Once George Eastman died Kodak began its death knell...
Kodak for many years was not profitable the big trend in the 1990's was to Layoff and fire a bunch of fulltime workers in the 3rd and 4th quaters right around July & August (just in time to save on paying out vacation pay) and then again around November to December up to 1 week before Christmas. I know this because I watched peoples parents who worked 15, 20, 25, and 30 years at the company get pink slips for no reason. Then right after the new year 1st quater they would bring in thousands of temp workers to backfill those jobs. Meanwhile this made their stock float and made them look profitable since a company profits are determined by sales - costs . So by lessing the payroll they more or less fudged their profitability for years. Look back at all the layoff annoucements they always happened in the 3rd and 4th quaters of the year just in time to give the stock a bounce in the new year.
Additionally Kodak workers in the Rochester are were very loyal they bought only Kodak Cameras and anything else that was Kodak. Years ago they had employee suggestion boxes where if employees made a suggestion that benefitted the company, a refinement to an assembly line, a better way to product something, a new product an employee could write in the suggestions and in turn if it helped make the company more money by cutting costs or creating new streams of revenue the employee would see a percentage bonus in their pay based on the amount of money that idea generated. I know many people whos parents and grandparents got monetary awards from this program. However by the 1990's Kodak managers would just take your ideas as theirs and the monetary award system was ended. They became greedy
Also over the years within a few square miles of Kodak Park was a cluster of kids coming down with rare cancers, http://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/02/nyregion/rochester-parents-fret-and-sue-over-cancer.html This is also a MUST READ http://www.coldtype.net/Assets/pdfs/17.Nim.May27.pdf
in this same area people were reporting strange odors, animals becoming sick and dying, weird residue on their cars and homes, and odd fluids seeping up in their basements. One of the famous areas was Rand Street. Kodak was sued and they ended up paying out an undisclosed amount to owners of some of the Rand Street Homes. Kodak was sued multiple times for illegal dumping, fined multiple times by the EPA for being out of compliance with their factory exaust stacks. However the EPA was up and down with them while they went against them on some things they backed them on others. It wasnt until the 1990's the EPA started cracking down on them. Prior to that they turned a blind eye to what they were doing.
However they still continued to pollute the rochester region. Eastman Chemical which was part of Kodak until spun off had experimental chemicals inside of it that no one even know what they would do if they ever escaped the drums they were being stored in and because they were deemed "experimental" they did not have the same precautions and established handling procedures as known chemicals which carry MSDS sheets etc. Toulene, Benze, TCE you name it they had it.
The management became a complete joke you had managers managing managers, managing managers they made the same mistake that Xerox did. Too many inexperienced or burned out chiefs and not enough Indians. The 1990s caused part of this issue with the EOE b.s. many times fully qualified caucasian workers were passed up for job promotions, management positions and so forth especially males. If you were Latino, African American, or Asian or had a certain sexual preference you would get promoted to the top in no time even if you didn't knw how to do the job or have a college background or experience in it. Xerox did the same thing. They were both paranoid of discrimination lawsuits. So they would hire any non white male to fill a management position which has obviously turned out to be disaterous for both companies. They were out to prove they were a diverse workplace.
Then came the final straw between firing everyone possible that was a long timer to save money mind you not because of job performance issues. They then produced inferior products with little quaity control. Anyone that worked with the old Disc Cameras will tell you what a piece of crap those were, they jammed, would double expose and advance through half the disc for no reason. Then of course they were sitting on their laurels just like Xerox did which in Xerox's case let Heidlberg become a huge force to be rekoned with (funny part is they put in a main office in the old Elmgrove Kodak Facility. Kodak missed the boat on digital imaging they became irrelvant in the digital world.
They sold off all of their Elmgrove road plant, have demolished multiple buildings at Kodak Park and everywhere they have been is listed as NYS Superfund cleanup site. http://www.epa.gov/region02/waste/fskodakp.htm http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/06/business/report-sees-kodak-fines.html
At this point I don't feel sorry for them after what they have done to the Rochester community, what they have done to the environment. I only feel sorry for the people that dedicated their entire lives there and took pride in their work and will now be getting reduced benefits and possible no health insurance at all.
