The Carlyle Group bought a Goodyear plant in Iowa

[Frustratedlady]

http://www.thehawkeye.com/daily/stories/ln4_0324.html


The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s hose plant in Mount Pleasant has a new owner, but local residents won't see many changes in the plant's operations on the west end of town.

The tire–making firm announced Friday that it has agreed to sell substantially all of its Engineered Products business to EPD Inc., an entity sponsored by Carlyle Partners, for nearly $1.475 billion.

The Mount Pleasant facility opened in 1976, employs about 225 people and operates around the clock making industrial and automotive hoses, plant manager Rick Campbell said Friday.

snip

The division manufactures and markets engineered rubber products for industrial, military, consumer and transportation original equipment end–users. The product portfolio of the business includes hose, conveyor belts, power transmission products, rubber track, molded products and air springs.

snip

Will this be a good thing? Why does it bother me?

[PDJane]

1. Because you're wise..........

And Carlysle has a habit of polluting and treating their employees badly.

[Bitwit1234]

2. bush 41 is just making more money

for himself.

[youngdem]

3. The worker should worry

When an equity firm buys a company, it is to strip it DOWN, take all value from it, rob it of cash, borrow against it, then sell it based on a bullshit balance sheet loaded with debt. The workers get superbly fucked by the equity firm because they don't care about long term or about worker's wages or conditions.

Then, the purchasing company usually has to raise prices, cut quality, outsource, cut jobs, or a combination of all of them in order to cover the robber baron behavior by the previous owners.

[Frustratedlady]

4. I need to run a search for their record...

as your description was almost exactly my first impression. Goodyear has been a decent employer, but I have a feeling The Carlyle will rape and run.

How sad, as the area needs good employers to settle here, as so many plants have closed

[tech3149]

6. Yea but don't worry it might take a year or so

I'm sure you can sell the house, find another job and get settled before the shit hits the fan. How ae you at growing your own food?

[youngdem]

7. Snarf....Chortle.

[Frustratedlady]

8. I'm not in the same city, but it is in my area. I also am retired...

...and won't be applying for any positions. I'd starve first.

Our city has also had downsizing and shutdowns, so I'm sure residents of my city will apply for any openings at Carlyle. I will suggest they keep their distance.

[Turbineguy]

5. A hose factory

the irony....

[Stinky The Clown]

9. Rubber hoses ....... how quaint .....

.... needed for our humane intelligence efforts, maybe?

[leftofthedial]

10. sounds like the plutocrats are planning to give America

an industrial strength royal hosing

[htuttle]

11. Remember this from 2006?

US Army might break Goodyear strike
The US Army is considering measures to force striking workers back to their jobs at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber plant in Kansas in the face of a looming shortage of tyres for Humvee trucks and other military equipment used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/81fa2bf8-8c5f-11db-9684-0000779e2340.html
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/121806LB.shtml

It seems that the tire business is booming...

[durtee librul]

12. Carlysle group

is a BAD group. Worked for a small company in AZ and they bought it, piecemealed it all off and none of us had jobs anymore.

Just to add to it - - they are also in the running for Chrysler along with Magna. Magna doesn't have all the $$$ needed, so will be going to Carlylse and Blackstone (another appropriately named bunch).

What bothers me most about all of this, is all the retirees who can possibly lose their pensions and medical benefits. THAT is the real travesty of all this....and just think, our congress is so damn good at non-binding resolutions and sputtering about subpoenas....haven't seen one of those yet either.

BTW, Rove was in Bloomfield Hills, MI today. Protestors out in force, but dumb f**ks actually PAID to hear the pig talk. STOOOOPID. Could have given that money to charity (not the repukes) and done some good with it.

[peacetheonlyway]

13. having recently worked for a carlyle affiliate

they're goal is to FLIP companies, go in , fire folks,
hire bunch of consultants from Bearing Point, let them screw up the
operation, but then sell it again to some larger company that believes
the horsecrap, and then they get 300M overnight in flipping a company in 1 year.

it's always about doubling or tripling their money in less than a year (or 1.5 years).

it's never about improving the quality of the product of the company they buy.

they think/act and behave like an investment bank like Warburg who was famous for draining

all the capital out of covad a DSL provider that was kicking the telco's butts, but pulled
all sorts of political favors to get favorable suits and things against the upstart.

same thing with carlysle. having bushie sr. on their board allows them to own/control any outcome
of that company.

WILL IT BE A GOOD THING?

Is having a nuclear plant in your backyard with Homer Simpson on the levers a good thing?

BUsh Sr. is the Homer Simpson of our era.

he is dumb, entitled and not even as funny as Homer.

[Frustratedlady]

14. Well, all the comments confirm my suspicions.

I feel sorry for the people at Goodyear. It has been a good company for that small city.

Thank you all for your comments, but your news wasn't good and certainly not something the citizens of Mt. Pleasant would want to hear. Too bad there wasn't prior knowledge so they could fight to keep them out.

It will be interesting to watch everything unfold at close range.

When will these aulde phartes die off?

[orpupilofnature57]

15. No wonder the Bee's are fucked up.

I wonder if the Masons ever thought of what they would become.