Ermico Enterprises
Trick
ok.. I've been sitting on this article for a while.. it is an old article.
I've wanted to post it just so a lot of people who may not know about
it might learn something. This article is about Ermico Enterprises
which is the main company that Fausto owns. Ermico produces and/or
has financial connections to Thrasher, Slap, Independent trucks,
Venture trucks, Thunder trucks, Real skateboards, Think skateboards,
Adrenaline skateboards, Stereo skateboards, Spitfire wheels, and a
shitload of other companies that I could name for a few more lines..
I guess the point behind this is that you may want to think a bit
before you purchase products from these people. I don't know the
current labor status with Ermico but I've been trying to reach Local
164 every now and then.
for the record, I don't think that Fausto is an ultimate evil, I think
some things that I've heard and seen evidence of are kinda shady, the
advertising practices are just the beginning.
oh, and I ride Spitfire wheels and Thunder trucks, go figure.
...murray...
the following article was in the San Francisco Chronicle March 18th,
1987. It was reprinted in whole.
*Unusual Strike By Immigrants at S.F. Factory*
A walkout by Salvadoran immigrants at a San Francisco
skateboard-parts factory provides a glimpse of organizing efforts in
the Bay Area's growing population of young Latino workers.
The 20 nonunion employees of Ermico Enterprises Inc. are on strike
for higher pay, better working conditions and union recognition.
Newly arrived, timid immigrants tend to remain silent about working
conditions that would provoke longtime residents. But two weeks ago,
20 of the 40 laborers at Ermico decided to walk off their jobs because
they felt that management was thwarting their attempt to form a
union. The other 20 are still working.
The strike came at a time when the workers, most of them
Salvadoran men in their 20s, were scheduled to vote in a secret
ballot election on whether to join Molders and Allied Workers Union
Local 164, which represents most Bay Area foundry employees.
Nelson Moran, 20, sat on the stump of a telephone pole as a trash
can fire warmed him and three other young strikers outside the gates
of the Hunters Point industrial park that contains the Ermico plant.
A police van was parked nearby. Nine strikers were arrested last
week for blocking access to the factory.
Checking of his list of grievances, Moran said there is no
ventilation
in a 20-by-40-foot area of the plant where workers grind aluminum
castings for skateboard wheels assemblies.
The only bathroom has no hot water, he said. Workers whose hands
are hot from handling molten metal sometimes get painful cramps
when washing with cold water, he said.
Workers sometimes get nauseated from breathing fumes from
lubricants used to cool drills and grinding machines, one young
unidentified laborer said. "You start feeling bad, sleepy, things like
that," he said.
David Bacon, and organizer for the molders' union, called the
conditions in the plant "primitive."
Newly hired workers earn $4.25 an hour at Ermico, according to
strikers. But workers in union foundries in the Bay Area start at $8
to $10 an hour.
"The salary is too low," said Moran, who emigrated four years ago
from his native Salvadoran farming town to the United States. "They
don't pay vacations, holidays. We don't have good insurance."
Management referred all questions to an attorney, James Meath of
Richmond, Va. Meath said that he is unaware of conditions in the plant
and cannot respond to any of the grievances.
"Our position is that we're going to run our business," he said.
Moran, who lives with his mother and brothers in San Bruno, laughed
when asked whether he feared that the U.S. Immigration and
Naturalization Service would come to check the striker's documents.
"I don't care if the people don't have papers," another striker said.
"No more exploitation." The metal-casting industry depends on
immigrants and eventually will listen to their demands, this worker
believes.
Ignacio de la Fuente, business manager for the molders' union,
predicted that the strike will influence other immigrants who enter
the Bay Area economy through low-paying factory and service jobs.
Economists have said job actions among unskilled Latino immigrants
may become more common under the new immigration law. Illegal
aliens who have lived in the United States continuously since Jan. 1,
1982 may be eligible to become temporary residents under the new
law.
Meanwhile, the union organizing effort is tied up at the National
Labor Relations Board.
The molders' union is charging that management refused to attend a
meeting a month ago, when the NLRB was to set a date for the
secret-ballot election. The union also claims that four laborers active
in organizing were fired two days after the meeting.
Management has responded with charges of intimidation by the union.
The company says the four workers were let go because of a business
slowdown.
--
tr...@netcom.com
Whatever works...
rick valenzuela
and a msg. to those who'll ask later...save it now while it's still there.
i ride ventures and spitfires. shit, i have an Ethan Fowler, too.
i guess really the only thing most of us have in our power to do
would be to ask what has been done about it, and maybe write a letter
expressing concern. a boycott would be difficult, at least for those who
skate every day and go through a lot of product. That only leaves
Tracker and Standard trucks to choose from, and who's to say they
don't operate in the same fashion? A boycott of such a broadly stratified
company like that is near impossible; it's like trying to not make anything
made by Beatrice. I actually prefer Deluxe products...boards wheels
trucks...
i know when you write a letter to a congressperson, it is treated as
representing 500 constituents who don't.
rick.
DanielG551
fl...@astro.ocis.temple.edu (rick valenzuela) writes:
Rick, it may not be totally cool for me to get involved with this
discussion, since I'm a member of the industry and have my own biases and
prejudices. (May not be good for my HEALTH, either -- but that's a totally
different story! Hello to all you lurkers from the Fausto Empire.)
BUT you may be interested to know that Deluxe, whose products you say you
prefer to Ermico's, is owned in large measure by Fausto. That's right, one
can just about say that Deluxe = Ermico. Dun & Bradstreet reports don't
lie!
It's been said that if the skateboard industry were 2 - 3 times as big as
it is now, the government would be all over it for violating anti-trust
and child-labor laws...
Question for everyone to consider: Would skateboarding have evolved
further or gone in different directions if the manufacturing and
publishing weren't so totally monopolized by such a small handful of
California-based companies?
Dan G.
Mr. Seismic
Matthew B Gross
>Question for everyone to consider: Would skateboarding have evolved
>further or gone in different directions if the manufacturing and
>publishing weren't so totally monopolized by such a small handful of
>California-based companies?
Hell yeah! Things would be totally different (but maybe not any better).
I'm still waiting for a listof all skateboard-realted companies and who owns
which ones. Then we can start picking apart the industry to its very core.
Matt
--
Everything is Everything
rick valenzuela
: BUT you may be interested to know that Deluxe, whose products you say you
: prefer to Ermico's, is owned in large measure by Fausto. That's right, one
: can just about say that Deluxe = Ermico. Dun & Bradstreet reports don't
: lie!
oh, I completely understood that before...i was just in a bit of a
depression _because_ i prefer Deluxe, and the article. I was in a
pretty good mood, too, before i read the article. it was the last one
to read and I went home in a sour mood over reality. Then when
I got home Noam Chomsky was on CSPAN2 talking about GATT, NAFTA,
E. Timor and a bunch of other things, and i really got down. Just think
how i felt when i found out i taped it on the same cassette with the
real video on it.
rick.
"If a cool spring rain on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue
lake into a puddle of black scum right in front of your eyes, and making
love might be fatal, there is not much left except TV and relentless
masturbation."
-Hunter S. Thompson, 1987
huphtur
DanielG551 <danie...@aol.com> wrote:
Hello Daniel...
My name is Appleman, I work for Rodolfo's (Dutch Skatedistributor)
Let's see what you wrote to Rick (who posted that 87664 year old
newspapermsg)
>BUT you may be interested to know that Deluxe, whose products you say you
>prefer to Ermico's, is owned in large measure by Fausto. That's right, one
>can just about say that Deluxe = Ermico. Dun & Bradstreet reports don't
>lie!
if you ask Jeff, Keith or Bryce about Fausto, they will all say that he's
a good boss...
>Dan G.
>Mr. Seismic
Hey!! Greetings from Beau Brown!!
Appleman....
Iain Hibbert
> It's been said that if the skateboard industry were 2 - 3 times
> as big as it is now, the government would be all over it for
> violating anti-trust and child-labor laws...
surely it *was* that big, 4-5 years ago? (and the first boom)
]ain
CKline
>>BUT you may be interested to know that Deluxe, whose products you say
you
>>prefer to Ermico's, is owned in large measure by Fausto. That's right,
one
>>can just about say that Deluxe = Ermico. Dun & Bradstreet reports don't
>>lie!
>if you ask Jeff, Keith or Bryce about Fausto, they will all say that he's
>a good boss...
they may say that he's a good boss, but don't think that they haven't all
talked a lot of shit abouthim. And those are three of Fausto's top dogs.
Why don't you ask some of the grunt workers, like the shippers, or the
sales people what they think about Fausto, or even better some of his ex
employee.
Thsi is not to say that Fausto is all bad, I just don't see what three
of Fausto's employees liking him has to do with near monopolies in the
industry.
Tim Leighton-Boyce
plu...@skate.demon.co.uk (Iain Hibbert) wrote:
>> It's been said that if the skateboard industry were 2 - 3 times
>> as big as it is now, the government would be all over it for
>> violating anti-trust and child-labor laws...
>
>surely it *was* that big, 4-5 years ago? (and the first boom)
>
>]ain
Interesting point. Certainly in the UK our first boom in the late seventies
(USA had an earlier one in the sixties) was bigger than the eighties one.
But, now I think about it, outisde people *did* begin to take notice then.
But it looks like we're safe now!
How does that compare with the American experience?
Tim
------------------------------
Tim Leighton-Boyce
tim...@c21pub.demon.co.uk
<A HREF="http://www.state51.co.uk/state51/">state51</A>
Trick
Huphter wrote:
>>if you ask Jeff, Keith or Bryce about Fausto, they will all say that
>>he's a good boss...
Ckline wrote:
>they may say that he's a good boss, but don't think that they haven't
>all talked a lot of shit about him. And those are three of Fausto's top
>dogs. Why don't you ask some of the grunt workers, like the shippers,
>or the sales people what they think about Fausto, or even better some
>of his ex employee.
I would like to take this time to announce that Ermico Enterprises is
NOT a member of Molders and Allied Workers Union Local #164.. the
representative I spoke was familiar with the situation with said that
they had tried to get unionship started but wouldn't say if it was
union-busting or not..
as far as I know, the Ermico workers could have changed their minds
about joining the union but the fact they went on strike would indicate
that they wanted to join.
make your own decision on what you want to do.. for those that may
have missed the original post, I found an article referring to a strike at
Ermico Enterprises in 1987. the strike was started because of some
union busting and the fact that the workers were underpaid and had to
work in "primitive" surroundings (including no hot water in the
bathrooms)
if there are people out there who find this to be a shitty situation, you
might want to send a letter to Ermico/Deluxe and may want to stop
purchasing items produced in part through Ermico.
those items include Thrasher, Slap, Real, Stereo, Fun, Black Label,
Independent, Race, Spitfire, Venture, Thunder, Think, Metropolitan..
and many others including the DLX store
I also want to add that I spent a little time on this, made phone calls,
looked up old articles in newspapers.. I'm also very aware that
members of Ermico/Deluxe have Internet accounts and lurk frequently
on the net so I'm sure that they are reading this.. if they want to
comment on this I would be personally really happy.. communication
between the consumer and producer is vital in an industry where there
is so much bullshit politics..
I also want to add that I'm not totally convinced that Ermico did
anything wrong.. but these are the facts and it's up to the skaters out
there to decide what is right and wrong.
btw: I picked up a copy of Thrasher the other day and breezed through it
in 15 minutes.. what happened to the days where Thrasher had tons of
articles that were actually interesting?
...murray...
--
tr...@netcom.com
Whatever works...
Trick
Matt wrote:
>I'm still waiting for a listof all skateboard-realted companies and
>who owns which ones. Then we can start picking apart the industry
>to its very core.
I started a database last year but it didn't really seem practical
because I was using a not-so-common program to do it and I wondered
how I'd post it
but I started a new one on paper this weekend.. it rained all weekend
in SF so I confined myself to my house and the local coffee shops
the database is just going to be an updated version of the Big Brother
article on "who owns what" but I'm just sticking to deck companies to
make it easier.. I ran into a few problems already.. some really new
companies have little info on them.. like Bike skateboards..
Trick
>Let's see what you wrote to Rick (who posted that 87664 year old
>newspapermsg)
um.. just to make everything cool.. that article was posted by me,
Murray, not Rick.. he was just the first one to reply to it.. I don't want
him to take blame for shit-stirring..
and it wasn't *that* old.. jeez ;)
...murray...
kiss kiss
--
tr...@netcom.com
Whatever works...
huphtur
>article on "who owns what" but I'm just sticking to deck companies to
>make it easier.. I ran into a few problems already.. some really new
>companies have little info on them.. like Bike skateboards..
They will be gone by the time you have finished yu list...
Hey.. EMail me your list... maybe I can help!!
>...murray...
apple
rick valenzuela
: > It's been said that if the skateboard industry were 2 - 3 times
: > as big as it is now, the government would be all over it for
: > violating anti-trust and child-labor laws...
Iain wrote:
:: surely it *was* that big, 4-5 years ago? (and the first boom)
was it? it was big, but double or triple what it is now? i'm not
sure... but the next like boom will be soon (according to Thrasher's
advertising info and TWS Business News), when the twelve and thirteen year
olds now turn fifteen. The thing about right now is that it seems more
integrated into hip fashion than before...case in point: the Tunnel,
a club in nyc that a lot of fashion models and other hip, young
highbrows go to. it has a mini in it. and as discussed before,
skaters seem to make the next season's fashion trends ahead of
schedule. a lot of shop owners i know are starting to figure this out.
and then there was that thread about peralta and stecyk doing skate
videos in a style that is now wholly plagiarized by MTV (well, okay.
you can't plagiarize a style). so anyway, if it does get another
huge boom, and is still 'hip,' then maybe there'll be more spotlight
on the actual industry itself. big if, though.
as for the shit hitting the fan...is this what we need/want?
what would happen? regulated skate industry, or regulated skating?
both?
rick.
trying hard not to sound like a clairvoyant pol. pundit.