Dateline: April 16, 2008
Quebec – Rumours of trouble with the Canadian operations of U.S. based Crocs Inc were confirmed today as officials for the sinking Canadian manufacturing division of the company that was founded by three businessmen from Boulder, Colorado, announced they were eliminating 262 jobs at their Quebec facility. Apparently, the jobs will be heading down south to Croc’s Mexican plant, where the wages are smaller and the employees less power, sounds like heaven if you’re an employer. Certainly this makes sense from a money point of view; it’s the human factor that is getting lost in the equation.
This in turn has fed rumours of the total closure of the company’s Quebec facility and the subsequent loss of a total of 670 high paying Canadian jobs, which in conjunction with the high Canadian dollar and competition from over seas rivals in Asia, Europe and India will result in the closure.
Leading industry experts, worried workers, and even-more worried company executives at the firm, talking about a possible revamping, restructuring of the company’s overall composition and roster, and the resulting job losses because of the restructuring, in which no job will be safe according to sources at the firm.
In conclusion, apparently its okay for companies like Crocs to throw away once valued Canadian employees, who we will admit make more in wages and benefits then their Mexican counterparts, who are rumoured to be the beneficiary of any restructuring plan the company may be thinking about implementing. While at the same time expecting to do business and make money in the Canadian retail market, Crocs has recently announced the opening of, at least, four new Croc’s branded Canadian retail outlets this year, according to the company sources we talked to.
Maybe, we as Canadians need to go back to the old days when company’s had to be responsible for and cared about more then the bottom line, which we will admit needs to be watched, and they weren’t just throw away elements in a big corporate game of chess.
