Camping Giant Coleman Company = MASSIVE LAYOFFS

WICHITA KS

I just got this from a good friend who has worked for the Wichita KS-based COLEMAN COMPANY for over 30 years: that they have initiated the most massive layoff in their corporate history which spans nearly a century. The camping equipment giant - a long-time leader in the outdoor industry [and world's largest camping-gear manufacturer]- normally has 650-700 employees on their many production lines churning out their huge array of tents, lanterns, stoves and sleeping bags... virtually anything related to leisure activities; effective today, they have reduced their workforce to a mere 7-10 people in their main manufacturing plant... and, those people are there soley to maintain the equipment in working order if/when they ask their labor force to return. This skeleton crew are checking hydraulic fluid, starting up idle equipment and filling what few orders are still trickling into their shipping department. But, they are basically keeping everything neat and tidy while the huge building sits idle. A skeleton crew are still on the job in the corporate office wing handling accounts receivable/payable and fielding questions from nervous vendors.

This layoff was presented to even long-term employees as "indefinite."

It should also be noted that NOT ONE WORD of this layoff has yet to be reported in the Wichita KS media - a pattern of public silence that Coleman has traditionally followed in times of previous short-term layoffs; however, those layoffs affected only small segments of the production line and not the entire manufacturing base as this one has done... yet, still they remain quiet.