They not only instituted pay cuts, they cut quite a few of the benefits that attracted potential employees to come work for them and employees to stay with them. God knows the wages didn't attract them or keep them on board. They are expert at dangling the carrot and then nit-picking you to death before they give out a meager raise.(when they were giving raises). As long as tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee are running the branch service operations, this will be the case. Quote from them- "If they (employees) don't like it, they can leave". So I did. No respect or appreciation for years of dedicated performance

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! Amen to that brother Jerry!
The Great And Powerful Oz does not want the little people to look behind the green curtain and see what's really going on. When you do find out keep it to yourself until something better comes along.

At this time I would like to quote one of my heros:

"America touts itself as the land of the free, but the number one freedom that you and I have is the freedom to enter into a subservient role in the workplace. Once you exercise this freedom you've lost all control over what you do, what is produced, and how it is produced. And in the end, the product doesn't belong to you. The only way you can avoid bosses and jobs is if you don't care about making a living. Which leads to the second freedom: the freedom to starve."

- Tom Morello -

Jerry from SAC- is that you?

I don't think the paycuts financed the C5 (which will be off the market in 5 years I bet) entirely, but as a manager I got a 11.1% cut, and other managers I know of got more cut. It drove me and at least one buddy of mine out of the company, so not only did the Dicke's save that 11.1%, but now they've dropped 2 payrolls.

I thought for years and years that Crown was treating me good, that what they were claiming about market conditions and the economy were true. Crown has done a nice job keeping as many people employed in the branch operations, but manufacturing is down by hundreds of people. Now that I am out on my own, I kick myself for not leaving years ago. It's simple; now I make more money and I have less stress, what's not to like?

Hey Ben, does the guy that used to be the service manager still a road guy for the low desert? Just curious.

that sounds like joyous news Ben, thanks for the good news, I hope (and pray) It keeps improving, we sure do need it, and I also hope it's not just Cat picking up work where some few others didn't have enough to stay in the business.

Sounds like nothin but rumors. I went to Crown to get parts and they are still slow and these are people I worked with for over 12 years and I was smart and moved on. I work for a CAT dealership and we are seeing a definat pick up in buisness as we are strungling to keep upwiththe work load and might hire 2 or 3 people now.

Pay, R&D as well as unit pricing are effects and results of "supply and demand", not so much what makes a person named Dicke happy.
Union's collective bargaining has the effect of constricting supply and so increasing demand for the available sources of workers. I am fairly sure the accounting offices in New Bremen, Ohio do not get to select a single source of income to finance any other single source.

"It is not the employer who pays the wages. He only handles the money. It is the product that pays the wages."--Henry Ford

The real point I wanted to make here is the other side of the coin of the same logic is that companies or bosses do not create jobs, customer's demand for goods and services create jobs.

the C5 has been out undercover for some years now being stress tested, so I've read on this forum, so I would think the r&d was done well before it entered service for testing. all this, while times were good in the industry.
the S*** hit the fan out here last year and the c5 was officially launched approximately one year later.

so no, I don't think pay cuts financed the c5s' r&d. But I would bet they are financing other things with the pay cut the crown guys took.

I worked for a factory branch as a service tech for quite a while. I hate to talk bad about a former employer, so, all I will say is that anything they do to their employees would not surprise me.

Sounds like rumors to me.