Forest River's OSHA Problem

[theseus]

https://www.abc57.com/news/Forest-R...kers-blame-drug-use-and-poor-safety-practices

Not a place I'd want to work....

 

[supersaiyan93]

Wow, that's so sad!

 

[jmkay1]

What is really sad is a lot of companies have lost their focus away from customers and more on money. In doing so they lost their focus on employees. Employees have now become an object to companies and something easily replaced. Now what's happening to forest river is downright scary and no wonder workmanship on these RVs are abysmal.

 

[silvermickey2002]

That is really sad!!!

 

[1380ken]

That is what happens when you try to cheapen out your labor force.

 

[tzmartin]

Sad. I've never worked in a manufacturing plant myself. I wonder what it's like to get high and then handle a nail gun for the day. Not much sense there.

 

[tdiller]

Try to find any employee today that can pass a drug test. Or doesn't have other issues that come along with them like getting wages garnished for child support of other things. Yes jobs are out there but the quality of employees is questionable.

 

[WrkrBee]

I retired a year ago. I'm going back in today, because they let my replacement go Friday. Not looking forward to the mess that has to be straightened out.

 

[Aladin Sane]

What is really sad is a lot of companies have lost their focus away from customers and more on money. In doing so they lost their focus on employees. Employees have now become an object to companies and something easily replaced. Now what's happening to forest river is downright scary and no wonder workmanship on these RVs are abysmal.

I think this is more about not being able to find employees who wont come to work high than Forest River trying to get by on cheap labor.

 

[Toedtoes]

This is about the company's attitude not the employees.

If it were simply that the company can't find quality employees, then every manufacturing company would have the same problem.

This is about putting quantity above quality. RVs have a huge issue with quality. There is no standard or regulations, etc. So the company just keeps pushing more and more out the door.

The car industry was like this back in the sixties and seventies. Remember the pinto??? When the pinto's exploding fuel tank happened, people started waking up to this problem. Maybe we need another Ralph Nader.

This is where the RV business is at. They are now popular enough to be able to push numbers instead of product. They will keep doing so until something major happens and regulations are put in place. It's happening in China right now -push numbers not quality.

These accidents, the drug use, etc., are going to continue to happen because the companies don't care as long as they get the products made as fast as possible. All these violations are part of the cost of doing business and are not high enough to hurt their bottom line.

 

[seldomseen380]

It Totally Is the Quality of Potential Employees...

I have owned my own automotive repair business for over 25 years, and am getting out of the business, partially due to the fact that there are very few if any quality candidates to hire. The work ethic of the up coming generation is a freaking Joke. Pot Smoking, No Show no Call, No Show after being Offered a Job, It is Pathetic...

Drinking, Drugs, Etc. on the job Is the fault of the Employee, Not the Employer...

 

[Toedtoes]

Funny that so many businesses out there can manage to find quality employees who do not drink and do drugs at work. To blame the ills of a manufacturing business that has been producing shoddy work for over a decade now on the "upcoming generation" is a bit shortsided.

These issues with RV quality are not something that just sprung up in the last 5 years.

 

[Aladin Sane]

It isn't just the RV industry. I have worked in the specialty chemical field for over 30 years, and trying to find operators who can pass a drug test and will show up for work is very difficult.

 

[Toedtoes]

But it doesn't result in shoddy products at cheap prices overwhelming the marketplace.

The RV manufacturers are using the employee issue to excuse putting out [email protected] because they don't care about quality.

 

[Aladin Sane]

That may be true, but I didnt think product quality was the main subject of the thread .

 

[gec66]

All I can say, being from Elkhart county where the majority of RV's are built, is that many here commenting don't know of what they speak. RV's are still extremely high manual labor, it is very fast paced, and a young man's game. Just like pro athletes, by 35 you are an old man and can't keep up, and because of this the generational challenges that the under 35 crowd bring to many employment sectors definitely applies. The pay, for unskilled labor, is extremely good with many on the production line making $40/hr+, but there are only so many management positions for the older guys once they can't keep the pace anymore. It is a delicate balance between quality and efficiency. Jayco, recently purchased by Thor (Airstream) has traditionally been one of the better places to work, but most of the same challenges still apply. My BIL is a millwork production supervisor there and I recently asked him about the suspension of the folding trailer line. He hopes it doesn't return bc in his view they require a ton of little parts from his department and he considers them a PITA.

 

[joet]

It Totally Is the Quality of Potential Employees..

Drinking, Drugs, Etc. on the job Is the fault of the Employee, Not the Employer...

I beg to differ, it is the fault of the employer for not having polices in place and enforcing them. Just like any other company OSHA has got their attention.
Forest River will now do what they should have been doing.
We did pre employment, random, and for cause testing. We didn't have a problem. The polices were enforced!

 

[seldomseen380]

But...
If the employee has high work ethics, and didn't do drugs or drink at work, come in...do your job, and go home. There would be nothing to enforce. If the employee just used common sense, instead of relying on the nanny state to keep them in line, companies would be better off.

However, common sense is a declining attribute in the coming generation of employment aged citizens.

 

[bigdad]

Its a sad day now Forest River is under OHSA eye and having there plant burned down after laying off 50 workers and it makes you wonder what's going in side the Forest River company.

 

[Anthony Hitchings]

But...
If the employee has high work ethics, and didn't do drugs or drink at work, come in...do your job, and go home. There would be nothing to enforce. If the employee just used common sense, instead of relying on the nanny state to keep them in line, companies would be better off.

However, common sense is a declining attribute in the coming generation of employment aged citizens.

Its a self regulating ecology, - we are not fit, and are declining as a race, so we will fail to get off-planet - which is the necessary outcome, as we are destroying the only planet that we have, we need not destroy other planets (in other solar systems, actually).