People Remembered - Gussie Jones

People Remembered

Gussie Jones

       After discharge from service, where I served in the Army Combat Engineers, I thought I had met the toughest people in the world. Here were men who, with a bayonet, would crawl on their stomachs and search, using their knife, probe just ahead of their position to find land mines, work around the clock to pour concrete for a needed runway, use explosives to demolish buildings or other obstacle, build bridges over roaring rivers at night prior to the main troops arrival. Tough Men! (long before women were allowed in combat situations.)

     I went to work for a family owned business in East Tennessee in a town called Soddy. That says it all. There I met some of the finest people I have known. They were work hardened mountain people who, for the most part, considered outsiders very untrustworthy. They lived hard. In many homes , the restroom was in a shack outside, lighting was by lanterns, laundry was done in large iron pots over a fire outside. A wringer washer and indoor plumbing and power was akin to owning a Cadillac. Heat in the homes was by firewood or coal dug from their property. The men worked farming or logging and the women worked in factories.

     If you drove around the area, which I did not recommend, you would find in many yards a car under a large tree with a chain running from a large branch to the car. The car would be on blocks and usually had someone working on it. These cars were being outfitted with huge rebuilt engines and very heavy suspension to haul local liquid products over the mountain and to outrun the law. This was the beginning of NASCAR. 

    The first day on the job, I was introduced to Gussie. She was about 5' 10" and big. At first, you might think she was fat until you saw her lift huge loads because she thought hand trucks was sissy. Her main job at the plant was sewing.We talked a lot over the years and learned to respect one another.

     One time, I asked her about her life and she told me that she worked at the plant to have a work address for the Government. Her main income was from using sweet corn they grew to make whiskey. She brought me a sample one day in a Bell glass jar. It was clear as pure water. When you opened the jar, you could see  fumes. A taste was really something akin to pure fire. She told me that her family ran  whiskey only for local folk. She was angry at those competitors who made whiskey for the alcoholics over the mountain. She told me that her competition would put dead animals and other chemicals in the mash to make it work faster.

     One day, as I was coming to work, I saw an ambulance with its lights flashing up by the railroad tracks. Southern Rail Road had a main line by the plant. The line came from up hill, down and around a long curve to come into Chattanooga. I asked Gussie what was going on. She said that I would probably see this ever so often because when someone did not pay for their wholesale liquor,  cheated someone, or snitched to the law, they went to sleep and laid themselves across the Southern rails so the train would do the execution work for the aggrieved. 

     At that time we, along with most all the furniture industry, paid "piece work". It seemed the American thing to do by paying a person for the work they personally did. (Bad idea!!) Gussie prided herself in her speed in sewing so much that after work we had to cut the thread she had added to the motor pulley in order to increase the machine speed well past its limits. She was absolutely and unequivocally the best and meant to keep it that way every day. The Federal Government had just written laws for OSHA for safety in manufacturing. Tennessee had petitioned to assume the inspections. At the plant we were trying to conform.

     One day, I got a call from the office that two gentlemen, they called "suits", were in the office to see me. I went upstairs and was greeted with the presentation of two identification badges. One was a Federal OSHA inspector and the other was the state OSHA trainee inspector. They advised they were there to make a formal inspection of the plant for safety violations.

    The first area they wanted to visit was the sewing department. The good Lord was again watching over me. So we started down the sewing line and they proceeded to stop at Gussie's machine. They had their hands between her vision and the needle and were discussing how a guard should be placed on the needle. Gussie tried to push them away. They didn't get the hint. The machine started slowing down. They still didn't get the hint and had their hands blocking her vision. The machine stopped. Gussie reached down into her bag beside her and pulled out one of the largest guns I have seen. She told them in the most unladylike words to get their blankety - blankety out of her way and get out of the plant or she would execute them on the spot. I think I fainted.

    Two suits scurried out of the plant and left a trail of tire smoke as they drove away. I would imagine it was hard for them to explain why they were run out of a plant by the employees they were trying to keep safe. During my time there, I don't recall another visit from OSHA.

    There are many other stories about Gussie. I left that plant for supposedly bigger and better things, but I will never forget Gussie Jones. I take her with me in my memory where ever I go. 

    

Stupid Manager

Those of you that know me, know I am old. The term is "old foggy" I think. Being old, sometimes I think I've seen it all. Sometimes I hope I've seen it all, then I am brought back to reality.

Here is what happened - again. I know a person hired into a company about seven or so years ago. This person has a superior education background as well as a good work history. The person was promoted from menial engineering assignments through the ranks to achieve a VP level in the company. At each step or phase in the career, the results are amazing. 30%, 45% improvements in productivity, profits up, people working for this person are productive and happy, growth is managed at 25% per year.

Consequently the company was doing well.

Never in six years did the boss ever say thank you for a job well done. Yes, there were merit increases and the 'golden handcuffs' were snapped in place. If something in a department managed went a bit off, all hell would break loose. The boss would proclaim this person stupid, lazy, not focused enough, not diligent enough, etc. I can attest no comment was ever true.

As the company grew, a legion of VP's  in Sales, Marketing, Office Administration, IT,  Operations Management et al were hired along with their requested assistants, office mini kingdoms, cars, country clubs, travel first class, premier hotels, etc. In the area of this manufacturing person's responsibility, no one was hired. No one was needed. Sales, Marketing, Finance grew exponentially while manufacturing continued their productivity improvements and yielded the profits.

With the downturn, came the cuts. And, as usual, manufacturing took most all the cuts. Sales, Marketing, and Finance headcount continued as nothing had happened. Had Sales and Marketing managers been doing their jobs, there would have been no downturn for that company. Overhead had grown, sales were down, consequently profits vanished. The Manufacturing people were given Hell for it. It was not their fault. This old axiom states, "You can never cut costs fast enough to achieve a permanent quick return to  profit." That should have been known by anyone with any intelligence.

Every time a company does not make it's numbers, the first action taken to fix the company's profits is to cut personnel. It is seldom the personnel being cut are the fault that stupid over paid managers made dumb mistakes. God forbid they should be fired.

Cuts were mandated again and manufacturing was to take another hit. The VP would be put back into production supervision and the staff in manufacturing including experienced techs, engineers, and managers would be laid off.

With that pronouncement, this person's will to see the company succeed and grow - ended. The spark simply died, never to return to this excellent manager at this company.

Still employed? Yep! But, rather then focus on new better, faster and more efficient methods for manufacturing in this company, the day is spent on networking, polishing a resume, researching other companies, etc.

The stupidity and lack of management skills killed another great, profitable employee. Now the cubicle is filled with another warm body, another hundred thousand of overhead that is mentally unable to give anymore to the company because of the stupid management's inability to say "Thank you!", or "Great job!"

This is another company that needs a good house cleaning from the top down. But, I would think it too late. I think with this persons departure at some point coupled with the other really dumb managers remaining, this once great company will be another footnote in manufacturing history soon.

Take off the blinders.

I grew up in Tennessee. Mules wore what was called blinders to focus their vision directly to the path in front of them. This prevented outside distractions.

When business is great, blinders makes sense in order to increase profitability. However, when business drops, you need to remove the blinders. I had recommended to a company I am privileged to work with that they outsource part of a large contract job they had received to another company I had also worked with. The manager made a call to the company I knew had available equipment, and personnel to do the job. He was told by someone in the office, "We don't do any contract work."

I could not believe this response!

Each company needs to make an assessment of their strengths, their equipment, and their people to see what other business could be obtained to fill the voids in the current business lull. And, under no circumstance should potential business be turned down until all the key people in the company decide that there is no way it could be done. A person turning down business today needs to be replaced unless there is no way it could be done in the plant.

If you are the company that turned down good business you could have done, George says, "Shame on you!"

I have been thinking about this "Stimulus" package. I did not see anything that is going to promote manufacturing, or mining, or agriculture. These are the ONLY three things that create real wealth. If you desire, see the economics part of my book "China's War on the American Economy."

If we fund a new bridge, the crew is hired, the bridge built, and the job goes away. During this time the person building the bridge weekly buys his or her smokes, a six pack, and spends the rest - after taxes - on their family. In a few months they are unemployed again. There is also a lot of money to be spent on political friends, I'm sure. What will they do with their cash to create more real jobs? More houses in the Hamptons, Aspin? When those are built, then what?

It really goes back to the old saw, "Give a man a fish and he will be hungry again soon (and vote for more of the same), or teach him to fish and he will be self sustaining. (Not beholden to anyone?) Would not good manufacturing jobs be a real long term stimulus? Particularly if they are in America?

How about a tax reduction on business to 10%. And, a tax reduction to zero in blighted areas for a specific time for real value adding manufacturing? Nahhhhhh that's too simplistic.

Interesting to see companies in Houston departing to headquarter in other countries where the tax burden is less. I was told that Exxon pays more in tax to the US Government than they earned in their US business. About six months ago Emirates Air flew a couple of times into Houston. Now, daily. People are leaving California at the rate of 100,000 per year to flee taxes. People will move to get away from taxes. One reason I'm in Texas.

So lets cover our deficit of 5 trillion by raising taxes more. Soon, those remaining will be working for one huge government and paying their full wages as a tax to pay for the government they work for. If you are the last one out, I doubt if you will have to turn off the lights. They have been turned off for a long time already!

Your thoughts?

Mexico

Six or seven years ago, I was fortunate to have worked with a manufacturing company in Mexico. The plant I was working with was located in the central part of Mexico with a workforce of about 400. They were at work by 7AM and, as I left the plant at 7PM many were still working. Saturday was no exception. The wages were meager to say the least at that time. The city was clean, organized, and relatively safe. I vividly recall about 2 PM one day, having to go to the office and ask the AC be turned on as my skin had turned bright red and was not sweating. Yet, the people remained hard at work in the plant. I was told that "You get used to it."

The economy was governed by the very wealthy, there was little or no middle class, and a huge working class, living under Catholic education, and producing more working class. Due to pay and living conditions in the US and Canada, it was a given - from any study of economics - that there would be a push by the people to balance the incomes of the Americas. After all, the value added by an employee in Mexico was just about as much as that value being added in the US and Canada. yet the wages north of the border were ten to fifteen times higher.

With China coming to the fore with wages ten times lower then Mexico, the Mexico jobs went to China as did most manufacturing jobs in the US and Canada. This sucked the main producer of wealth into China from North America.

This left those very hard working Mexicans with families and no way to adequately feed and clothe their children. There were two options, first to flee across the border to America and Canada, which has been estimated I believe to be about 5+ million people, and take jobs that no one else wanted to do. Roofing, gardening, slaughterhouse work, construction, pouring and working concrete, all come to mind.

Still, there remained a large workforce that did not want to leave their homes and come north to work crossing a dangerous border to do so. With the push in South America to limit the drug trafficking from South America direct to the US, the road was opened up to go through Mexico. The loss of jobs in Mexico left an intelligent, willing, hardworking, and certainly able group of people to go into the underground armies of smuggling drugs north. After all drug smuggling to an affluent market in the US paid very well.

Now, not only are the major Mexico cities located on the major drug routs controlled by these underground armies, they are now moving and targeting resistance in the US and Canada. I read today where the police chief in Juarez, south of El Paso resigned because of the in ability to protect his officers.

Having worked in manufacturing for all of my career, I know the devastation caused in families by our present drugs of choice, cigarettes and alcohol. I have seen many a good career ended. So, consequently, I do not take the solution I propose lightly.

The founding fathers of the US believed in individual freedom and individual responsibility. There are some remaining in the US that still believe that our founding fathers were right, though the light is flickering and about to go out. In the early 20th century, we, the citizens of the US, started turning our responsibilities over to our government. This included taking care of our neighbors and educating our children among other things. For giving up these responsibilities, we gave up some of our freedom. We chose federal taxation to remove some of our compensation for our work effort to pay our government to do these things for us. Once this started, it never stops. Did you ever hear of any government that has reduced its scope, income, and reach into the lives of its people. (China?).

Now, because our government believes it has the soul responsibility for protecting its people, because they are basically irresponsible, for their own protection, we spend billions of dollars, fill up our jails, and are destroying Mexico by our total focus on protecting our people from the use of drugs. We tried this with alcohol back in the 1930's, and we have tried it with cigarettes - to little or no avail.

Let's get serious and face it. No government can legislate morality. Borne in an immoral world, either we learn what our family stands for morally as young children, or we go the way of our immoral world. Given our present view of instilling legislated morality in Wall Street where Stanford and Madoff are shining examples, to our federal government where numerous appointees have failed to pay their taxes, to our state government where senate seats are attempted to be sold to the highest bidder; we have hard examples of legislated morality. Consequently, we have no example that our war on drugs will bear any more fruit than our education system, government regulation, churches, or society in general has on achieving and enforcing morality.

Yet, like you, I have no desire to pay anymore to the government to medically assist those that have injured themselves by knowingly to have taken or consumed alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs. This means that if you wanted to take the personal risk to ride a motorcycle (without a helmet, the docs call them organ donors), you must have covered yourself personally for insurance to take care of you medically should have an accident. The same is in effect in order to drive a car in the US. This is a simple act of personal responsibility. It is not a society responsibility. Likewise, the same for alcohol, cigarettes, and - if you desire -drugs. If you knowingly do something that impacts you personally, you should pay for the act yourself.

This means that if you have to get medical attention for ingesting some chemical you know was dangerous and, because of your individual freedom, did it anyway, you should be individually responsible enough to have medical coverage or damage coverage to have protected yourself with insurance.

So what does this have to do with Mexico and the US situation? Simple, admit we have lost the drug war, that we can not stop our citizens from using their individual freedom, (listed under our Bill of Rights) to use what ever they really want, as long as it doesn't impact the individual freedom of another citizen.

Therefore, let our drug stores sell taxed drugs and call the drug wars over; recognizing our government is defeated in stopping people from doing what they want to do, as long as they don't hurt others physically or financially.

What does this do for the US? It ends billions of needless dollars of government spending and allows that money to be used to build infrastructure on both sides of the borders and put good people to doing real work in manufacturing and construction as well as medical rehabilitation. It allows tax collection on the sales of drugs that might be used for drug education or medical insurance for those unable to afford it. It will substantially reduce the cost of our courts, prisons, and allow our police to concentrate on terrorism, corruption, personal injury, and fraud.

In Mexico, it will allow the present drug distributors and their present armies to become legitimate, and use their distribution knowledge legitimately by selling into a regulated market. It will allow the good hardworking people of Mexico to get back to a normal and hopefully better life than constant fear they presently live under.

If this is not done, if we continue to pay huge amounts of out tax money in the unworkable attempt to legislate morality, we will loose in the end, we will continue to spiral downward in our standard of living, and the wave of violence will continue to sweep north and west until we all live in the same fear as do our neighbors to the south.

What do you think?