Starrett has been sold.

[andrew whicker]

I used to work for GE (O&G before it got split off into Baker Hughes / GE)

GE stopped pensions for new hires in 2012. GE stopped adding to people's pensions in 2021. GE did a huge stock buy back in 2023 of 15 billion - their biggest yet. Congrats to all the shareholders! Sorry to all the GE employees who got a piddly raise.. it was a tough year. Maybe next year. GE decided to have stock buy backs vs pension payouts.

It's a changing world.. and not for the better.

Maybe I'm a pessimist or maybe I'm a realist, but I don't see quality of US goods ever going up w/ these super big companies unless something changes. And I don't have any optimism for large private companies either.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I guess it could be worse.
At least it wasn't Stanley B&D or Irwin that bought them.

[Edward Weber]

I guess it could be worse.
At least it wasn't Stanley B&D or Irwin that bought them.

Couldn't agree more

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I used to work for GE (O&G before it got split off into Baker Hughes / GE)

GE stopped pensions for new hires in 2012. GE stopped adding to people's pensions in 2021. GE did a huge stock buy back in 2023 of 15 billion - their biggest yet. Congrats to all the shareholders! Sorry to all the GE employees who got a piddly raise.. it was a tough year. Maybe next year. GE decided to have stock buy backs vs pension payouts.

It's a changing world.. and not for the better.

Maybe I'm a pessimist or maybe I'm a realist, but I don't see quality of US goods ever going up w/ these super big companies unless something changes. And I don't have any optimism for large private companies either.

Andrew, I wish life was simple but it's not.

I stayed in management for 14 months before resigning my position and returning to a bottom feeding field engineering position. I was placed in a position where it became a matter of performing a VPs demands which meant giving up my moral values. About 2 months after I resigned, the VP was fired by J&J. I returned to a field engineering position. 6 1/2 years later, we were sold to GE. For the record I never did agree with Neutron Jack's antics. J&J offered 401Ks after they bought us. My wife and I found it an easy way to save money for long term savings. Later GE did the same and we went with one there too. If you don't see it, you don't miss it. Up until last month I owned GE and GEHC stock. Still own some GEHC stock. Was I a rich shareholder? Hardly but I did own some and still do. I was told that most major corporations have switched to improved and increased 401K strategies versus full pensions. A former coworker who is also now retired joined about 2012 and he got a hybrid pension/401K offering. In my 34 years working for 2 major corporations, I survived 6 RIFs, IIRC.

Andrew, I was 14 when my driller father woke me up one morning at 0100 asking if I wanted to make some money. The drill bit was wore out and the derrick hand had shown up drunk on a night when Dad had to make a trip. At age 15 I began roughnecking morning tower and going to HS days. I finished HS that way. My younger brother did the same. Christmas Eve of 1966 south of Newton, IL I worked all night on the floor of an untarped rig in the freezing rain as we fished to recover 11 drill collars that were left in the hole after a collar washed out. At age 17 I promised myself there had to be a better way to make a living. I found one. My father died in a doghouse on the floor of an oil rig in 1972. I am proudly former oil field trash. BTW, I have screwed on a few Hughes bits but that was several decades ago.

I wouldn't begin to say that GE or any corporation are always good. At the same time, I would not condemn all of them either.

A company that goes out of business supports no workers. If a company's major market switches to a buy cheap, quality be damned place in the market, management is put in a difficult and complex situation. Either reduce costs, expand the market share, seek new markets or go out of business. Labor wages and benefits are costs, meeting environmental standards produces costs, higher priced raw materials are costs, shipping costs, taxes, etc. Thus, for a company to stay in business and support some workers, manufacturing may have to move overseas. You can buy any quality level you desire overseas, it just costs money. Those are realities.