American Greetings to bid good-bye to DesignWare, 225 jobs

It's no wonder the Designware was sold,talking to employees that work there their stories of years of bad management...the latest was coloring books and crayons being put on the break room tables,shutting down the equipment and the plant managers wife having the employees watch a Gilligan's Island film?????

To OUT OF WORK

Hey, I work at the Danville KY plant and we were told that you all were closing down. So sorry to hear that. Do you all have 225 employees total? And when are you all supposed to closed down? We haven't worked a full week the whole year of 2009. Now all of a sudden we are hiring 150 people, starting 1/18/10. Only working 3 days this week. We have 2 shifts. They say some of the production is cards is the reason we are hiring. They won't tell us if we are getting the party goods. Do you all have cards and party goods or what all do you have? Our management sucks also. We had the party goods before they came to you all.

Gilligans' Island movie? Funny. We have several people that get paid good money to do nothng. Probably like that everywhere. I am surprised we have lasted this long. Who is your plant mamager?

Thanks for your concern. We sure didn't see this coming--were told we had one of our best years, that's why we had the movie, and a dinner,
as a reward. Our plant manager is Bob Kuzinski.
So, sounds like our jobs, or at least some are headed your way..We heard our plate printer and the seven forming machines are headed to Ky. Then a couple tissue printers to NY. Have to be glad it's not going abroad. I did hear they were going to import the table covers we made though..they spread our jobs around.

Danville is distribution only. Bardstown Ky might possibly be the ones getting the 7 forming machines. We are thinking that we might be getting the party goods. They won't tell us anything.

It is really terrible that you think you are doing good one day and the next day your job is gone. I really hate that. You never know we could be the next one. Do you all fill any orders of any kind and do you all have a packaging dept. that fills assortments?

Thanks for the info, they won't tell us anything here untill the day of. They probably do you all the same way. Will you all be getting severance packages? I hope the best for everyone and good luck. Please keep us informed.

We do have a distribution center that is not closing at the same time as manuf. should be later this year. We did assortments, we manuf. plates, napkins, cups, tablecovers. Don't know yet about the severance pkgs, if any--Co. is suppose to meet with union next week. They are famous for keeping things on a "don't need to know" basis. It was so much better when it was just a small Co. who cared. Corp. America just doesn't care--they know what to say in a card, but their heart is not in it.

Does your distribution consist of cards, party goods or what? What kind assortments and did this consist of much work? Are you going to be able to keep a job there. Sorry for all the questions. I think our job will be in danger eventually. I know lots of people have the same problem. I think our safety manager came from Kalamazoo.(Borguno)

Its mostly party goods , we have some cards and invites , thank you notes, are assortments are all party goods , as far as we know we will all be done at the end of April, we dont know about severance pkgs, we are hopeing for something,yes Brian Burguno came from are plant,did you find out why they are hireing 150 pleople? and do you know anything about the other plants that have closed in the previouse years , was American Greetings good to them ?( severance's )?

They are installing another card sorter which will make 5 sorters. Supposedly they have bought Papyrus and another small card company and that is supposed to give alot more card distribution work. We have 2 shifts which is 7:30 am to 4:00 pm and 4:30 pm to 1:00 am. They say the ones the are hiring will be for a staggered shift which will start at 6:30 pm to 3:00 am. That way they can run the card sorters 22 hours a day. They can't run no more than 22 hours per day. They are telling us they don't know how Kalamazoo shutting down will affect us. They also say they don't know where the party goods is going. But, I think they do. I don't know what kind of severence packages they have offered in the past. Whatever it is I hope it is good. I don't know about the jobs up there but the jobs here in Danville is very scarce. Danville has really been hit hard this past year as far as factory jobs.
They did tell us our work be slow until spring and they are expecting alot them. There was 24 new hires started today.

I think spring is when we will completely close, they are telling us that Anscam has not yet said where they will be shipping there product from, so a lot of the people think that we will be open for a lot longer then they are saying, as far as jobs here , there are none that you can get without somekind of degree, and even students here can not find jobs,the union met with the company today, hopfully we will know more this week.

We don't have a union. I have never worked anywhere that has had a union. Sometines I think we need one.

Our next new hires are coming in Feb. 1st. We heard AG gets a big chunk of money from the government for every new hire. I just hope they know what they are doing because we have had very few 40 hour weeks over the past year. Didn't work yesterday and wouldn't be surprised if we are off another day this week.

Hope they treat you all right. Good luck..

Sorry to hear you have to deal with Borgorno--he is definately company minded--he told us we have no repetitive work in our facility--which is about all we have. He denied any injury ever happens at work, even argued in court against a woman who was almost ran over by a fork lift and suffered back injury from it before he even stepped foot in the building-yet he knew enough about it to argue against her like he was there, and felt OK in doing so--scary.
Sometimes it's nice having a union, but sometimes you feel you are spending a lot of money for very little these days, as they don't have the clout they use to have. The gov. keeps passing laws to weaken their power, and people who don't remember why they were put in place to begin with, beat them down from the inside. It's sad, sometimes we have to go backward in order to go forward again. They give you a little security against employers who want to boot you out the door as you age, for no other reason than "they can".

You are 100% correct on Borguno.

It seems as though alot of employers want to get rid of you as you get a little age on you. You spend the biggest part of your life in a factory and they show you no respect.

They waste alot of money in Danville moving people from department to department, switching employees in the middle of a shift (staggering shift). They even admit that they waste alot of time and money and they still can't figure a better way. And they do it because they can. Danville may be the next one on the list if they don't start making better choices.

Yes , isnt it something how management does things anymore, you know its all that (education). All the money companys pay for these people that do nothing in 10 hours but socialize. and cause employees to fight among each other.

Its not just Danville that waste money,its all the american greeting plants ,we see so much waste , I guess if your that big of a company , it dont matter , except when it comes to giving rasies to non management employess, because you now management gets there money.

Sorry to go on, its just going to far in america.

the secretaries, clerks and all desk job people that are not exempt didn't get a raise in June of 09 because it wasn't in the budget but, in December of 09 they gave them a $1300 bonus. Sounds like they found some money somewhere. If they got that much can't you imagine what the exempt got. That was just 5 months later. How do you explain that? Poor management. Yes, they do pay some people to do nothing and causes hard feeling toward the one that has to work and the ones that does nothing. It would be a great place to work if everyone was treated the same.

well-we had a meeting today--they are giving us a severance pkg. one weeks pay for each years service up to 15 years. that's more than i thought-but i have more than twice those years of service. sure is going to be hard to start over again- don't hardly know how o look for a job-that is if there were any to look for--best of luck to you all- AG is heartless.

AG is heartless for sure. Best of luck to all employees that is loosing their job.

Keep in touch , it will be interesting to hear what goes on in american greetings in the future years.

I will KEEP IN TOUCH. THE FUTURE DOESN'T LOOK TOO BRIGHT. WE WORKED 4 DAYS THIS WEEK. 12 MORE NEW HIRES COMING IN ON MONDAY. WE RE GOING TO BE IN BIG TROUBLE IF THE PAPYRUS COMPANY THEY BOUGHT DOESN'T WORK OUT. I ALSO CHECKED OUT THE TOPIX IN BARDSTOWN KY AND THERE IS A TOPIX GOING ON THERE TOO. THEY THOUGHT THERE WAS GOING TO BE A LAYOFF LAST WEEK.
ARE THEY OFFERING YOU ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE SEVERENCE WEEKS PAY? SCHOOL OR INSURANCE?

they didn't offer any schooling. We can carry our ins. at our current rate for one week per one year of service-up to a max. of 15 weeks. I visited Bardstown's topix. We didn't hear that AG got 25 million-they're paying out around 2 million in severance, or there about.

I'm sorry to hear about what is going on in the Danville plant. About two years ago I was under the understanding that American greeting were eventually going to move all the Manufacturing over to Danville. I was under the impression that you were doing good. I am very sorry to hear about this, the people I meet that worked in your plant were very nice and professional people. I also see they let go of the plastic Dept they bought from NC. Well it is a shame that a Company that big has to treat employees they way all of you are being treated. Don't people understand the only way to bring up are economy is to bring back are industry.

I wish you and everyone that works in the plant good luck. Believe me I understand how hard it is to find a job.