decided to move it's Vise Grips operations to China. Vise Grips have been used by my family for generations. Luckily for us we have a good collection of these fine pliers, as we will NEVER buy any of your products again. This includes the entire Newell Rubbermaid product line.

Your parent company bought this AMERICAN institution, and are now destroying it. It is shameful, and I for one will no longer be supporting your company. I am a life-long user and customer of many of your fine brands, but this will be the end of all that.

We customers have paid a premium for Vise Grips for a reason. We knew they were a quality item that would last us a long time. We knew we were helping to support American workers when we purchased these tools. We were proud to know that our Vise Grips would not fail us like all the pot metal Chinese junk ripoff versions would.

That is now gone. Why should we pay a dime more for these pliers now? We can buy the $5 Chinese junk and expect the same quality. What does someone in China care about the rich history of this brand? Why will they go the extra mile to protect that name? The answer is they won't.

You have sold out the American public and the American worker. You are killing a fine small town that has been built around manufacturing these pliers and making money for the company owners for generations. This is shameful, and I ask that you please pass this correspondence as far up the line of management as is possible. I am not alone in my frustration at this move.

investor.relations@newellco.com

[Aglifter]

Guys, "Increasing Shareholder Value" is part of it, but a much bigger part is that China gets "favored nation" trading status, and you can't sell a good in China, unless it is made in China.

DC corruption has a great deal more to do w. it, than anything else -- given the bribery and QC problems there, it's actually not usually very cost effective to manufacture in China, if you were able to sell American made goods there.

The stifling effect of the unions, and the ridiculous pension burdens doesn't help either. (It's very inefficient to give workers pensions -- it's much better for everyone, except, usually, the union bosses, to either increase the workers' salaries directly, or have them create IRAs, etc.)

[308Mike]

Oden said employees were told that "to keep the Vise-Grip name competitive, they had to move to China. - not in the US. Most everyone I know buys brand-name tools with good warranties, because they're worth it. If you buy cheap crap, you'll spend more money replacing them when they wear out and/or break.

I'd be interested to hear what kind of a response Chris gets to his email.

[chrisb]

Well, I have not gotten anything yet. I will post if and when I do.

[clyde621]

Chris: Good letter...Wish I had the wordsmith skills like yours.

[308Mike]

Clyde, I didn't use to have that same ability until I had to do a lot of writing for work, and had a good friend who'd rip the shit out of my documents and teaching me how to write good letters.

The only way to improve is to do a LOT of writing, and have a great friend/editor who's willing to work with you on it. The stuff they teach you in college is great for writing papers and being wordy, but it's terrible in the business world.

[Scott Free]

Of course, doing some research in order to understand the actual economic forces involved in the decision -- you know, cause and effect -- would do wonders for directing your anger to the proper party responsible for the outsourcing. (Pssst... I'll save you a little time: look beyond your first impulse, i.e., the greedy evil capitalists. )

[chrisb]

I disagree with that argument Chris. Companies like Vise Grip and Channellock have strong loyal customer bases in this country. They both fly off the shelves at hardware stores across the country. Here was their lame response:

Thank you for your feedback. This was a difficult decision that in no way reflects on the hard work and dedication of our Vise-Grip employees. Consumers in our global marketplace demand quality at ever lower prices, and we were forced to take this action to remain competitive. We appreciate your interest in our Vise-Grip brand, and will share your note with our company leadership.

I am not a union fan, but do we even know if a union was involved here? Was the union given a chance to take a pay cut? It certainly doesn't appear to be the case in this instance.

Certain brands are successful because of their American-made, high quality image. This is especially true with many tool brands. Again, Channellock is a great example. They make premium pliers, just like Vise Grip did, and manage to do very well selling an superior product, right next to cheap Chinese crap competing on the same shelf. Crescent is another good american-made brand of hand tools that compete with inferior crap.

We are talking about a specialty company that has been making these tools for decades. This whole town is based on that fact, and now they are screwed. We consumers are screwed as well.