[Trombone-l] End of the Music world is coming

[Charles De Paolo]

> There is a conspiracy for a one world government, and it is 
> happening right underneath our noses, and little we can do to stop it.

OK, I'm no fan of Chinese made products, even the ones that are well made (and there are many).  But I think it's probably a stretch to equate ISOs with One World Government. The strike at Conn-Selmer (C-S) is about many things, but it's not about black helicopters and the Attack of the Metric System.

Conn-Selmer is in the student instrument business.  If they continue to produce student level instruments whose manufacturing costs are far higher than the street price of similar offshore instruments, they will be forced out of the student business. This is simple inevitable fact.  All things being equal (and they are rapidly becoming so, don't kid yourself) why would you shell out $700 on something you could get for $300?

OK,  not you personally, but everyone else sharing the road with you on the way to work. The ones who don't use their turn signals or know the difference between Tommy Dorsey and Tommy Hilfiger (list moderator: mandatory trombone content).

It does not really matter what is morally right, whether you love or hate China or whether you're pro-union or pro-management.  The market says that if you sell stuff that costs too much and people can get that same or similar stuff elsewhere for a substantially lower price or at a better convenience, they will leave you and go there.  

This is one dilemma facing C-S.  The management wants to keep student instrument production in the US (they really do, they're not Communists you know), but they can not do it if all their top craftsmen (read: those with the highest wage and benefits cost) continue to work on the student assembly lines.  Is that unreasonable?  Even if you believe it to be unreasonable, you still can not ignore the fact that it simply won't fly in a Global market.

So, if you're a UAW member walking the line in Elkhart, do you stick it out on principal, hoping the Chinese will relent? (Hah - fat chance of that!).  Or do you give in, take the wage cut so you can still have a job, even though you may see a drop in your standard of living?  Or do you simply stay out on strike until your retirement date arrives (or the Second Coming, whichever occurs first), then go work 360 hours a week at Walmart to make an equivalent paycheck?  It stinks for everybody, the UAW and its membership, non-union C-S employees, management, shareholders, suppliers, UPS, pizza shops in Elkhart, music retailers and those consumers who have a clue.  But it's reality, and ignoring it will not make it go away.  

Meanwhile, those big ships keeping tying up at Long Beach.

--Chuck

  Walmart and Target have definitely made a dent in the musical retail
  business, and they way that they have done it is several fold:

  1) Walmart does 12 billion dollars of business a year with Communist China.
  Results: 

  Products that used to be made in the U.S. can be produced in China for a
  fraction of the price because the average wage of the Chinese worker is 61
  cents an hour.

  As a result, quality control goes down the drain.

  Incidentally, that is EXACTLY what the strike in Elkhart at the Conn-Selmer
  factory is all about. They thought that they could save a bunch of money by
  having the Chinese make the student line instruments. When the first order
  was completed, shipped back here and inspected, it was little more than
  SCRAP. Conn-Selmer unloaded the entire shipment on Taylor Music in South
  Dakota at a tremendous loss.

  How quickly we forget how badly Communism affected Russia. Richard Nixon
  sold us down the river in 1972 in having dealings with China. There is a
  conspiracy for a one world government, and it is happening right underneath
  our noses, and little we can do to stop it.