Pierce Manufacturing, Inc.

Pierce Manufacturing builds fire trucks and fire engines in Appleton, Wisconsin.
I understand that Pierce has about 25% of the domestic market share.
For many years Pierce has enjoyed a reputation of excellence.
Pierce builds custom-designed, one-of-a-kind, quality fire trucks and fire engines that fire departments are proud to own.
It was fun working for the company and I was proud of my contributions.

The official URL for Pierce Manufacturing, Inc. is http://www.piercemfg.com/.

Pierce Manufacturing is a subsidiary of Oshkosh Truck Company

The official URL for Oshkosh Truck Company is http://www.oshkoshtruck.com/.

Slogan: Builders of the Finest

I changed jobs in December 1998 because Pierce Manufacturing was no longer a good employer. At that time the company was suffering from high employee turnover and low morale caused by bad management practices. The new company owners were treating employees poorly and taking shortcuts that many of us believed hurt the company and product quality. Many important employees had left the company and continued leaving after I did. Pierce Manufacturing acquired the reputation within the community as being a bad employer. For several years it seemed that few had anything good to say about working for Pierce Manufacturing.

My disappointment was with the upper and middle management people who had come from Oshkosh Truck after the "merger". They expected unrealistic amounts of unpaid overtime. I did not feel valued by my managers.

It was hard working to support the company's old computer system. It was targeted to be replaced and energies were being focused on a new system. The old system still ran the company, but management was unwilling to properly support it. I was exclusively on-call 24x7 and was called or paged at all hours of the day, and received neither compensation nor recognition for my excessive overtime support efforts. I felt that I was being pushed out of the company.

Current employees tell me that things are going much better now. There are still many good people working for the company. New computer systems are working properly. Pierce products are still well-made by people who take pride in their work.

05/11/04 - Alan Lawrence.