Porkchop Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 some accusations have been made on another forum that can't really be addressed there, due to their penchant for deleting non-complimentary entries: http://www.kamado.com/discus/messages/1/29789.html?1149877395 2 questions for Mr. Dennis Linkletter, as this place is the only place he can respond publicly to such accusations without his reply being DELETED: 1) Did RJ leave Indonesia because his Indonesian crew couldn't keep up with demand? If not, what was the reason? 2) Did your furniture factory employees burn down the factory because you were not being fair with them? If not, what was the reason? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisLinkletter Posted June 12, 2006 Report Share Posted June 12, 2006 Let them say what they want.. They haven’t got a clue... 1) Did RJ leave Indonesia because his Indonesian crew couldn't keep up with demand? If not, what was the reason? 2) Did your furniture factory employees burn down the factory because you were not being fair with them? If not, what was the reason? That's a new one.. I thought they claimed it was quality issues... saying that an Indonesia crew could not handle the demand is just a joke on an island with 90 million people with the government claiming unemployment of 10.9% (most say it's much more.) If you want/need more production bring in more workers.. My flooring factory has two crews and works two shifts a day… The reason RJ left is that he was being pursued by the owner of the original factory contracted to build Kamados in Indonesia. The factory foolishly built and shipped 2 containers of cookers and was never paid. (full documentation and contact telp #'s available) RJ had hired Ben Abrams an American lawyer to protect him and negotiate with the factory owner.. RJ left the day before the meeting with the factory owner and laywer. Another reason was that shipping went up drastically that spring, I believe it was 30-35%... Factory was burned down… After the fall of the Suharto regime, the Government implemented very pro worker manpower regulations to discourage/stop the exodus of foreign companies after the likes of both Sony and Nike packed up and left. One of these regulations was that if you fired a worker for ANY REASON they would receive 2 months salary for every year of employment. You also had a rash of new labor unions formed who felt that they had to be pro active to be worth their dues. The situation with the new democracy was very pro people, anti-government/management/authority. Soon there were rumors of companies being forced to pay off worker large amounts. As you can imagine a worker with a company for 10 years would receive 20 months compensation, that’s winning the lottery in a third world country. My factory employed more than 400 workers at the time. We had problems with about 10 workers. They would just leave their work area.. walk around and when reprimanded by the managers they would basically tell my staff to go fcuk themselves.. and we should just fire them.. So we did… but did not pay them off.. The unions stepped in for a few days then backed off after they heard the story.. We presented our case to manpower court and won. These guys would sit outside the factory trying to garner support from the workers to strike for their rights to no avail.. About a month later gas was poured over a back wall at 1:30am and the factory was burned to the ground.. The factory was an all-wooden structure was un-insurable.. I lost over 500k that night and more than a million dollars in lost sales. The non-striking workers still work for me in my primary business.. which is textured wide plank teak flooring. Komodo has about 35 workers and Hand Hewn has about 225. In 17 years I have fired only about 20 people and ten of those were from stealing.. I'm the best thing that every happened to this community. Out of the 225 workers I have more than 150 of them have worked for me for 10-15 years.. Let them say what they want.. They haven’t got a clue... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farmer John Posted June 12, 2006 Report Share Posted June 12, 2006 It is so nice to see such open conversation. Thank you for sharing information that is really "your" business. You are really an up-front guy who just wants to do business. By the way have you thought of making some smaller KK's? When we need a different size we may have to shop some other place and you know we would rather spend our money with you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
