OT: 100 Best Companies to Work For - 2007

[Thomas Rogers]

Caymen said:

I have been in more chemical plants, oil refineries, paper mills, shipyards, etc than I care to remember.

I still don't see what that has to do with assuming the unionized status of a privately held manufacturer of commercial and home cleaning, personal care, and home pest control products, like S C Johnson.



TJR

 

[Tom Schindler]

TJR,



Providing that most companies like that produce their own chemicals used in the manufacturing of those cleaning products, I felt it was a safe assumption.





Tom

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Caymen,



I wasn't aware that most companies like that produced their own chemicals these days. I say that because that's the prime thing to outsource. Sure, such companies have R&D chemists that come up with the new formulas, but a smart company will then take their products as forumulated and outsource the production of the required ingredient chemicals in very large volumes. Chemical production isn't a core competency for S C and J, or for J & J, etc.



Might those chemical production companies be unionized? Sure.



TJR

 

[Richard L]

WHAT???? No Wal-Mart??



...Rich

 

[Tom Schindler]

TJR,



You would be suprised the companies that outsource and those that don't. Usually, when your family name is on the bottle, you make the chemicals yourself to make sure they are the best they can be.





Tom

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Caymen says:

You would be suprised the companies that outsource and those that don't. Usually, when your family name is on the bottle, you make the chemicals yourself to make sure they are the best they can be.

I guess that's why Scott's Fertilizer buys its main chemical ingredient in its lawn fertilizer from Honeywell.



P.S. I know that about Scott's and Honeywell, because a friend of mine is the NE regional sales rep (might be NE and Mid-Atlantic) for selling that particular chemical, in bulk, for Honeywell. He has a handful of customers and they each buy multi-million deals each year. I kid him that he has a job that is about as hard as selling high fructose corn syrup to Coca Cola. But I do envy his big house, thirty foot RV, etc, etc. Let's just say he isn't a union guy!



BTW, not much surprises me.



TJR

 

[Tom Schindler]

TJR,



You win. Unions suck, anti-union is the way to go. All companies treat their employees with the utmost respect and the only reason there are unions is because a whole bunch of lazy people were somehow employed at the same place at the same time and a union came in to protect those lazy employees from having to work.



Feel better about yourself?



I am seriously getting sick and tired of you wanting to show myself, and others, how superior you think you are. Personally, I think you are a nice guy, you just need to learn that not everybody is as interested in yourself as you think they are.



When was the last time you worked for the second largest privatly held company in the USA? When was the last time did you work for a company that runs many of the SPR for the US government. What was the last time you worked for a company that supplies the Nuclear industry with fuel?





Didn't think so! Tapping on a keyboard and keeping some company online is tough work...isn't it?





Tom

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Caymen, please calm down.



My comments weren't about winning or losing, Caymen. You made an assertion that three of the top 10 were corps that were unionized. I couldn't find any evidence of that after actually taking the time to look into it. None! Sorry. I tried to see if you were right, and couldn't. I couldn't find even one. I reported back those findings in a very polite way and even encouraged you to show me where I was wrong.



I'm not really anti-union at all. Unions are just fine, in principle. Some unions are less then effective this day and age. But, I am ANTI-BIAS. Your bias seemed to make you assume and then promote a statistic that doesn't appear to be true. I checked into that assumption. That's all.



Then that whole "When was the last time..." line of questioning by you came off as the start of a pissing contest, so sorry if I won't indulge that.



I am also sorry that you are getting "sick and tired of me trying to show how superior I am"...ESPECIALLY since I am not doing that at all.



You made the claim. I looked into it. It seemed to be false. That's YOUR issue, not mine, and clearly NOT me trying to be SUPERIOR.



People say things, and make claims and report on things here. and quite often I ask them about it, or challenge the comments. Not because I need to show superiority. Nope, not at all. So if it's people trying to cheat a ticket, or other people trying to tell some that their opinions don't count, or if its people doing illegal stuff and rationalizing it, well, I'm going to be there questioning that.



Just me keeping it REAL!



Later,

TJR

 

[Tom Schindler]

The assumption I made were the out of the ten were. Numbers 3, 7, and 9. Most, thought not all, of the larger grocery stores are represented by the UFCW. Many hospitals are represented by some other union, and Johnson because of the reasons I listed.



You seem to treat me that I am some dumb union worker that listens to whatever the sterwads tell me and I take it as the gospal truth. That couldn't be farthest from the truth.



I spent 9 years of my life in and out of every possible industrial setting you imagine. From the top of a smoke stack to the put of the basements of a 100 year old factory. I have been in the sonar dome of a naval destroyer to the reactor in a chemical plant. I have seen tires being built all the way to those tires being tested.



Sorry, I not a 40 something man living in a little town in eastern Pennsylvania. Sorry I never got any further than looking into A+ certification and never got into the whole IT field. I guess I prefer to work with my hands in an unsafe environment in the 100 degree summers and 0 degree winters.



As with anything I say, I need to put a disclaimer up, so here goes. I will even make it big so there is no excuse in missing it...



<font size=+5>In no way am I putting you, or anyone else down. We come from different environments and situations. What one of us does that may be technical looks crude to someone else. Those that sit behind desks playing around on MYST.com all day do not have to deal with the things others that work in a factory do, but that doesn't mean you don't work hard.</Font>





Tom

 

[Chad Merry]

I work for the No.2 Lawn and Garden, Insecticide, and fertilizer company in the world. We produce liquids, aerosols, and solid baits, and we dont make any of our chemicals. We buy it all and mix it to make our products. SC Johnson does the same thing, as does Scotts.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Caymen said:

You seem to treat me that I am some dumb union worker that listens to whatever the sterwads tell me and I take it as the gospal truth. That couldn't be farthest from the truth.

Actually, no, I don't treat you that way at all.



I don't think you are dumb.



I do think you are opinionated and have a bias; I think we all do. I wondered if your bias and views might have made you assume that 3 of the 10 companies were unionized so I did some quick research.



The only treatment of you here, in this thread, that I am guility of is checking your assertions and encouraging you to clarify or restate them.



P.S. I NEVER brought up the union theme to this thread. I just posted a list of companies.



P.S.S. I have worked in factories, I joined a laborers union and worked construction, and did other such physical labor to put myself through college so that I could earn a degree that allows me some free time now and then to "sit behind a desk and play around on MYST.com". So please, don't assume we come from different environments and situations and that somehow I can't relate.





Chad, are the guys and gals that mix and make your products part of a union?



TJR

 

[Chad Merry]

Nope

 

[gary s]

i think you guys no where i stand on this issue

 

[Tom Schindler]

Q,



You are soo kewl.





Tom

 

[Michael Martin]

I too work at CarMax - no union! Hey Evan aka ld KUD 50 - Which store do you work at? I'm a sales consultant at 7103 Town Center!

 

[Bill V]

I have to wonder how they determined which companies made the list, and which didn't. Some of the reason that are stated when you click on each company seem pretty banal.



For example, #72, Medtronic, the "What makes them so great" is that "Every year around the holidays, employees gather to hear patients whose lives were improved or saved by Medtronic devices tell their stories. CEO Art Collins calls it 'our most important meeting of the year.' " I work for a competing medical company, and those annual meetings happen throughout the industry--there's nothing unique or special about Medtronic's. If something like this is what's determining the winners, then I give the list very little credence.

 

[Tom Schindler]

Once a year we get a meeting with someone very high up in the US Navy. There is only a couple people above, in rank, this person.





Tom