I finally found it.

Codger_64

Codger_64

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For nearly two years I have been looking for a copy of this landmark letter, and I finally found one. Copy it. Save it. But I am posting it so that you can see for yourself just what greeted the working men and women when they arrived at the time clock on the morning of July 29, 2004. Please don't turn this into anything more than it is intended, a tribute to the men and women who were the heart and soul of Schrade, the Schrade family. They were proud of the work they did there, and are still proud of their sacrifices and efforts, as well they should be. Take a moment to put yourselves in their shoes when reading the letter. Then if you have a good story to post about these people, or the importance of the products they made, do so. If not, please don't post. To me, this is sorta like the Alamo. There is not a Texan worth his/her claim to the name that wouldn't kick butt if you walked in there whooping and hollaring.

This is the closing notice handed to the employees.

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This is the Imperial Schrade factory on Schrade Court in Ellenville, NY today.

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Codger
 
Didn't know you were looking for one, you may wish to find the layoff letter given to the employees who lost their jobs the previous December, just weeks before Christmas. I don't have a copy of that one.
 
Was this Gardiner the outside "expert" that they brought in to save the company?
If not,what was the "saviour's" name?
Ron
 
No, Walter A. Gardiner was the COO, and President of Imperial Schrade. The outside "braintrust" was a different guy.
 
You may notice that Mr. Bregande kept his name out of that letter, he didn't want to ruin his reputation.
 
I did a google search and found Steve Bregande listed as the CEO of Camillus, also a member of the boards of directors of a couple of NY state manufacturing associations. Same guy?

Phil
 
Same guy, but he was let go by Camillus quite a while back, if I remember right. He is the infamous "Mr. B".

Wally is one of the good guys. He worked his way up into his position as President. Gardiner was named President and CEO of Imperial Schrade in 1986, the year before Henry Baer died. I'll have to ask around to be sure, but I believe Henry, Albert, and Dave Swinden all were instrumental in, and approved his appointment.

Codger
 
Isn't Mr Gardner one of the founders of Canal Street? It seems that I read that in an article in Blade Magazine.
 
Codger_64 said:
....Wally is one of the good guys. He worked his way up into his position as President. Gardiner was named President and CEO of Imperial Schrade in 1986, the year before Henry Baer died. I'll have to ask around to be sure, but I believe Henry, Albert, and Dave Swinden all were instrumental in, and approved his appointment.

Codger
Click to expand...

OK, I recieved confirmation that I was correct in my statement as to when/how Gardiner came to his position in Schrade.

....Gardiner started out in with the Imperial Knife Company in Providence RI and did work his way into the offices of the Executive offices of the Imperial Schrade Corp. in New York City. The main decision makers were the Board of Directors (the shareholders) for the Corporation for which Albert Baer was the Chairman, Henry was the Co-chair and Dave was one of the stockholders. It was definitely their decision, along with all the other stockholders and Directors, to make Wally President.
Click to expand...
And yes, he was a co-founder of Canal Street Cutlery along with several others who were major figures at ISC, and the first hire workers were the Schrade sample makers and top cutlers.
Codger
 
Codger:
RE: the portion of your statement: "To me, this is sorta like the Alamo. There is not a Texan worth his/her claim to the name that wouldn't kick butt if you walked in there whooping and hollaring."


Boy that is a fact. You ought to have seen the reaction of my wife, when she saw a guy TAKING PICTURES (of all things) IN THE ALAMO CHAPEL with his flash camera .

My little bitty native Texan wife (who you could almost fit in your shirt pocket) marched immediately up to this poor schmuck and began "reviewing the rules" about not taking photographs in the shrine, and did so in a very convincing manner.

I hadn't noticed at first, but she sure caught it and I have never seen her that mad, even at me.

She went from being about five feet zero inches tall, to the size of a hacked off Marine Drill Instructor in about 2.5 seconds.
 
October 10, 2004

Mourning loss of a way of life as well as a job

By Jeremiah Horrigan
Times Herald-Record
jhorrigan@th-record.com

Dave Swinden Jr. worked for more than 20 years at Imperial Schrade. That job represented more than a paycheck for Swinden. When the end came, it hurt. It hurt to the bone.

His father, Dave Swinden Sr., is a well-known and respected man who worked his way through the ranks to become the company's CEO during its beat-the-world days.

Dave Jr. grew up in the world his father helped shape at Schrade. It's the only place he ever wanted to work and until July, the only place he ever did work.

Dave Jr. got the news of the shutdown the day after it happened, just after he arrived home from a trip to Disney World with his wife, Cynthia, and their three kids. His father gave him the bad news, outside in the driveway, man-to-man.

Nearly a month afterward, Swinden had found other work, loading and delivering frozen goods for a local distributor. It may have put food on the table, and though he was grateful, the new job didn't satisfy the hunger he has felt since being let go.

Swinden was still in mourning for the way of life he'd lost.

Swinden was 16 when he started doing odd jobs after school at Schrade. He's now a trained toolmaker, with nowhere to put his skills to work.

The stereotype of the plant worker, of the guy who's a virtual cog in a massive, unfeeling and faceless factory, doesn't apply to Schrade. A tradition of excellence survived everything. People made things there, the best knives in the world. Each knife was different, and every one – at least until the end – was as perfect as could be.

Knife-making in America isn't a dying art; it's a dead art, and that's what hurts.
"It used to be, I could come home at the end of the day and feel like I'd made something," Swinden says. "Something tangible."
He shakes his head in wide-eyed disbelief.

Then there were the people.
"I was working for childhood friends – I knew everyone. I always looked forward to going to work." OK, so maybe it wasn't always exactly a "pleasure palace." It was drafty in the winter and hot in the summer.

It got tough in the last three years, knowing the company was getting chewed up by foreign competitors, watching the layoffs happen, watching pride leave the floor as cheaper materials became commonplace.

Swinden has left the frozen foods business to work freelance as a carpenter. He's found that wherever he goes, he's the new kid on the block. It's a new sensation.
He may not like it, but he says he's getting used to the idea that it'll never again be like it was.


What this story doesn't say is that his wife, Cindy worked there too. And his sister. And her husband. As did Dave Swinden Sr, his father, though he had officially retired as CEO in 1999 and stayed on as an advisor, and sometimes product designer. Dave Sr. Had a few more than twenty years there. He worked for and with the Schrade brothers before the Baers bought the company at the end of WWII. He started there as a teen window washer. And was/is a very accomplished cutler in his own right. Dave Sr. is a third generation cutler. The story of the Swinden family is a glimpse into the family that was Schrade. More than just a factory, a cutlery culture, a way of life passed down from generation to generation.

Codger
 
America loses much more than a few dollars of the GNP when a company goes under due to cheap foreign competition or because a CEO decides to outsource manufacturing to have a better bottom line.

When this happens America loses traditions and the way of life for our people, a way of life that sometimes spans 5 or 6 generations. These traditions and ways of life are what (at least in part) glue our society and people together. Immigrants come from many countries (UK, Germany & Italy to name some in the history of ISC), and in a company like Schrade (for example) they become a family and a community.

When the company closes, (for what ever reason) the glue that holds the community together begins to dissolve. We have experienced similar situations here in Oregon with the timber industry (mills close, logs are shipped to Japan/China, milled there & shipped back as lumber), and in the fishing industry (treaties limit the amount of fish we can catch, yet the countries we have the treaties with, Japan/USSR etc. ignore the treaties) and there are no fish for our commercial fisherman to catch.

The glue that holds communities and even families together dissolves and people lose hope and their dreams. Some of these people turn to alcohol and drugs to numb the pain. Then the communities really begins to suffer. I hope and pray that this does not happen in the communities of Ellenville & Camillus.

American citizens and American companies need to take a much more far sighted view than just where can I get the cheapest product.

My heart goes out to the employees of Schrade, their families and their community.

Dale
 
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