Thread regarding National Oilwell Varco Inc. layoffs

NOV has mostly non productive workers left. People that kept their jobs by spending a lot of time at the golf course or on their knees. There are a few good ones left to do all the work.

Unions are 100% a formalized good ole' boy network. If you think that Unions help keep the good people during a layoff, you're nuts. Unions keep the people that's been there the longest. Period. Full stop. That doesn't mean they're quality. In fact, there's evidence to say that the longer you're there, the less productive you are and that's why it's good for people to change roles in a company.

If you really want to do it right, develop a system that tracks people's qualifications and performance. Then identify the qualifications you need and only keep the best. Remove the names and only look at numbers. That's the fairest way...

What's next?

NOV has had so many job cuts in the past years, and kept people not on quality or time on the job but due to the buddy system. At least with a union it would cut down on the good old boy mentality that is rampant today. NOV stock, is very much over valued and it will only be a matter of time before the next rounds of layoffs will start. There will be no one to protect, the hard working little guy. I agree, unions are out for themselves, but at least they do offer some protection for the little guy. NOV, THE RICH GET RICHER.

Unions also suppress employment volume. It is in their nature to get more money for their members and to do this they artificially manipulate supply to increase wages and benefits. So the people employed make more money, but there would be fewer working. Unions do not fix inept, unorganized or immoral management.

The unions would help get a better wage for the workers, but they would have to stand up and be counted, to join the union. I fear they don’t have the core strength.

Unions = high cost. High cost = less profit.

There's no correlation between union work being higher quality... actually the opposite.

They're smart steering away from union shops. They kill industries.

I guess your right. NOV is driven by the buddy system. It is so pervasive that managers and above don’t want to hire talanted people from the outside for fear of what they might find and suggest. To bad we don’t have a mechanism to share this with share holders.

You can talk about unions all you want, but the truth is it isn't going to happen. Did you notice that during the draw down and plant closures and consolidations they eliminated union shops and moved them to non-union areas/states like Texas?

This is the NOV way. They are cheap enough to cut off their nose to spite their face. They do it in every facet of the organization. If you want to know why poor decisions are made it is because very few quality people will stick around in a low pay (compared to competitors) and low benefit job. What's left gets promoted so people are qualified to be supervisors are VP's because there is no one qualified left to promote and they won't pay real money to get expertise in from another company.

Huh you think thats bad!!!..our wonderfully manager has gotten real petty and put a stop to getting time at end of shift to wash up etc...i mean how much is that going to save them?...what next no cups of coffee at our machines??...

They can do all these “updates” to the office, pay bonuses to themselves s, meanwhile we haven’t had a raise in 5 years!!! Nothing pisses me off more than to see new furniture when we’ve had no raise!! Not to mention the loss of bonuses & hours to those not in a position.