Thanks Will,and I hope your nephew finds a new job soon Cathy.My dad may have something lined up so fingers crossed.I hate it when some people (who must have a secure job,or live in a bubble)make comments about the downturn being exaggerated,stating facts like only 10 or 15 % of the working population will end up out of work.But a guy who left precision before xmas had obscene bad luck.He was in the first round on redundancies,but asked if he could stay and leave in the next round a few months later.Of course it was too late to change it,so his request was denied.The reason he asked was that both his wife and daughter worked at Woolworths,and as result, in the space of a few weeks,everyone in his household would be out of work over the xmas period.It just goes to show that sometimes through no fault of your own,some people have no luck at all,just subjected to the sometimes cruel hands of fate

My heart goes out to your Dad lucky, and your nephew Cathi.

Precision antennas just seems like a total fiasco since it was sold, and what is worse there seems to be no support for the many people who've lost their jobs there. Thank you for the continued updates, I wish there was something I could do to help.

At least we've raised awareness of what kind of company precision antennas now is. It's very telling that they banned employees from looking at this site, seems they are trying their best to hide their shame.

Re my letters-2 and 4 times above this one (in February,)
My nephew has today received his reduncancy letter--even though there is lots of work for him......he is the only one in the company qualified to do that particular necessary job.

Well the end of Precision has nearly arrived.My Dad,in the last group to be made redundant,finishes on May 8th.From what he has told me,the farce continues related to the outsourcing of the previous work.A company in Manchester and in China have yet to make a single lens,everything produced so far has had to be scrapped off,plus they have already damaged a very expensive CNC machine in the process.Another machine needs specialist tooling from an European firm,who refuse to send the tooling to China,as they suspect they will steal the design and manufacture them and take their work.I hope the Americans who owned precision come to realise that they should have improved the UK operation and reduced costs,as at least here,they were actually producing something they could sell and not worthless shoddy tat

A well thought out reply to my mail. I hope my thoughts are as logical.
If bosses always came clean and played fairly openly with their employees (ha) things would certainly get better.
With Landrover, it's not only 'them and us ', it's an 'us and them' attitude by
the workforce who don't appear to have put their brains into gear.
Do they really believe the management aren't worried -not only about their own salaries and their own jobs, but for the company in general.

The suicide rate for upper management is notably at a peak in these sort of times. They fall harder.

As you said the money these people would be losing whilst laid off would more than be made up by not having their transport costs for actually getting to work.
They will start flapping and have to think hard (with their own brains) when -if -they close down the plant completely.
80% of wages , (what a great offer! ) is better than 80% of nothing..
And with time to look for another job if necessary at no expense .
And there will be no jobs at all- anywhere -soon.
My nephew has no illusions about his job. They are on a salary -works 8-12 hours unpaid overtime every week-he always has done since he went there, unpaid overtime is in the contract. Think how much free work the company gets from these people.
Why do they do it ?. They need their jobs.--even more now.
Blackmail maybe --but that's how it all is.

Well folks, it only made the letters page but it's a start.
Thanks for your help Will.
I doubt we'll see any more in response sadly.
I think the last post regarding the pay cut is a good point with two viewpoints.
I think 'cathidaw' is quite right in her views on her nephew's plight.
It's all to often the owners and Directors ask for sacrifice by employees or blame labour costs on the troubles of a business, yet take no action to limit their own lifestyle and comforts to the extent they expect the employees to do.
However we also see in this day and age, the bloody mindedness of our society where complete refusal on the employees side such as that at Landrover for example.
I don't know the exact figures, so I apologise if this piece is a little out but baically shows the other point of view.
We see a request prior to Christmas by Landrover management for employees to take an extended paid holiday at a limited wage of 80% I believe. This offer is turned down flat on comments along the lines of management having too many perks etc, and 'I'm not losing money for anyone'.
However when you look at it, the prolonged total shutdown would have saved millions in operational costs far in excess of the costs in wages and extended the employee wage cashflow by some amount to ride out a little more of the storm. Also when you consider 10% of some wages goes toward costs in commuting etc. the drop is not as large as first appears.
Now whilst the Directors have their perks and it is flying in the face of the employees, why does no-one have the common sense to agree to meet in the middle, agree to a drop (because something is better than nothing at all) and place in a priviso that the management return their Mercedes and buy Mondeos or such like before the temporary cuts are totally agreed and put in place.
All parties need to mediate to a far better extent if any business in this country is to survive.

My nephew who works in the South of England for a large engineering company received an 'encouraging' message from his bosses telling all employees that there would be no pay rises in the forseeable future and at present all jobs are safe. However they asked if each one of you would like -as a 'valued loyal employee' to volunteer for a 'temporary pay cut to help the company out in these hard times.'
There was a form to fill in. Tick the box.!! A pay cut of 5%, 10% 15% or 25% .tell us which you will volunteer to offer.
Now this young man has been there for 4 years and was promised a pay rise after the first 3 months, which for some reason never happened even though he applied ,didn't push it - he was glad to get a job. now of course they 'cannot possibly give anyone a rise in this climate..)
In answer to the form he said no but was quite willing to allow them to take his pay cut from the amount he was promised 4 years ago.
Most of the other' 'valuable employees' have said no too, mainly because their caring management 11 in all, have had new company Mercedes cars since Christmas.
I'm sure the employees don't begrudge these jokers their cars but to be asked to take a pay cuts to pay for them---well-- not what one would call sensitive is it?
I await results.

I think we will [i]ALL [/i]await the outcome with much interest. :thumbs2:

That's great news! I was about to write that I haven't heard anything, and then go on to moan about how amazed I am about how little they care. But that's brilliant stuff! I hope they do more than simply reproduce your letter, I shall await the outcome with interest.

Looks like we have a voice.
The editor of the Startford Herald wrote back to confirm address before publishing.
Thanks for the help.
I think she got it twice as my attempt the nest morning wnet through also.
Let's see how the Herald responds?
Cheers

Ok Mark,

I've sent it off for you, let's see what happens.

[quote="Will"]That's a very well written letter, I'm amazed the Hearald hasn't seized the opportunity to print it, and report on some real news for a change. May I suggest you try the Stratford Observor, they seem far more open to reporting on important news like this.

Good luck in getting your letter printed. I'll have a go at sending it to the Hearald myself.[/quote]

Thanks,
it not that they won't print it, it just keeps getting bounced back by mail-demon.
Meanwhile I'll have a go at sending it to the Observer as suggested.
Regards
Mark

That's a very well written letter, I'm amazed the Hearald hasn't seized the opportunity to print it, and report on some real news for a change. May I suggest you try the Stratford Observor, they seem far more open to reporting on important news like this.

Good luck in getting your letter printed. I'll have a go at sending it to the Hearald myself.

This is a letter I have been trying to send to the Stratford Herald but I keep getting it bounced.
Someone copy it and see if they can get it though for print

Dear editor,
It was interesting reading your article concerning the ‘Clever Enterprise’ of Councilor Topham and his colleagues in buying back the Precision Antennas land at such a bargain basement price, however I think we are overlooking a few points in our praise of the councilors alleged business acumen.
As an employee of ‘Precision’ hoping to have a long and continuing future with the company, the whole article comes as an insult.
Firstly the councilor comments on the fact that Precision is moving on and the area has lost the opportunity to create another 160 jobs.
Should the article have actually pointed out that Precision is not in fact moving on, it is closing down at 3 sites, and Stratford is gaining close to 400 unemployed to support?
In this current climate it is unlikely that any but a few will find viable employment.
We also discount the effect on suppliers and other local resources.
Precision was a large scale manufacturer and will have a heavy impact on the engineering infrastructure of the area for some time let alone the effects on the revenue from the rate return the council receives, amongst many others.
Perhaps Mr. Topham would like to take part of the £1.54m profit and come around to Precision to see if there may be some way to help out the unfortunates here who will be jobless for the foreseeable future, perhaps even invest in a new engineering enterprise?
I would also think that there is not much point thinking about a leisure centre if the majority of his constituents do not have the money to go there.
Still I suppose the developers will always make money, one way or another?
Sincerely

What really gets my goat at the moment is all the Graduates bemoaning the fact that they cant find employment and asking for pity as they have gone into debt to the tune of thousands of pounds.To me its just herd mentality,where just because its cool and popular to study for a degree then Ive got to too.Irrespective of the fact they study in a subject for which they will never enter that field in and be of no practical use in their working life.I used to work with someone who like me was a CNC machinist.10 years previously he had achieved a Geography degree.And he was still trying to fiddle his wages so that he didin't go over the earnings limit when you pay back some of your grant/student loan.After 10 years he still owned thousands.What was the point?he never used the degree and still had the debt hanging over him.Maybe the way forward is for more students to actually find employment with a firm covering the cost of the course and hence getting a degree in the subject relevant to the employers needs and buisiness

[quote]Oh, and stop lowering the education standards so we still look like we're clever on paper, if a child is not as clever as another tough, that's the way of the world and that's how it works. Stop worrying about the fact you may upsets the feelings of the child or the parent, life's hard, live with it, it just about to get a lot harder.
Just for starters anyway![/quote]

Rodney, I totally agree with your comment. One of the dangers of molly coddling - call it cotton woolling if it sounds better - is the individual is not prepared for life in the real world as they grow up. It boggles me that we watch, with interest, wildlife programmes and indeed observations by being out and about, animals who learn to deal with life in their play activities. The parent doesn't prevent such activities in case the youngster is hurt and consequently the young animal learns very valuable life skills. Skinned knees from falling off bikes, broken legs from a fall out of a tree house - and I won't go down the conkers route. These things teach children in their play in the same way that baby animals learn in their play some things in life will hurt if you are not careful. I fell off my bike once and skinned my knee badly, but be sure I didn't do it a second time.

With regards to learning in the world of schooling. The lowering of pass standards to avoid hurt feelings is actually doing the child an injustice. It also encourages many who would work harder to achieve a pass easily to lower their standards - why bother with the extra studying and effort when the pass threshold is so low? There will always be a percentage who will give it maximum effort and still be achievers in the traditional sense but the whole practice of lowering pass standards lowers the standard of the achievement.

Life can indeed be harsh/hard, but, I think the time that we are living in is a reminder that we shouldn't sit back when times seem good and think "[i]I'm alright Jack[/i]", things could well get a lot tougher yet before we see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Time for people to return to peeling potatoes and to be thankful for what we do have.