I see all the parking lots in Columbus are empty, so I am assuming those plants remain closed. But are there any plants still open? Or is everyone working from home?
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Nobody has ever been “safe.” Ask the thousands who’ve been shown the door by outsourcing over the years. They may have felt safe at moments. They only safeness is for shareholders – not employees. Outsourcing and contracting long-term strategy like Cummins has long implemented is a grasping formula. Any company that subsidizes talent: likewise subsidizes its future. You get what you pay for; Cummins has long sought cost alternatives at the expense of quality of product, market expansion, and customer satisfaction. In the last 10 years, where has Cummins gained market expansion and sustained long-term growth? They’ve continually cut costs at every angle, but where have they expanded? At last check: they suffered the worst profit loss ever, closing plants globally, downsizing, restructuring, etc. Those are clear market indicators of a company on the decline – not a company on the rise.
Shareholders will eventually shift their efforts into a new direction.
If that is the case, then why is the stock so high? Is it that they are buying the stock back and trying to keep it high in order to make cummins seem a good catch to a high bidder? I never thought that Cummins could be sold to a foreign entity, but it could. And if that happens, look out. Everything is going to be turned on it's head and no one will be safe.
Cummins is drowning. Thousands have been eliminated under this diversity strategy, while Cummins continues to collapse. Only so much cost cutting remains before it’s sold to a foreign entity. Cummins suffered its worst profit loss in the history of the company this year; yet, they’ve been implementing “diversity” band aids for over a decade; market decline all that time – now rock bottom. Diversity produced that result! If diversity was the answer, Cummins would’ve been strong market reliance all year; instead, its total market collapse. HCL, InfoySys, and other Indian companies continue on-boarding from Cummins daily. Have been for several years. The bottom line results consistently speak volumes.
In the search for character and commitment, we must rid ourselves of our inherited, even cherished biases and prejudices. Character, ability and intelligence are not concentrated in one s-x over the other, nor in persons with certain accents or in certain races or in persons holding degrees from some universities over others. When we indulge ourselves in such irrational prejudices, we damage ourselves most of all and ultimately assure ourselves of failure in competition with those more open and less biased.
It's just that the lowest-cost option lies within persons with certain accents.
DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH!!!!
I work in one of the offices in Columbus. It looks like little India in there! Over the years, I’ve lost count of Americans downsized, restructured and shown the door; backfilled by work visa, non-citizens. Last year, I walked past a cubicle designed for 1 person, and there were 3 or 4 Indians, elbow to elbow shoved into that one cubicle. The entire area had about 70 cubicles, all the same. The Wi-Fi was dragging down, and upgrades had to be made. 3 or 4 foreigners taking the place of one American. Cummins is all about their employees first, the “Cummins Family,” is all a lie.
A Cummins position came open in the office over the summer. It was outsourced to contract; much less pay and no benefits. A friend of mine was contacted for the role by an IT Recruiter from an out of state staffing agency. As part of the pre-selection requirements for an interview, applicants were required to complete a 10 question survey. ALL of the survey questions, for pre-selection interview consideration, asked how the applicant considers, works with, and has experience with “diverse” team members. The hiring manager was an Indian here in Columbus on a work visa, non-citizen, both hiring and firing Americans. If the candidate’s survey answers did not match his criteria, then they weren’t chosen for interviews. He was actively pursuing minority candidates for the open role. We later found out that he did in fact hire an Indian for the position. A non-citizen, work visa holder like himself.
I have said for months with others that the exempt and hourly working remotely better not get comfortable. Because if you don't think that they aren't doing the metrics for essentially a year of personnel working from home/remotely instead of onsite I have a bridge to sell you. I'll use before the pandemic as an example. Your a boss of 15 engineers/exempt and also level 5's. Before the pandemic you would have meetings in person and then go to meetings and everyone would be onsite. When you asked where so and so is someone or the person would say I'm at such and such plant or fuel systems or whatever getting something or looking up information. Then you as the boss would know well he must be working and I'm not going to do it so carry on.
So most bosses metrics of if you doing work or not and the overhead was based on a very skewed result. But if your having to work online and they are monitoring you and know what work is being given to you to do then it's alot easier to see to the higher ups much higher than your boss "does so and so boss really need 15 people for his dept comparing it to the volume of the work we see they are doing?".
One thing that I noticed at cummins especially at CTC was the fact that it was had alot of overhead in regard to management and office staff. Most of them where getting into the jobs or had jobs made for them via family members and such. With this virus hitting us and what many companies especially Cummins had to do, it makes it where the higher corporate guys are looking real closely at dept. and people and saying do we truly need those people or positions and why not have those others share the work ad/or just have it done overseas.
I see a major bloodbath in regard to many family losing jobs that was essentially given to them by other family members being taken away and them fired/RIF. I
I joined Cummins in 2013. ALL of my team members were in India. I was the only person onsite for Cummins in my role. I had 15 people offshore on my team. Cummins figured out long ago that cost saving dynamic. That’s when the economy was good. Now, with record profit losses this year, they’re hemorrhaging the cost reductions to offshore.
I can’t speak for all of the locations in Columbus, but I do know the office personnel have been working from home for several months, along with their suppliers. How long before Cummins realizes that they can fully capitalize by paying personnel in China, and India to work remote at a fraction of the costs?!? They already have that partially in place. It’s under review for full cost reductions, without a doubt.