Pros
Hourly employees are great people who care about their work and want to do a good job. Very motivating to work with nice operators. A couple of products with good brand names.
Cons
Incompetence and unprofessionalism at the salaried level of the organization. Corporate manufacturing has no concept of basic leadership principles. Believes that subordinates should always be off-balance in order to keep them in line so they will be fearfully motivated to do their job. The atmosphere is very high-school and childish being driven from the corporate office. The dishonesty and lack of trust shown from above results in backstabbing and unhealthy competition in ranks below. For a small company the politics are revolting. Owners of the company have promised the poor performers (with years of service) that they will always have a job, and new employees are expected to pick up the slack and be superstars while the fossils can continue to sit and do nothing but sabotage their efforts. HR is nonexistent. Discretion and confidentiality also a joke. Hourly employees are paid poverty wages and are ripe for union recruiting.