Some quotes from the September 28, 2020 WISCONSIN EXAMINER: Briggs & Stratton’s demise: greed, mismanagement, blaming others
“Just days before filing for bankruptcy in July, Milwaukee’s
Briggs & Stratton Corp., at one time the largest producer of small engines
in the world and employer to 11,000 union production workers making a solid,
middle-class living, handed its top executives $5 million in bonuses, calling them
“retention awards.”
“Like vultures picking a carcass clean, these bonuses in the
run-up to bankruptcy have become an all-too-frequent way for corporate
executives to gift themselves with one last, egregious payday before stiffing
their workers and creditors.”
“The story of how Briggs got to this point is a morality
tale about modern American industrial capitalism. Briggs embodies the
anti-union race to the bottom characterized by contempt for hourly workers,
mismanagement and misjudging markets.”
“Declining sales, looming debt payments, then the COVID-19
pandemic with its dramatic drop in lawnmower sales all combined to
finally push the company into Chapter 11. Sales for the second quarter of 2020
were down by $107 million, or 18%, over the same period last year. The third
quarter results are expected to be even worse.”
“Despite obvious mismanagement, Briggs’ board of directors
in July made “cash retention awards” of $1.2 million to CEO
and Chairman Todd Teske, $600,000 to Senior VP Mark Schwertfeger and lesser
amounts to other executives. Although the new owners abruptly dismissed Teske
on Sept. 22, he could still hang on to some or all of his $8.8 million golden
parachute, bankruptcy attorneys suggested to the Milwaukee Business
Journal.”
“The day before filing for bankruptcy, Briggs’ board voted
to terminate the health and life insurance benefits of the company’s retirees.
Then, in late August, Briggs and the United Steel Workers local 7232 (the
successor to AIW 232) agreed to a severance package for the workers who will
lose their jobs. Most will get less than $5,000.”
“Briggs’ demise has, in reality, directly resulted from its
executives’ mismanagement, greed and pathological animosity towards the
unionized workers who had made them rich.”
THE END
