mfg in west allis

Ok, I admit that I was privileged to spend twenty years working for an Allis competitor that is still doing very well but also admit to having a loyalty to Allis because that is what Dad succeeded with and I spent many an hour operating.  And I don't know the exact reasons that Allis failed.  I know that this was before the onslaught of cheap goods from China and most likely didn't have anything to do with their failure but am reminded again today of the demise of our industrial base.  China must really be laughing up their sleeves at our stupidity.  Long story short, I retired and want to buy a little wagon gear to pull behind a lawn tractor on our acreage.  Do you think that I can find anything made in the USA? What happened to us?  

Heres my take on Allis Chalmers failing;; it didn't happen over night,, in 68, ? Dave Scott stepped in to the CEO spot, he turned things around but Ac was huge and hard to keep a handle on everything, then 74 they merged with Fiat in the heavy equipment sector, with Fiat in control , there goes some money, then the electric equipment sector was supposed to boom , but didn't and they merged with Siemmens in that with Siemmens in control there, more money slipping away, then the West Allis plant was a huge machine shop but without orders to fill, this investment wasn't making money either and it cost a bunch to keep the lights on , in 79 they had record profits but it was all going down hill, they built Sulzer ship diesel engines at West Allis for work but that was all red ink in the books, Dave Scott had buddied up with Carter and they started the coal gasification project, Kiln N Gas,, good idea , but Carter was out and Regan in,, bad deal for this progect- all of Allis markets had slowed down and interest rates started to climb, the big factor was the Agriculture markets started to go backward and this Ag sector was always profitable for Allis especially the Gleaner combine , rumor was it made 95% of the companies profit many years, Allis had just introduced the best tractors they ever had to sell - but no buyers,, everything came apart in the 80,s , they couldn't pay their bills,, so bankrupty got to be the only option, they bowwored 64 million from 64 banks to keep going and that failed ,, the corporation was split up, sold and gone - Houston Oil Field services was only thing left, then Oil Quip bought them to make Allis Chalmer Energy,,, sad something so big could be reduced to nothing ,, the world keeps turning tho

Allis Chalmers management, wanted to go head to head with Deere, Cat, GE/Westinghouse. One of those battle fronts would have been tough, but all three at once, was not going to end well.

Another take on the 1946-47 strike:

Edited by Austin(WI) - 01 Jul 2019 at 8:50pm

I remember hearing a speaker at a banquet (A GOTO banquet in 1998, I think.) say that in the early 1980's A-C, IH, and Deere were all in a similar position.  Deere survived because they had better management.  A-C and IH failed because they had poor management.  If I remember correctly, the speaker worked at A-C during that time.  

My Gal friend is an accountant and I just bought more AC annual reports 72, 73, , and she comments to have as many millions of dollars in the 70,s was unreal , a company should thrive,,