Shoes-a-droppin

No doubt the big news of the past week was the announcement that AGC.. formerly known as AFG, was re-structuring… plants will be closed and sold, and the industry will go through a major change. Sarcastically my reaction was… I guess the “snazzy” logo and name change did not cure all ills eh? But seriously this announcement brought a lot of thoughts to the forefront. First up… I guess this is even MORE proof that the frivolous copy cat lawsuits that are out there are baseless. Something tells me if AGC was “raking in the cash” domestically this would not be happening. Also I wonder what former AFG chief John Litzinger is thinking these days. He had a lot of ideas and moves he reportedly wanted to implement and never got the chance… maybe… just maybe… if he had the right backing, this does not happen. In addition… maybe if AFG/AGC would’ve attended the industries best conference (BEC) the last 2 years, they would’ve understood the industry better. Yes I know that last comment was a low blow… but it’s the truth… every major player in our industry was there…. And they weren’t… maybe that shows they were out of touch… and I know it has nothing to do with the current situation…. Just could not resist. All in all I feel bad about the employees who will lose their jobs and those around the country who now wait to see what or if any new owner jumps for their various branch. Not a good time right now for sure.

Bottom line… this is probably the first of many shoes to drop in our industry… like I said before… hold on.. its gonna be a bumpy ride….

Elsewhere….

-- Very sad news for the industry this weekend as well as George Sutorka passed away. George was a laminated guy through and through and a true pleasure to work with. He had a gruff persona but had a huge heart. The guy was a champ. Plus you could always get on his good side talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers… In any case, George will be missed.

-- Hey Tuesday was “Earth Day!” Go Earth! Beat Jupiter. Or Saturn… or that nasty squad from Mars. Amazing how Earth Day has become so commercial… I have a feeling the gang who created this in 1970 did not see it turning into a marketing opportunity that’s for sure. By the way… From The Fabricator is the Official Glass Industry Blog of Earth Day.

-- Speaking of Earth… Time Magazine had a special “Green” issue this past week… and they talked about how they too will try and adhere to more “green” practices… I guess one of those practices WON’T be the stuffing of every magazine with several postcards begging you to subscribe.. since my issue had a boatload of them… Yep LOVE the hypocrisy there… ((Do people actually fill those out still? Seriously?))

-- Got a few questions on Zeledyne and whether or not they’ll change the products names too… my gosh lets hope not! Bad enough that when the company was Visteon they jettisoned the BEST PRODUCT name in the history of the industry… JADE ICE…. For guys in this industry they could use the name JADE ICE and their wives would not know if it was a stripper in Dallas or a glass product…. They could call from the bar and say with a straight face “I’m in the middle of dealing some Jade Ice issues” and not be lying.

To the LINKS we go….

-- Get ready for All Green TV… oh joy… I live the stuff daily… why do I have to have a channel for it? The only thing I’d watch is a green version of “24” where Jack tracks down people who lie on their LEED submittals….

-- Last week I noted the Northwest-Delta merger…. Today this article where Delta said they’ll have to raise rates 15-20% just to break even this summer…. Yep and people complain about our industry….

-- Click here as CNN’s Jack Cafferty is in the middle of a firestorm with communist China… I actually am not a fan of Cafferty normally but on this subject… he is very, very right.

Video of the week… in honor of George Sutorka… a look at the Steel Curtain.. and the best Pittsburgh Steelers ever…