It is a shame that the horrible discission that whitehall made was not reported. The 116 hard working people that last their job friday, some with over 4 years of service, had the rug pulled out from under them friday when they were informed they would not recieve their holiday pay that they had already earned. they were led to believe all along they would get it but instead when checks were passed out friday you found out when some people got 2 checks and some got 1. just a poor thing to do to people and even worse way of treating them in the way of notifying them. nothing like a last second merry christmas.

Accepted a 10% paycut. NOT. We were TOLD we were taking a cut. Probably used to pay Rocco's severence package (golden parachute). I dont see how this bailout package will work. Employers want people to take pay cuts and they couldn't afford a new car before, how will they ever afford one now? There is hope though, because most everyone who works there knows it has been mismanaged for a long time and the new president comes with alot of knowledge. Hopefully he will clean house and get some upper level people in there who actually have some management skills.

Ken Rocco did wonders for Whitehall! He OBVIOUSLY knows how to be a sucessful CEO since he has expanded the company. Its not his fault that the auto industry is going down the #$%^&*. Whitehall was lucky to have such a great leader. I'm so proud of him!

My husband has worked at Whitehall for almost six years and thankfully he survived the layoff but no they did NOT ACCEPT a pay cut. They were never given an option. They weren't even informed of this paycut verbally. They were informed of this through their weekly newsletter.

Fred, did you still work there after the 10% pay cut? If you did then you accepted it !!!! If you quit and went to work somewhere else then and only then you didnt accept it!!!

Unfortunate coincidence all these type horror stories come at the Holiday time, with no end in sight both locally and nationally. I think the nation and our leaders need to sober up and take one last look at NAFTA/GATT that was hastily made into law years back, say 1994? It has cost us MILLIONS OF JOBS lost forever! If those were repealed, and every corp./person importing/buying foreign autos had to pay a 50% importation tax, like we did for many years in the past, we could protect our USA jobs alot better. This to me is the ROOT OF EVIL! And tell your neighbors, friends, and family, buy American from now on. Quit destroying our nations fabric with foreign favoritism!

Shay and Justified Brutality, if you are not directly involved with Whitehall or have a relative or friend working there you have no idea what we are going through and have been going through for months. I'm not going to go into detail but the expansion that was so great was the product of greed and biting off more than they can chew. Its not entirely the economys fault. Futhermore, just because people are still working there does not mean they accepted the paycut. They deserved to be notified ahead of time and in person.

jenn....go into detail! Tell us everything so instead of you saying "you have no idea what we are going through and have been going through for months" we will know what you are going through and have been going through for months.

Don't forget people. With God , everything will be alright. Hold on to Him and your famlies. He will see you through. God Bless all of you:)

Eddie: I believe WalMart is a BIG contribuitor to the downfall of the American Worker. Look at where all their crap is made, and people just eat it up. I wish more people would take a hard look at their business practices and realize how much this one store hurts the economy both nationally and locally. Less people would shop there if they let their conscience be their guide.

The Ludington daily news has censored som of my posts. I dont think this is fair but I am not going to make a big deal abuot it !! Im will continue to post on this site. I think they would rather hear sob stories than the truth !! NOTE: One was a little too brutal.

Jen is right! There were rumors among the employees, but they were told in the weekly newsletter. After 20 years of dealing with this, I am hoping that the new CEO will cut alot of the dead weight and help the company get back up and going again. When you have a non-working supervisor for 4 people in a deptartment..., and too many non producing chiefs from th Ole Boy's Club that have titles created for them so they can keep getting a paycheck, but can't handle the work, it's time for a change!!! Do you remember earlier this year when they made state news by buying a plant in the south and taking the jobs. That was the beginning of the downfall. For many months selected workers were working down south so Whitehall could get parts caught up before closing the plant there. This so called "great venture" cost more when the company went bankrupt and Whitehall was flipping the bill for them. It cost the Whitehall workers their profit sharing they would have got in June. Now with the 10% pay cut, figure the last 7 years of raises are now gone too. I'm just waiting to see how much more health insurance will go up per week when they go back, or should I say if they are lucky enough to get called back? Hopefully, the machine operators will begin to get the proper training and QA can actually get the paperwork right when it is brought out for the operators to refer to. Not just anyone can run any machine, but proper training would sure help and the company can start showing a profit again. Too much scrap, non-training, injuries, dead weight in management, product rejections and putting your 90% of the eggs in the same basket spells disaster. It is long past time for a change! Good luck Mr. Rocco and welcome Mr. Deveau!!!

I am a bit late with this post due to holiday and etc... BUT.. Luula..What a great post... And Justified Brutality.. your an idiot.. no wonder LDN edits your posts.. My husband works at Whitehall for almost 6 yrs now. He received a news letter on December 19th letting him now that 1. they take a two week lay off for the holiday and 2. a temporary 10% cut in pay... no warning, no say... however, we have adjusted accordingly... WE can't all be as stupid as the MetalWorks "strikers" we have a family to care for and we are responsible. Most of the people employed at Whitehall have no choice but to accept the pay cut, Lord knows employment is hard to come by. Lay-offs were based on senority and that is that. Now we should just pray and hope it picks up so more people can get jobs back.

Luula, that was a good post, I too work there and I hope the new CEO can see past the good ole boy's club because thats where the down fall takes place. They all covered for each other and Ken never knew 1/2 the stuff that went on behined his back. Ken worked hard at getting jobs for us while the people under him were asleep at the wheel. These good old boys are still in their job titles. We can only hope that if this new CEO is as good as he said he is he will clean house and move forward in a positive way