Had a big meeting today........(A rant.)

[BlueStreak]

We had our annual "State of the Business" meeting with all of the big wigs at work today. I'm not going to go through the whole thing, because it was two hours long and would bore you to death. Especially if your not familiar with the coffee business.

The thing that has stuck in my mind all day long is this. We were told that the company had a record year in 2010 and the first quarter of this year as far as growth and productivity goes, and we are looking forward to potentially better second and third quarter this year. We have accrued more than 17 million pounds of additional volume from one customer, and nearly 35 milion pounds from a new customer for the upcoming year. Cost saving goals have been met, and efficiency teams (OEE and CI, of which I am a part.) have made significant strides over the last year.

Sounds great, Huh? I thought so, until I heard this.....

"However, our earnings have been disappointing. We've barely broken even. Can anyone tell me why?"

Someone guessed "Taxes".---"Nope, our tax liabilities have not changed."

"Labor costs"---"Well there has been an increase in overtime, but that is commensurate with our increase in volume. So, no."

Another person said, "Fuel Costs."---"Well, that's part of it, but not the worst part. The price of fuel does push up the price of everything. But, that's not what is killing us."

"Okay, here's what it is."

"The worst part is commodities speculation. Folks on Wall Street buying green coffee, then reselling it at a higher price. That's all they do. They never even see what they bought. They don't do anything with it. These people basically produce nothing. All they do is artificially run up prices. And the price of green coffee has been jacked up nearly 200% over the last year, doing serious damage to profitability throughout the entire industry, despite everyones hard work. So far were managing, but if it continues much longer it makes the future very uncertain, things could get very tough......."

But, no...no.... I get on the internet, go to a political board similar to this one and post that I'm worried about my job, and what do I get from my fellow Americans?

"Damn unions..........."-(We have no union.)

"F**kin' Obama........."-(Didn't know he's a commodities trader.)

"Well, if you #@*&^% people would just do your *^%$# job!!!!"-(We do our jobs and do them damn well. That has NOTHING to do with it.)

You know, I am really getting tired of this shit. If I lose this job, it will be the second time I have lost a good job, through no fault of my own and had to listen to ignorant people heap all of the blame on me and my coworkers. Why do they do it? Because they believe all of the bullshit they hear from people like Limbaugh, Boortz, Hannity, et al. And I'll leave the reason why THOSE assholes do what they do up to your imagination.

The first time it was because the clowns at corporate went on a reckless aquisition spree, buying up every friggin' automotive parts company that went up for sale, with heavy debt and somehow managed to take on three billion, that's right BILLION with a "B", worth of asbestos claim liabilities. Went bankrupt and sold our division to a Canadian company that took the contracts and equipment home with them, because they had people at home that needed the work. (And I don't blame them for that.)

But, for years, every time I mentioned this to people I would get the same brainwashed stupidity----"Serves you right, you lazy $%#&^!!!" etc, etc, etc........

Where does it end? When are we gonna snap out of it? Huh? Because I'd really like to know.

Dave