Remington factory Ilion, New York
Remington Arms Company in Ilion, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

A reliable source who wishes to remain anonymous has passed on information to TTAG regarding a pending federal investigation into Remington Outdoor Company’s handling of the sale of company assets to the Roundhill Group and Remington CEO Ken D’Arcy.

Multiple trusted sources close to the transaction report that D’Arcy was the man behind the Roundhill Group and used another individual as the group’s public face until the asset purchase was completed. Once Roundhill closed on the asset purchase, that person parted ways with Roundhill and D’Arcy’s involvement was made public.

The heart of the pending investigation has to do with Remington’s termination of 585 Ilion, New York employees last week, refusing to honor union contracts which I am told required Remington to pay severance, vacation pay, and other employee benefits to terminated workers including health care. The benefits will be cut off as of October 31.

Employees received news of the terminations over the weekend of October 23rd, 24th, and 25th by phone, with the terminations effective Monday, October 26, 2020.

Backing up the Remington union workers is US Congressman Anthony Brindisi, who penned the following letter to John F. Ring, chairman of the National Labor Relations Board.

Brindisi held a press conference regarding Remington’s treatment of the terminated workers on October 28.

Congressman Anthony Brindisi joined the United Mine Workers Association informational picket today in Ilion. Brindisi announced a push, backed by the union, for a federal investigation into Remington Arms’ decision  to deny benefits from union workers.

“These hard working men and women deserve to be treated with dignity and they deserve the benefits they fought for,” Brindisi said in Ilion. “Remington is trying to leave this community and these workers high and dry, but we aren’t going to let them. I am calling on the National Labor Relations Board to step in and investigate this issue.”

Sources with knowledge of the situation tell TTAG that the NLRB will, in fact, be launching an investigation into the firings and benefit cuts.

Also shared by the union was the following flyer:

Sources tell TTAG that in addition to the terminations and loss of benefits, the union and employees are angered by D’Arcy presiding over the fall of the company, then hiding his involvement in the group bidding on the Remington-branded firearms business in order to regain control after the bankruptcy and dissolution.

We have asked Remington for comment on this story, but have not received a reply yet. This story is developing and will be updated as information becomes available.

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116 COMMENTS

  1. Move it to Texas or Arizona or one of the other states where you can avoid the over priced union workers. Also , more gun friendly climate.

    • A deal is a deal. Remember Wall Street? The new CEO is a corporate raider who ran the company into the ground and is taking off with all the cash. If Remington wanted avoid the union contract, it should have taken it up in the bankruptcy. It didn’t, and the buyer assumed that debt. So the new owner can pay the piper.

      • “Remember Wall Street? The new CEO is a corporate raider who ran the company into the ground and is taking off with all the cash.”

        A re-hash of the old tricks by guys like Carl Icahn who was infamous for asset-stripping TWA.

        I wouldn’t be surprised if this also involves the theft of earned retirement pensions and benefits.

        Weren’t laws passed as a result of this kind of crap happening in the 70s and 80s?

        • Unions are communist.

          No one should be forced to join one. I have worked travel contracts and agency shifts in a number of union healthcare facilities over the years. As a traveler/agency person I was outside of their scope. Those places always have lower wages and worse benefits than places that aren’t union. I was usually making 3 times what the regular employees were. Employees have no choice but to join the union, and they have dues taken out against their will if they don’t want to join or participate.

          My inlaws are also all union workers. Every time a places closes down and they move to a different company in the same field they lose their pensions, and their old healthcare. Even if the new place has the same union. The union pension, if there is one, remains. But the company pension is always gone. The unions also favor the friends and families of the officers, and treats the rest of the membership like 2nd class citizens.

          My father was an active union member all of his adult life. He was always fighting the union over increases in dues and reductions in benefits. He was always fighting the union over them not following their own bylaws. The union was always hanging some poor young kid out to dry is his grievance was with a union good old boy.

          No thanks. I’ll negotiate for myself as an individual. If I don’t like the pay or working conditions I will find another job.

          As for the paper that says the workers didn’t fail, I don’t own any Remington products, but from what I hear the workers did fail. A lot.

          Nothing to see here. Just a bunch of sore losers trying to get the government to force someon else to pay for their mistakes. Now that they are unemployed they should qualify for Obamacare subsidies so healthcare shouldn’t be an issue. The democraps stopped Trump from rolling back Obamacare, so they can’t now claim that people will be without healthcare.

        • “refusing to honor union contracts which I am told required Remington to pay severance, vacation pay, and other employee benefits to terminated workers including health care.”

          So you’re OK with the wealthy elite executives breaking the contract, and cheating the workers out of benefits they earned day by day on the job?

        • I’m not sure who you’re asking Miner, but I’m not okay with that. I doubt most people would be regardless of their opinion of unions.

        • Unions, in theory, are fine. In practice, they are often mediocre at best, and a cure as bad/worse as the illness at worst. I realized this after joining and subsequently leaving the first and only union I plan to ever be a part of.

      • I feel sorry for all the employees that lose their jobs when Companies go bankrupt for any reason. Keep in mind the Unions were responsible, in part, for the destruction of our Steel Industry, at times the Auto Industry and numerous others! In the case of Remington their firearms have had quality problems for decades and currently have a bad reputation in the Industry! Our 2nd Amendment has been under Attack by the Liberals and their willing accomplices in the Democrat Party. Remember a lot of companies went bankrupt during the Obama/Biden Reign of Terror! So it is not always the companies or the employees fault!

        I have never been an Union member but I believe that a lot of members tend to believe that their pay comes from the Union and not from the profits made by the company?

        There are good and bad Management and good and bad Unions unfortunately the actions of Our Government can have more effect (good or bad) than just about anything!

        If you want to save jobs and our rights…….Vote for Trump!

    • I always hated unions. They’re a relic from an era where they was no such thing as any worker protections at all. We have multiple federal and state bureaucracies that serve that function. But even worse, the modern union is little more than one of the funding arms of the DNC. I’ve known labor activist that have complained about this very thing. And in my own personal experience very shop with a union in it has been just appositely garbage. Every union shop I’ve worked at will have a core of workers that are unionized and the rest of the company will be low payed temps. The union guys only half ass their jobs and leave the temps to pick up the slack.

      • My first real job was at a small shop (under 50 employees) that was union and they had the best organization, quality, and skill level of any place I’ve ever be. It’s the non-union places that are absolute garbage in terms of quality, organization, and employee skill.

        It’s the big, big places like Colt that have a union that kill them.

        Basically, not all unions, shops, and union employees are created equally.

        • Uh…. WRONG!!!….. UNIONS ARE A SCOURGE…..
          EFF THESE LAZY UNION ACTIVISTS…..
          I work in the HVAC profession, and I know…. trust me…. unions should be disbanded….
          They are a SCOURGE to trades EVERYWHERE!!!!

          Always, AND I MEAN ALWAYS, STAY AWAY FROM HITTING THESE GOONS…. THEY WILL WALK ALL OVER YOU!!!!

          PUNKS NEED TO BE ARRESTED WHEN THERE LAZY A$$ES START PICKETING…..

        • I was subjected to the UFCW Union and was mortified. Never saw the Union steward until contract negotiations, when the dumpy little worm came around glad-handing. They negotiated two contracts for one company that had a super store selling groceries on one side and sporting goods on the other.

          The food side went first and got raises of $1.00 an hour. Then a couple of weeks later, we on the sporting side were informed that we got raises of 5¢ an hour. For those working 40-hour weeks, that was $160 extra a month for grocery workers and $8 a month for sporting goods workers.

          A couple of weeks after contracts were finalized, the union announced a dues hike of $12 a month. So, thanks UFCW, we gained $8 but lost $4 per month in the deal. And we never laid eyes on the steward again.

          The steward was the son of the previous steward. Nice gig, Dad. Sounds like the sort of nepotism that proliferates in Leftist circles. I hate unions because they’re run by Bolsheviks.

      • {Unions}

        “They’re a relic from an era where they was no such thing as any worker protections at all. We have multiple federal and state bureaucracies that serve that function.”

        Worse, there are now government unions effectively double-dipping the taxpayers.

        About the only civil service unions there should be are those for emergency responders like police and fire, and even then, should be watched closely…

        • Outside of the big cities most ambulance companies, including EMS/ALS are private companies, and most fire companies are volunteer. They are not municipal.

        • Anyone who is anti-union is either a greedy business owner or just straight up fucking retarded. Yeah, fuck unions. Demanding a living wage and good benefits, fucking commies right?

        • Look – We found the brain-washed union drone. I’ve seen plenty in-person what a union does, and it ain’t good, especially the civil service unions bankrupting the communities they supposedly ‘serve’, leaving the taxpayers on the hook for the union’s greed.

          Thanks for raising my taxes, asshole, so the garbage guy can have a 100,000 dollar annual pension here in the deep south…

        • The service sector and govt unions are horrible and lead to terrible waste and abuse. You want to know why the cops today can bash a mentally ill man’s brains out and the grand jury’s don’t convict? Cop union thugs intimidating the jurors. We think because they take an oath to protect and whatnot that makes them saints? Please… “made men” use to take oaths to.

          It’s the skilled unions for blue collar jobs like manufacturing, mining, construction that need to stay around. Without them my grandparents never would have been able to retire. They would have been worked like slaves and paid in credit at the company store.

      • “an era where they was no such thing as any worker protections at all.”

        And just how did workers managed to achieve these protections you speak of? Do you believe that elitist corporate presidents and executives decided to give workers decent pay, safe working conditions and Reese will benefits, all out of the goodness of their heart?

        Every safety regulation was written in blood, the blood of injured, maimed and killed workers, sacrifice at the altar of profits before people.

        Do you like your eight hour workday with voluntary overtime, thank a union. Do you like your worker safety protections to ensure a safe workplace, thank a union. Do you like your benefits, healthcare and pension, thank a union.

        And even more important, just how do you think the workers of America will keep these protections if there are no unions?

        • Yup. Trump supports things that I think are the wrong answers. Just like the Bump Stock ban.

          The man is not perfect. He’s just wwaayy better than the current alternatives.

        • “Every safety regulation was written in blood, the blood of injured, maimed and killed workers, sacrifice at the altar of profits before people.”

          Every last one of the workers building the Hoover dam were damn grateful to have that job while millions of others were literally starving in the Great Depression . Quite unlike now, where the employees think they are the ones doing the company a favor just by showing up for work.

          Oh, and did you know the last person to die on the job at Hoover dam was the son of the first man who died on that job? You learn these things when you study the history of this country, widdle ‘miner’… 🙂

        • If you had actually studied history as you claim, you would know that almost 100 workers were killed during the construction of the Boulder dam, due to dangerous working conditions and rush jobs imposed by the management contract.

          If you had actually studied the history of the Boulder dam as you claim, you would know that in 1931 the workers went on strike because of pay cuts and dangerous working conditions.

          But to the wealthy elites, who cares about 100 dead workers and their families, there’s plenty more lined up for a job, right?

          If you actually cared to study the history of wealthy elitist corporate executives abusing the workers of America, research the Hawks nest tunnel disaster right here in West Virginia.

        • Child labor laws, the 40 hour workweek, and most other things you cite such as safety conditions (which is somewhat vague as what the popular conception of “safe” changes radically with the times and technology) were won before there were large unions with significant political clout. Most unions formed in the Depression and post Depression era after laws had changed favoring their formation

      • @DogofWar,

        Exactly. Unions were an arguable necessity 100 years due to poor working conditions in many areas and industries, but the pendulum has swung so far in the opposite direction since then, union workers now generally enjoy better benefits than non-union. And I personally know of multiple people (friends, relatives) who unethically “game” the system to get even more money for themselves. All because the contracts allow for it.

        I’m not an expert in contract law (though I did drive by a Holiday Inn Express a couple of years ago), but if Remington was formally entered into bankruptcy proceedings, doesn’t the restructuring allow for all existing contracts to be voided? Purchase orders from suppliers, payroll contracts with employees, etc. I mean, technically the company no longer exists as the same legal entity as before, so…

        • “…but the pendulum has swung so far in the opposite direction since then, union workers now generally enjoy better benefits than non-union.”

          A *perfect* example of that is the civil service of today.

          It used to be that working for the government meant the pay wasn’t very good, but they had a solid benefits package for things like health care. Now, thanks to the public service unions, public jobs pay far higher than the private sector for the same work, and when they retire, their outrageous pensions are bankrupting the municipalities, leaving the taxpayers on the hook.

          There needs to be a national reckoning on that bullshit, and freezing public salaries and benefits until they reach parity with the private sector. If we don’t it will bankrupt this country…

        • Yes, the bankruptcy action would allow for voiding of contracts, so I assume that the union contract was not voided so as to assure the buyer of a workforce at the factory. Now the buyer wants to breach the contract and take the pension cash that went with it. Whether or not you are a fan of unions, this to me is immoral.

          • “Whether or not you are a fan of unions, this to me is immoral.”

            Which always leads incompetent governments to insert “morality” (defined by the power structure) into human activity.

      • Common misconception that unions as we know them ever did any good. See most the the big unions today were created during the FDR era in the 1930’s, well after the child labor laws and 40 hour work week, and most things we know today were passed into law “without big Unions”. It was FDR who made up Regs favorable to unionizing big auto, to gain more power to win his 4 elections to the presidency.

    • Come to South Carolina. Right To Work state.
      FN USA is here, Palmetto State Armory is here. PTR is here.
      And several smaller companies.

      • “Come to South Carolina.”

        One of the great curiosities is that the majority of people fleeing slave states seem generally leftist/Dimwitocrats who want to re-establish hellholes in cheaper places. Wonder why it is that “norms” (deplorables and chumps) are more likely to remain in place?

        • Yes, in Charlotte, NC.
          When I heard Remington was purchasing PARA, I made sure to purchase a Charlotte production wideframe 14.45 PARA model (GI Expert). Still unfired in the safe.
          I had a feeling Remington would mess things up like they ALWAYS do. Bunch of 🤡.
          Trump/Pence 2020

    • Hmmmm……aren’t Unions actually price fixing agents??? If companies collude on fixing prices of their goods and services, the leaders go to jail. Why not so with Unions??? I always preferred to negotiate my own value delivered/compensation packages rather than settle for a third party negotiated value of the average. Rank and file union members are the heart and soul of America just as are all citizens. Union leaders are the same as politicians…….they promulgate a victim group (members) and a bully group (companies) persona so the union leaders can position themselves as the savior…….making themselves wealthy in the process. My many union friends seem amazed why my retirement lifestyle is so much richer than theirs. They just can’t wrap their heads around the reality that I managed “ME, INC” as the business it was, rather than turning the management oftheir personal businesses “THEMSEVES, INC” over to the union “politicians”….er, leaders.

    • Avoid them…in the future, fine, and they should; but you may not evade them, in the present, when you have a valid contract. We’ll see how it plays out, but even from a distance, this thing stinks to high Hell. I wouldn’t want these clowns showing up in Texas.

  2. Damn.

    Sounds like a script from an old movie.

    Drives the company into the ground and then scavenged the remains for pennies……..while depriving the widow-woman her pennies.

    This will interesting. Hope Ruger still gets Marlin…and does something with it.

    • The Marlin deal is separate. Ruger bought that asset and gets to keep it. This guy D’Arcy took Ilion and other Remington assets as well as the debt not discharged in bankruptcy–and now he is trying to skate on the deal he made. This incident further suggests that D’Arcy may have no intention of bringing the company back, as is to be expected of a typical corporate raider. Suck the asset dry and cast aside the shell. Or sell trademark rights.

  3. The union is part of the reason why Remington failed, just as the unions were the reason why Winchester and USRAC failed in CT.

    • Sounds like unions are a problem… wonder if J. Hoffa has a comment? I mean, he’s gotta be somewhere? Right?

      • “I mean, he’s gotta be somewhere? Right?”

        A New Jersey swamp is the reputed ‘resting place’ of Hoffa, if I recall correctly from the trials of the 5-families mob boss prosecutions in the 80s….

      • I heard a rumor that they found Jimmy Hoffa when they scraped the makeup off of Tammy Faye Baker.

        Just a rumor, though.

        • My good man, you seem to have misspelled cakeup. For that is the operative term. I understand the favored mode of application was with a Cat D9.

    • I agree.
      A lot of unions don’t care about the financial status of the company. They are just looking to milk the company from the inside out until it starves and collapses. And they think it’s a “win” for them. It starts by unions creating such burdens that to pay for the unions demands, the sales price of the resulting product is no longer market competitive. Unions destroyed the car industry in Detroit. And what happened to the union workers? They lost their job anyways and ended up moving.

      • Anaconda mine/smelter in MT back early 70’s, men picket lines. Company started copper mines in Chile to off set the unions. Then the commies nationalized 2/3 of Anaconds’s copper production. And the whole outfit was tits up by the mid 80’s. I was thinking to my self every time I drove by the picket lines you ass holes are going to wreck your own livelihood.

  4. I’m sure the union is more than happy to represent these disenfranchised workers pro bono, right?

    • The union will support its workers so long as the workers are paying their dues. Once the dues stop, the union’s cares go right out the door with the money. The union is getting paid out of this deal, whether or not the workers do. If the workers end up with the contracts, they’ll pay for every day that they owe.

    • I’m not sure what you mean. Representation, including legal, is the point of the union. So yes, but calling it ‘pro bono’ is meaningless. It’s like saying your conceal carrier insurance should cover you ‘pro bono’ in court. That’s the whole arrangement and why you pay for it.

    • There is also the nature of contracts, the very bedrock of capitalism. If you sign them, you have to honor them. If you can’t, you don’t get to run off with the company coffers (or launder it) until you pay out what you are owed by those contracts.

      • That’s an issue with the existence of corporations as fictitious people.

        Prior to corporate personhood the owner and/or officers of a corporation were liable for all debts and obligations of the corporation. Formerly rich fat cats would have to sell their houses to pay off their company’s obligations.

        Corporate fictitious personhood allows tricks like this, where D’Arcy can avoid personal liability and try to shift assets between fictitious corporate entities to avoid obligations.

        Eliminate corporations as fictitious people and return them to being the property of the owner, or the investors, or the board (which used to be made of the biggest investors) and crap like this will stop.

        And eliminate unions while we are at it.

      • Obama screwed that pooch when he put the unions in front of the secured debt holders on the GM deal. The secured/senior bondholders were left with about $0.12/dollar, and the union hacks got bailed out, when the debt/contract hierarchy plainly stated that the senior/secured bondholders had priority.

        Once that happened, the investors/debt holders saw the unions and their Democratic political hacks as being the enemy, and so you’re seeing here.

        People don’t really understand just how much damage the Obama did to the landscape of the US.

        • “Obama screwed that pooch when he put the unions in front of the secured debt holders on the GM deal.”

          Yes, damn Obama for putting working people first and letting the wealthy elite investors fend for themselves.

          And there you are, the naked greed and elitism of the conservative Republican party exposed for all to see.

          Damn the Obama/Biden administration for caring about workers who put a lifetime into a job and invested their own money in healthcare and pension plans.

          Damn the Obama/Biden ministration for protecting the workers benefits and not allowing the corporate Raiders to loot the pension funds so that retired workers and their widows will continue to get their pension and health care benefits.

        • Don’t forget that the first thing GM did after the bailout was build a Buick factory in China, for the Chinese market.

          I wonder about the executives and their parachute packages, not to mention the last time dividends were paid to the stockholders. The employees contracts were there way before the executives salaries rose and the dividends were paid, I am sure. A company should reward them after their contracts are paid(which include union packages). As usual, the guy at the bottom gets nothing.

        • Was that before or after Oboma shut half the dealerships the country? You know, but only the ones that had made campaign contributions to Republicans. That’s how you sell more cars, close half the sellers…

        • Don’t forget the “Cash 4 Clunkers” Obama program.
          They poured an abrasive compound into the engine oil, then ran the engines until they died. I remember seeing vids online of cars blowing clouds of burnt oil that blocked out the sun. Great for the environment barry and slojoe, well done.
          Trump/Pence 2020

  6. I think the union employees at Ilion went the way of the Detroit auto industry and for much the same reason. Recall the horror stories of the Monday or Friday car that had so many defects it was an act of mercy to call it a lemon. I believe the Remington Ilion factory was much the same and I have a M750 .308 with a mis-machined receiver to prove it. The top of the receiver and bore are not on parallel planes which made mounting a scope impossible. Instead of replacing the receiver they ‘fixed’ it by bending the barrel. Mine was one of a batch as I encountered another on a firearm website, same model, same problem. If the courts negate the sale the designs will likely be snapped up by a foreign company and the former employees will still get nothing.

    • Remember that Quality Control (as well as safety) is a management position. The inspectors allowed bad parts through because they:
      1. Were not doing their job
      2. Someone decided that it would cost too much to fix it
      3. The company did not want to invest in newer CNC machines and train the setup men(now programmers) to do the job correctly.
      The worker has little say in these shops

      • Quality control in the ilion plant was hourly. But often times management would overrule them anyway and make us send all kinds of bad shit, so it made no sense to even have a quality department. We couldn’t do much about it because if we tried they’d threaten us with a write up etc…The “put it in the box mentality” is one of the things that ruined remington. Unfortunately alot of management is still stuck in that way and if this company wants to get turned around, alot of them need to be shown the door

        • “…..management would overrule them anyway and make us send all kinds of bad shit…. ”
          But, they did it for the childr…..er…PROFITS.
          If it saves just ONE chil…..er…..ONE boardroom exec from selling a yacht or vacation home, IT’S WORTH IT!
          Trump/Pence 2020

    • That one must have missed the EXPORT section. That’s where most of Remington’s QA rejects went. There must have been so many QA rejects not all could exported, so they went to domestic “civilian” sales instead.

      I’ve noticed lately I’ve seen very few new Remington 700s at the range. Howa seems to be the most common new factory rifle.

  8. Two questions:

    1) How was D’Arcy supposed to maintain control through this scheme, if he parted ways with Roundhilll once the deal was struck?

    And

    2) How can Remington welch on its obligations under the union contract without approval from the bankruptcy court?

  9. The nipple pierced Gov. Cuomo had a lot to do with the bankruptcy. Why is no one looking at the unfriendly climate he created for Remington or his disregard for all those workers? Remington should have left NY years ago but I suppose bankruptcy was the only way to do it.

    • Exactly. You can blame the anti-business and anti-2A establishment who’s been running that state for decades; they’re the root cause for all of this.

  11. The way around unions is for companies to hire through a temp agency so they can fire people whenever they want. I worked at UPS loading trucks while I was in college. I applied directly to UPS and interviewed with them, but they wanted to hire me through some temp agency that I didn’t even know about. After working there for awhile, I decided to move and put in two weeks notice. They immediately offered me a raise and employment through UPS if I stayed. I wonder why I wasn’t worth that prior to putting in my notice?

  12. What exactly does a Miner’s Union have to do with a firearms manufacturing plant?

    Talk about old bureaucracy run amok. Someone should tell the Unions that countless labor and safety regulations have made them obsolete.

    I’ll never forget being forced to pay $65 for plugging a booth light into a basic outlet at a Chicago convention. Unions are nothing more than another branch of totalitarian monopoly on labor; they are anti competition, anti free market, anti capitalism, and most of all, anti productive as their members are proven to be lazy bums wherever they have power. True in Detroit, Boston, NYC, and Chitcago, et al.

  13. A deal was made and a contract signed. Doesn’t matter what any of us think of unions. This is a dirty, dishonorable act. But then there is no honor in big Wall Street (or other) financial shenanigans. There is only theft and destruction made lawful, or sort of lawful, just lawful enough to get away with an immoral act to suck the life (the money) out of a company and to hell with all the people that harms.

    It’s good to see much of Remington going to buyers that will do something with right with it. From this story, not all those buyers are of the caliber of Ruger, for example.

    Some are just more thieving scum, such as Cerberus who started this rolling disaster.

  14. I love how the rich have convinced the poor that organizing labor is bad for the poor.

    Some of the posters here couldn’t successfully microwave a burrito, much less understand the basic economics behind labor organization and economic productivity.

    • The best way to make a nice living is to be in demand. A worker isn’t in demand when corporations like super woke Disney can bring in more affordable immigrant visa workers to replace you. Low skilled workers aren’t in demand when people use more affordable illegal immigrants to do the same work.

    • Labor unions are a Joke. I’ve seen on multiple occasions how they work. I worked for a company (1978) that was unionized. Fortunately for me it was a Right to Work state. The contract negotiations began with the company offering a 15cent/hr raise which wasn’t bad for the time. The Union wanted 25 cents and went out on strike. 6 weeks later they signed for 10 cents. One week later the Union President bought a new pickup and the Union Vice President bought a new car. Even though they both claimed to be suffering just like everyone else. I myself got another job while the strike was going on and never missed a paycheck while those on strike got 25 dollars a week to walk picket. In 1990 a company I was working for held contract negotiation with the Union over pay and benefit issues. They offered a 2% raise and no change in benefits, but of course the Union wanted 5% plus better benefits and went out on strike. After a several months the union settled for 3% and the same benefits. The employees received nothing for walking the picket and lost several months pay they will never recoup. Later the same union went on strike again only this time the company put their foot down. After about a month they simply hired new workers and told to union to pound sand. After several more weeks a few of the workers having seen the light told the union to pound sand and got their jobs back. Once again losing several weeks of pay they will never recoup. In all my many years of being in the work force I have never once seen a union that helped it’s members more than it hurt them in the long run.YMMV

      • Long ago(1970’s) I worked in factories. Unions screwed me and every other employee. Several stories in this thread would apply like calling a strike for peanuts. I call my own shots for good or ill. I’ve been self-employed since 1993. Remington made bad quality products and these workers participated in the shoddy qc. Cry me a river…

  15. Investigate away. If there was violation of the law, prosecute.

    Regardless, the Miners turned gunsmiths have no jobs. Given the Democrats approach to Mining, that Union will be gone entirely soon enough. The 500 or so workers can band together, pool their funds and mortgage their homes and start building their own Union™ Brand firearms in business and firearm friendly New York. They (and their Union) can keep all the obscene profits.

    They can continue to deliver the same quality Remington has come to represent over the past 20 years to Union™ Brand. Maybe the Joe Biden model shotgun, or a single shot AR-15 with no option for a magazine. Lefties will line up for the R51 since it won’t fire most of the time anyway. Or market the Holy Grail Smart Gun, tied to fire only if it matches the owner’s DNA, or Iris scan or whatever they are peddling this week. Maybe make a gun that will only fire at the legs of target. Possibilities are endless.

  16. Interesting there is no reference to the W.A.R.N. Act.

    “The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 (the “WARN Act”) is a US labor law which protects employees, their families, and communities by requiring most employers with 100 or more employees to provide 60 calendar-day advance notification of plant closings and mass layoffs of employees[1], as defined in the Act.

    Employees entitled to notice under the WARN Act include managers and supervisors, hourly wage, and salaried workers. The WARN Act requires that notice also be given to employees’ representatives (i.e., a labor union), the local chief elected official (i.e. the mayor), and the state dislocated worker unit. ”

    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_Adjustment_and_Retraining_Notification_Act_of_1988“

    • That was a direct response to the corporate raiders like Carl Ichan buying and smashing companies for profit.

      What they did to those employees sounds like a violation of that law, if not others…

  17. This has been going on for years. Look up “Chainsaw Al” and Sunbeam, and Wall Street though he was a hero.

    The people who run this country and the CEO’s and other high end assholes are no better than the French Aristocrats just before the revolution.

    This may be why some people are rioting, maybe these white kids realize they are being given no future…..

    You need a revolution now and again. It wont’ bother me seeing some of these crooks and the Hollywood snowflakes being hoisted on their own petards. This would be poetic justice.

  18. There is good unions & there are bad unions,
    I myself spent 40 yrs in a very good union & the only beef I had with them was the fact that they get very political during election cycles,
    Most of the time I disagreed with who they wanted the rank & file to vote for.
    One thing is for sure, public employees should not be allowed to create unions, except for law enforcement.I mean just look at what the teachers unions have done to the taxpayers, hold them hostage until they get their way.
    “””FREE KYLE”””

    • What makes LE different from every other class of public employee?

      And what good is a union that’s “mostly good, but gives my money and pushes me to give my votes to Marxists working to destroy my country”?

      • I’d put fire-rescue in the same category.

        Are you aware ambulance workers in many areas make little more than minimum wage?

        Is that what you want for someone saving your damn life?

    • Police unions are needed, but they still have abuses. The “Thin Blue Line” and their unions protects good cops caught in a Catch 22 situation, but more often protects corrupt and violent cops.

      I will say that cops have an impossible job, I do not have the temperament to do that job, I would say that very few people could do the job correctly and burn out would whittle those down quite a bit. No wonder so many move on to less stressful positions

  19. The whole point of bankruptcy is that the company cannot meet its financial obligations under various contracts with lenders, vendors, employees and other stakeholders.

    In what world does a company liquidate its assets, cease to exist, and still remain obligated under its union contracts?

    • “In what world does a company liquidate its assets, cease to exist, and still remain obligated under its union contracts?”

      In a world where the bankruptcy court approves the proffered bankruptcy plan.

      Corporate raiding (“vulture” capitalism) has been a thing for quite a long time; part of a free market. People are beyond foolish if they think they are owed anything more than a day’s pay for a day’s work.

      • “People are beyond foolish if they think they are owed anything more than a day’s pay for a day’s work.”

        You realize that’s a powerful argument for a strong union, don’t you? 🙂

        • “You realize that’s a powerful argument for a strong union, don’t you? ”

          Not actually. A union cannot buck the business cycle. When demand for the products of a company dries up, existence of a union cannot keep a business in operation.

          A good idea stands on its own. A really bad idea requires government protection.

      • When the contracts are negotiated, workers give up some salary in order to have it invested into medical and pension funds.

        The medical and pension fund that the company holds for the workers are still compensation to the workers for the work they’ve done, the money is not an asset of the corporation but rather the workers investment.

        But the bankruptcy courts, because of the wealthy elites control of legislation, view these medical and pension funds as corporate assets to be looted.

        Massey Coal CEO Don Blankenship was guilty of both lying about safety regulations and lying to investors.

        In our system, where only people with money matter, Don Blankenship stood more prison Jeopardy for lying to investors then he did for concealing workplace hazards that led to the death of 29 miners at Upper Big Branch.

        It was a non-union coal mine.

        Any system that values money more than workers’ lives, is a corrupt system that needs to be reformed by whatever means necessary.

        • “Any system that values money more than workers’ lives, is a corrupt system that needs to be reformed by whatever means necessary.”

          This is why government is essential to human life. There can be no individual control over decisions that affect the individual, or other individuals who come in contact. Comfort and predictability are the highest form of human life, any deviation that causes unequal outcomes is the product of individual selfishness and must be eradicated by government at all levels. Adversity in all its forms must be eradicated. People cannot be relied upon to manage their own affairs, especially in a way that does not benefit every other person.

          No, pensions are not earned, they are bets on the future. If a company offers a pension, the funds are placed at risk of not being there in the future; IOUs of a sort. Pension plans can be governed by strict fiduciary rules, and still evaporate as a result of financial conditions beyond the company’s control. And truth is that even a paycheck is problematic. If the company cannot generate enough business to make payroll, the labor that truly earned the paycheck cannot be forced to create money out of thin air.

          Life is tough. No one owes us future.

  20. To be honest, I hope D’Arcy and his buddy Italia are spending time at the Terre Haute Federal Penn instead of of hunting at their buddy’slodge on the company dime with their $Free.99 Remington Custom Shop rifles. Meanwhile, decades of firearms design and manufacturing experience walked out the door never to return.

    The way D’arcy drove Remington into the ground and treated his employees, at all the locations, is contemptible at best.

  21. Congressman Brindisi is a Democrat who stands up for working people & their families. The Remington hustlers trying to screw 585 Remington skilled workers are following the lead of President Trump, who’s been a mobbed-up lawbreaker his entire adult life. No respect for those who have no power.

  22. Like this is NEWS!!!!! These venture capital raiders come in, buy stuff up and run it into the ground. Once the fire sale is started, them and they’re shadow companies are right there to pick up the pieces for a song. See: Chainsaw Al. He was one of the early innovators at effing over entire well known companies. Thankfully, he’s dead now, old age took him. I knew I smelled a rat when the article on the buyers came out. Not surprised, even a little. It stinks for the workers, sadly that’s always how it ends up. If this ends up like the majority of these deals, no one will go to jail or pay a dime to the employees. It’s a dang shame, welcome to white collar crime.

  23. Ah, that uncomfortable moment when you realize the bastions of this beloved industry are still scions of everything bad about Corporate America.

  24. all the while me and many others have our guns held hostage due to the fact the factory and repair shops owned by Remington have shut down while the transition to Ruger is happening. They don’t respond to phone calls as their lines give you a message saying offices are closed. Emails have little help either. My 45-70 GBL has been in repair hell since June and once they decided to actually replace the damn gun it was sent to NY for final review before being shipped to my FFL. Then the buyout with Ruger was announced and they shut everything down with no way to effectively communicate with Remington/Marlin. Ruger hasn’t taken ownership so they are not helpful yet. My property is being held hostage with no way to retrieve it. I filed 2 complaints with the bankruptcy agency and am thinking about filing a claim with the bankruptcy court itself. Just send me back my property or ensure that my time and loss of property is compensated. Should’ve gone with my gut and stick with Henry. Per the bankruptcy agency theres over 100 customers/clients that are complaining about property stuck in this limbo.

  26. Should sold it to or with Hunter Biden. Then you are immune from Federal Investigation/Prosecution. Of course it would cost and extra 10 pts to the Big Man.

  28. So, they blew smoke up Dan Zimmerman’s a$$ for his October 9 article on how wonderful dedicated gun people Roundhill Group and their principals were. Any comments on that?

  29. Lesson here is don’t take your company public if don’t want to risk this happening at any time. It’s a food chain cycle of life kind of thing.

    All Rem had was a couple of good shotguns, RemOil, Thunderbolts, and a bolt hunting rifle with a funky trigger.
    Shame they took some good brands down with em tho, para made fine hi-cap 1911s

  30. I’m far closer to a business owner than a union worker but as the general manager of a large organization and some who has both union and non union employees, if the former CEO of Remington is acting in bad faith, as it sure look like, then he should be nailed to the proverbial cross. Bankruptcy was the time to address this (or ideally, ahead of time to avoid bankruptcy). There was a lot going against Remington ahead of this deal but it’s a shame to see a once great company fall as it has.

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