dogalina,
Please tell me that there are no more like you walking around. We are all in trouble if you have been hired for a “skilled” job. Your English, grammar, punctuation, etc. are terribly lacking. I cannot believe that you have had any post secondary education. How did you get in college any way with your lack of English skills? Like I said before, if you are the best that our school systems have to offer then we are all in deep trouble.

Thank-you bosoxboy, my recollection too, but I did not have the energy to spar. When one administration starts something new its effects are usually not felt until the new guy is in office. We were all doing better in the Clinton era thanks to Reganomics not Billy.

I’d say the union was more to blame than the Republicans.

Sharonkay - wasn’t it Bill Clinton’s administration that started the oversees push? Must be short-term memory. But I guess the economy was better than so who cared, huh?

A Web site user going by the name Fred_Flintstone posted a news story from a Thai newspaper on this Web site on Monday afternoon. We deleted this story because the publication of any news story published on another media outlet’s web site is a violation of copyright law.
Fred_Flintstone, if you wish to paraphrase the story and create a link to it, go ahead. But please don’t reprint it here.
Thank you.
(Doug Hanneman is editor of the Hutchinson Leader. He may be reached at [email protected])

Hey Doug, I’ve got a tricky one for you. Just what you needed right? :) Let’s say that the earlier entry was changed from, “I hear there is a 2nd round of layoffs coming within the next couple of weeks…” to “In my opinion, there is going to be a 2nd round of layoffs coming within the next couple of weeks…” would this be acceptable? It technically meets your requirements. So, essentially, all someone needs to do is preface their statement with IMHO… and life will be good?
I understand the Leader’s concern about rumors. Yes, they are bad. I also think that the readers of this forum need to understand that we all have opinions and that we are NOT part of the Leader’s news staff. Anyone that quotes the entries in this forum as fact without confirming the source, etc. should be careful.
Maybe you need to add the disclaimer…
“The information and opinions contained in this forum do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Leader, blah blah….”
Forums are meant for banter. As you can see, some of it is meaningless and some of it has merit. But yes, we all need to be careful that we are not disguising rumors as facts.
This forum is more of a “water cooler” gathering. Sometimes good things happen at the WC and sometimes the discussions are meaningless—just like in real world communications. This is only a virtual extension of things that have been happening for many years.
Have a great weekend!
IMHO…the weather is going to be crappy all weekend!!! ;)

Doug,
Thank you for your attempt to curb the “Rumor Control” of Hutch Tech. As a current Shareholder and active investor in HTCH I would like to shed some positive comments towards the future of HTI. My father was the original Treasurer of the Hutch Industrial Corp (now HTI) back in the 60’s and has always believed in the fundamentals of the company.
As the soon to be released earnings report has not been made public, I would like to reflect on the last quarters Balance Sheet for current valuation of the stock. There are currently 23,155,640 outstanding shares of stock from Hutch Tech (HTCH).
Their cash and investment assets are $171.3(M) and that comes out to $7.39 per share of takeover value. That is the nominal price that would be offered by a hostile bid. The current book value of the company as a whole is $18.87.
That is Assets-Liabilities/Outstanding Shares. The volatility of the stock price has been like a roller-coaster lately and I just wanted to add some positive light into the picture. The Global Economy as a whole is in a deep recession and the fate of HTI is dependant upon future capital investment by the major corporations to increase their Information Technology spending.
As the Federal Government is bailing out the Banks and Auto Industry, they are also the largest purchaser of Computers.
I worked for the Govt 26-yrs as a Computer Specialist and as within all Govt Spending, the budgets are released each September for the next fiscal year. As the price of Oil and Real-Estate has bottomed, it’s time for a positive turn of the economy. Kudos to all past and present employees of Hutch Tech. The quality of your products outlive the hardware that they support. I know this for a “Fact” as I managed 40 Servers and over 1000 PC’s for the military on a daily basis.
Keep up the great work!!!
Rick Anderson

TW,
They remain rumors until they can be verified. And we have not yet been able to verify or dispel recent rumors involving Hutchinson Technology.
If you have information that could help us, we sure would like to talk with you.
As a news organization, our role is to present news based on fact. And we welcome comments from people who want to post other information, as long as it’s fact or opinion. But rumors aren’t allowed.
Rumors are a vicious thing that can destroy a community. They have no place on a community Web site.
(Doug Hanneman is editor of the Hutchinson Leader. He may be reached at [email protected])

Several rumors about what might happen at HTI have been posted during the past couple of days.
This is not the place to spread rumors.
This Web site is the place to give information that you know to be true. And feel free to give your opinion. But please refrain from spreading rumors.
If you have any questions, please refer to the Users Agreement you signed or contact me.
Thank you.
(Doug Hanneman is editor of the Hutchinson Leader. He may be reached at [email protected])

There was supposed to have been an announcement last week. From what I have heard that announcement will coincide with their earnings release.

I’m sure whatever happens our freinds at the top will be okay.

They are asking for volunteers again. It will be amazing to see if they will stay in Hutch or move everything to Eau Claire.

Well, almost a week later and I think my lack of unemployment has been resolved and the problem seems to be the unemployment office at least as much as HTI. The issue from what HTI had reported turned out to be the same one which I had reported as required, that being my EMTO. They reported it a week later than I did apparently. I reported it the week I received the check. For some reason, this was entered as an additional issue that was needed to be investigated even though it was for the same things I had already correctly reported. As of yesterday, they had determined this was a duplicate and had been resolved. When questioned further, I was told my waiting week would be the week after the end of my WARN week. I questioned this and the representative from UI started to say it was because I received payment for my EMTO, and then realized my form that she was looking at had the box checked that I was permanently laid off and thus my EMTO did not affect my UI payments…oh this is wrong, she said…So, she talked to supervisor and it was corrected.
So, the short of it is, HTI may have sent some of the info in after employees reported it causing a duplicate issue to be recorded. Also, UI made a mistake and failed to note the checked box that indicated that I had been permanently laid off (therefore EMTO payment does not affect employment payments). So, keep an eye on how things are being processed and don’t be hesitant to call the unemployment people and ask. This saved me from an extra week w/o payments.
And good luck to all the rest that have been laid off or that may be laid off in the future.

I feel for all of you, I hear there is a 2nd round of layoffs coming within the next couple of weeks. Hopefully this will be the last and the economy starts to pick up!

I was also laid off from HTI after working there for approximately 3 years. I understood when I was laid off what I was to be getting and that my severance package was less than what I would get due to WARN and therefore the WARN pay would be my severance. As of this moment I am still waiting for my first unemployment check due to issues. The outstanding issue was raised by HTI that I had been paid severance after the WARN period. The checks I received at the end of the WARN period were for the last week and for my outstanding EMTO as well as the balance of what had been placed in my stock purchase plan. There was no pay beyond my WARN pay and the EMTO/stock plan money and yet my unemployment is on hold for an issue that HTI raised on the 1st of April.
I was fortunate in that I have a military pension and also had a fair amount of EMTO on the books, but what about others who are not this lucky and are having the same difficulty. As of now, I have been told by the unemployment people that I may not see a check until the 20th (yes it will be for all the previously claimed weeks).
I did enjoy working at HTI and I wish them luck as they try to get back on sound financial footing, but I am hearing way too many things about not receiving unemployment due to company raised issues or issue like was mentioned at the start of this thread. Add this to the way the whole pay freeze, pay cut, layoff, plant closing, needing to add assembly capacity here, etc. and you wonder what is really going on in there.

On the day of their layoff, some employees were assigned to their workstations, thinking that they were part of the lucky ones that would retain their jobs. Some had driven from other towns in a snowstorm to report to work. Approx. 1 1/2 hours into their shift they were told to shut the equipment down and report to a crowded, “standing room only” conference room. I don’t consider this a “good practice” to deliver a life-changing, difficult message. Many people had to drive miles in bad weather after being told this terrible news. Imagine that long, difficult drive home. Losing one’s job is very personal and a devastating event. So while everything seems to have worked out for Charlie-horse113, not everyone had that experience.

dusty98
I totally agree JaneDoe. HTI’s woe’s are many. The economy is a big factor in there stumble but that corporate america mentality is very apparent in there problems.I believe they call it the “good ol boy network”. As the rest of corporate america,it’s a rollercoaster at the workers expense.

The downfall of HTI is the result of many factors including this poor economy, questionable management, loss of customers, etc. However, I think we are now seeing how corporate America has been able to operate over the last few years. The corporate greed is finally exposing itself, and employees are beginning to see how they have been really treated. We have heard for years that corporations must hold the line on expenses (thus little or no raises for the common workers) but now we see that administrative departments have been enjoying high wages, better benefits (than the little guys who actually do the work and make the money for company), vacations (so-called seminars or workshops), company-owned vehicles, etc. etc. It is no wonder many of these companies are spiralling downward - their benefits for the higher-ups are out of control!!! It is not the fault of the workers who have been holding up their side of the bargain.
We can look at our government, too, as being faulted because high-paid lobbyists have been running our government for years, and have used our legislators as puppets to get what they want for their special interest groups (which include Fortune-500 companies, pharmaceuticals, AMA, and the list could go on and on). We need to do a little housecleaning from the locals on upward, and demand that these folks be accountable for their budgets, and quit looking at balancing those budgets on the backs of the middle class who have been holding this country up for years. The middle class is gone, and thus we have the problems we have.

The cuts are coming because they lost another customer. And that is the same old, same old for them. I feel bad for people who cut now because the part time jobs are being filled by teenagers and college kids. There are not any jobs now. So good luck to all who will be laid off and know that HTI will always be in that hire/fire syndrome because of the poor management.