laborer

shift leader

Kawneer

Company is battling union about a contract.  Have been getting bad contracts for years, and we have been working without a contract since the end of February of this year.  No raises since Februray 2017.  Make millions of dollars, and they won't want to give us a decent raise.  Raises they are offering are so small that when insurance goes up every year it wipes out our raise, and we are making less money in the new year.  They preach safety is #1 but profit is.  All supervisors talk about is getting our numbers which means more dollars for them.  Trying to mandate us 60 hours a week which is ridiculous.  No life work balance, even though working 12 hours we are supposed to have days off but they mandate every week in fabrication dept.  Fabrication dept. is the worst department in the plant.  Lied to us about no more OT when we went to 12 hour shifts.  We are mandated eight months out of the year!  No sick days, no personal days, don't accept Dr. excuses for being out sick one day, they give you a hit.  Get six hits in a year, you are fired.  Place is falling apart, people are quitting left and right for better jobs, even though the pay is ok for the area, and they are firing people all the time.  Reason for that is most people stopped caring when they won't give us a good contract.  Supervisors don't use the program to recognize employees for doing something well, that has all stopped.  Short handed, management isn't doing a good job at getting new people hired, but they haven't done anything good for a while there.

Kawneer is currently suffering from poor management and this is especially true at the Harrisonburg location. Micromanagement and appearing to know what they are doing is what management leans heavily on.

Employees are not given a proper amount of training to be successful in their role. This is mostly because management continues to place people into supervisor/manager roles that do not know or understand the work they are supposed to be supervising or managing. This leads to employees basically training themselves and figuring out their own way of completing the work which then leads to dysfunction, mistakes, and inconsistencies since there are no standards to be followed. Very little ongoing training is provided since the people above you don’t understand what it is you do.

Management appears to stick their heads in the sand and hide when issues are brought up rather than address them. Employees will bring up sticking points in processes and other work related issues, but nothing is ever really done about them. Management says they will review and respond in the coming days, but no response ever comes. Guess it is easier to keep kicking the can down the road than it is to actually fix a problem.

Long story short, do yourself a favor and do not apply here.

Being a union shop, effort isn't a requirement here. You can literally stand around talking for most of your shift and no one would really notice. They do have numbers to compare performances with, but there is no consequences. There is also no consequences for taking extended breaks, unless you're a new guy. If you're new, don't stand around, don't break the rules, you're under a microscope. If you compare yourself to the others, management tends to shut you down and ignore their real issue is the staff they already have. Most of the people on the floor will stand around talking about your struggles and making fun of you. They will not train you or help you, would rather just get mad that you can't figure it out on your own with minimal training. They had a newer person training me, didn't even sign off on me before having me train and certify the next guy after me. Place is a joke unless you want the decent pay. New guys are also subject to veterans taking advantage and manipulating things like the over time systems they have in place. Become a lifer and get small perks. Be a new guy and you'll work your life away for a couple years.

Avoid this place for a career..if anything use it as a stepping stone. If you're in with the right people you could go further up the chain but if you're not then forget about it. You could be late from traffic and get pinged with a point but the very next day someone could be late and they'll let them use a scheduled vacation day to avoid the point. They already select their employees for promotions even though it's supposed to be an interview process. Communication is non existent and they claim there's no retaliation but the moment you say something about the wrong Peron you're now a target. DO NOT LET THEM LIE TO YOU. Worst off they also try to promote people that can't do the labor to the higher paying positions instead of give it to solid workers cause the lazy ooeple can't keep up. It's safe and sends a poor message to employees that actually work hard. And if you're lucky enough to get promoted you will get zero training cause some supervisors are control freaks and refuse to teach you so they can be the only ones to know it all. So sink or swim in this place.

Spent a lot of time in the manufacturing facility looking for opportunities to remove waste. It was necessary for me to improve the culture to the next level relative to how the facility needed to be maintained.  I basically found a lot of examples of what not to do. By addressing the opportunities with the involvement of the employs and using their suggestions which were almost all good suggestion, were were able to increase the flow in short order.  By using the shift overlaps and assigning rotating cleaning assignments, it leveled the burden on cleaning and increased the cleanliness and organization of the tool and materials in short order.  Basically, one of the things I learned is that the crews were in need of some attention from management and that is what they received. It had a very positive impact.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Learning multiple different work areas that all contributed to the end goal of meeting standards and companies expectations!

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Sometimes not being to familiar with some of the areas and being trusted to do it alone can be a bit overwhelming in a way but rewarding at the same time !

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Fast paced and generally everyone helped each other and you could always ask a supervisor for help which was a very new experience for me in a factory atmosphere! It also has a very good safety orientated environment from the protocols to the safety team !

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
12 hours moderately fast paced you either go as a family group style for breaks or you break individually, help is there if you need it and everyone gets along for the most part !

I’ve been here a few years now, got hired on pretty fast. I was told if I didn’t like the job I was at in 6 months I can bid out, I bid on a lot of different jobs, but can’t get a single interview, it’s a bid out unless job demand! The department manager shows favoritism towards the day shifts and gripes at the night shift for the same as days gets away with! We are required to stay late “already after a 12 hr shift” can’t leave at 6 when we are scheduled and signed up for! Demanded to be here early for the bull financial meetings. They give out Kawneer bucks but never open the company store. Safety is a big issue! Slippery floors due to oil leak, “but won’t fix because they will have to shut down production to do so” but the employee must fallow All safety rules! No ear plugs available before shift, just so much to name! This place is a joke and so is Everyone who runs it.

I was unhappy at Kawneer. I was unhappy at work, and that bled into life. I was promised the world. I was given scraps. My numbers nearly broke records, but my treatment at work, pay raise, and promotions didn't reflect that. My schedule was 40 hours a week. I averaged nearly 60. My work/life balance was awful. The pay was good. the work environment was deadly. There was a dismemberment while I worked there. If I could go back in time and work for Kraft, I would. The people who are best suited for work here are people who don't truly care about the company they work for, and just want to punch a clock. I was on their safety committee, a first responder, and any and everything else I could be to make a difference in my environment. I tried so hard in a sea of people who resented me for trying so hard and preforming so well. It isn't the company that made this place so miserable. It was the envy of my diligence.

Don’t let them fool you: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd shifts work 13 on 1 off (every other Sunday). And the 12 hours shifts work 3 days one week and 4 days the other week, but they mandate you to work an extra day each week.  Pay is good, job is good for the most part depending on where you are placed, and the benefits are also pretty good (health insurance is not bad at all and pretty cheap), also you pretty much will get a full $1.50 pay increase within the first 6 months.   Biggest issue is poor management and HR.  It’s a Union plant and it’s basically the union vs the management/HR in a constant never ending p*ssing contest. It’s also a weak Union so the company usually wins those battles.  If you can tolerate all of the above and like to keep to yourself this isn’t a bad gig. Bosses will leave you alone and let you work at your own pace. Just avoid all the drama and politics. 

I learned a lot of different operations at this company. I operated aluminum cutting saw, including manual Kaltenbach saw and an automated B&O saw as well as CNC machines and automated punches. I had to read different work orders and blueprints in order to complete the customer requested orders in an efficient, timely manner without wasting materials. The most enjoyable part of the job was that it was fast-paced and was not a redundant job like assembly line work. The hardest part was dealing with the heat in the summertime. Dress code was pants, t-shirt, steel toed boots, safety glasses and earplugs and earmuffs.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Laborer 4 salaries reported	$19.61 per hour
Shift leader 1 salary reported	$22.46 per hour

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