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Thread Number: 77560
/ Tag: Vintage Automatic Washers
Article: 100th Anniversary of Westinghouse in Mansfield |
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Post# 1015526 11/23/2018 at 16:50 (1,978 days old) by moparwash  (Pittsburgh,PA ) |
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Great article on a sad ending..the entire company should of, and could of still existed today as it once was as it's demise was completely self-inflicted.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO moparwash's LINK
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| Post# 1015532 , Reply# 1 11/23/2018 at 17:55 (1,978 days old) by norgeway (mocksville n c ) | ||
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I will take That whole row of appliances brand new thank you! | ||
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Post# 1015550 , Reply# 2 11/23/2018 at 18:48 (1,978 days old) by electronicontrl (Grand Rapids, MI) |
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Interesting read | ||
| Post# 1015612 , Reply# 4 11/24/2018 at 04:23 (1,977 days old) by arbilab (Ft Worth TX (Ridglea)) | ||
 Makes me wistful. We were a W family. Westinghouse was the first long word I could spell. Dad worked there (apparatus) straight out of WW2 until he retired from nuclear in the 80s.
Westinghouse pritmuch invented employee benefits, starting with the 6-- later 5-- day workweek. They took care of their own. Only a regional sales manager, Dad sent 4 kids to college, cash, and stepmom still lives on the sale of W stock.
This is why it galls me so when legacy brands get diluted, defamed, destroyed by "new-age" management or whatever the expletive they call themselves. It undermines the very structure that made us the economic, productivity, world-standard powerhouse we were.
Some compense that I got to see/live it, countered by appreciation for the depth of loss. Who killed Westinghouse? Here's a multi-chapter article titled exactly that, from Pittsburgh Post Gazette. If they're still in business that is.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO arbilab's LINK | ||
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Post# 1015616 , Reply# 5 11/24/2018 at 05:53 (1,977 days old) by electronicontrl (Grand Rapids, MI) |
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WCI
@Corvairgeek - I'm from a small town near Pittsburgh and left to go to school in Columbus. (DeVry 1981 - 1985). The apartment building I lived in had shaded harvest gold Westinghouse appliances. The electric range was BOL.The dishwasher was POS. You had to virtually wash the dishes before placing them in the DW. The refrigerator won me over. It was very well built. I wanted to take it with me when I left.
@Arbilab - "step mom still lives off the sale of W stock". Damn I'm envious. But regarding historic appliance brands, nothing stays the same. What are we to do? (Assemble vintage appliance museums in our basements.... I suppose)... | ||
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Post# 1015623 , Reply# 6 11/24/2018 at 08:27 (1,977 days old) by moparwash (Pittsburgh,PA ) |
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| Post# 1015638 , Reply# 7 11/24/2018 at 11:15 (1,977 days old) by golittlesport (California) | ||
we were a Westinghouse family too
Grew up in Pittsburgh where Dad worked at Westinghouse's Bettis plant as an engineer. He received a nice discount on Westinghouse appliances and so just about everything in the house was Westinghouse. There were a few exceptions, mostly gifted items - like the Electrolux vacuum that was a wedding present. My mom's parents were General Motors all the way, cars or appliances, so our dishwasher and clothes dryer were Frigidaire - gifts from them. When the Frigidaire dryer expired, it was replaced with a Westinghouse.
Dad stayed with Westinghouse his whole career, ending up in New Mexico working on storing nuclear waste in the salt caverns. When Westinghouse sold their appliance division and there were no more discounts on appliances for employees, there were no more Westinghouse (or White-Westinghouse I should say)appliance purchases for us. Mom's next refrigerator was General Electric and she turned to Kenmore for laundry appliances. A few years ago Mom remodeled her kitchen and the contractor put in a Frigidaire dishwasher and stove. She was excited about having Frigidaire, considering them a premium brand in the day. I didn't have the heart to correct her impression. (Although I have had favorable experience with Electrolux/Frigidaire front load laundry appliances. My son and daughter-in-law still use the 2006 set I gave them.) | ||
| Post# 1015673 , Reply# 9 11/24/2018 at 17:22 (1,977 days old) by CorvairGeek (Gem State) | ||
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My WCI I can't recall if any of the WCI products actually said Columbus, or if they all said Dublin, OH. I checked our BOL garage unit that replaced our beloved '50 Westinghouse, but it says Dublin too. We had a MOL WCI dishwasher about the same vintage that was awful. | ||
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Post# 1015686 , Reply# 10 11/24/2018 at 20:01 (1,977 days old) by JustJunque (Western MA) |
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Springfield, MA
Sorry. I don't know what they did there, or when it closed, but Westinghouse had a big factory complex in Springfield MA.
The only thing remaining is the brick building that was the offices. The rest of the complex was torn down, and they built one big factory where a Chinese company builds train cars. Barry | ||
| Post# 1015699 , Reply# 12 11/25/2018 at 02:33 (1,976 days old) by arbilab (Ft Worth TX (Ridglea)) | ||
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Post# 1015702 , Reply# 13 11/25/2018 at 04:01 (1,976 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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"Does anyone know the motive for the strike"
Apparently what it always comes down to; management wanted (and or needed)to save labor costs, and the union said "not on our members backs you won't".
newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/cgi... cdsun.library.cornell.edu/QUESTIO... www.leagle.com/decision/1... russenzor.blogspot.com/2016/02/a-... In a basic nutshell Westinghouse wanted to conduct a limited time study to see if worker costs could be brought down. Unions feared (likely rightly) that Westinghouse would use any results of said study to further automate plants and thus reduce workers. As others have stated the 1955 strike was bitter, nasty and harmed both Westinghouse and employees/union. | ||
| Post# 1015703 , Reply# 14 11/25/2018 at 05:34 (1,976 days old) by arbilab (Ft Worth TX (Ridglea)) | ||
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...harmed both... | ||
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Post# 1015712 , Reply# 15 11/25/2018 at 07:36 (1,976 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md) |
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Around 1955 Was The Turning Point For WH Major Appliances After this time quality and reliability just got worse and worse, I can't think of one really good appliance that they produced after this time, which is a real shame because they did have some great designs and styling.
WH rapidly started losing the builder business to GE, FD and WP and by the mid 60s few builders would take a chance putting WH appliances in their new homes, so the major appliance sales dwindled away.
John L. | ||
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Post# 1015713 , Reply# 16 11/25/2018 at 07:37 (1,976 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI) |
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Post# 1015717 , Reply# 17 11/25/2018 at 09:48 (1,976 days old) by moparwash (Pittsburgh,PA ) |
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During the 1956 strike, Mom was working at the East Pittsburgh plant in the Power Generation Business office, since they were not on strike and were working on advance contracts for utility companies, her office boarded a PRR train in nearby Wilmerding to the East Pittsburgh station, which was practically on W property, snuck into the plant, got their work and office equipment, re-boarded the train to nearby Wilkinsburg, where they worked in the Penn-Lincoln Hotel until the strike was over. But back to Imperial content...we always had Kenmore appliances, even with Dad's W discount because she believed the quality in the 60's and 70's wasn't what it once was.
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| Post# 1015722 , Reply# 18 11/25/2018 at 10:35 (1,976 days old) by norgeway (mocksville n c ) | ||
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I disagree I thought Westinghouse was at their very best in the late 50s thru about 65 or so, My 59 Range tells me that, Its as heavy and well insulated as anything I ever used, I DO agree that the late 60s saw a sharp decline in quality.,But it did for many manufacturers. | ||
| Post# 1015736 , Reply# 20 11/25/2018 at 15:06 (1,976 days old) by firedome (Binghamton NY & Lake Champlain VT) | ||
Westinghouse
was big in Baltimore, they had Defense Electronics, Electric Motor, and Aerospace Fabrication (Sykesville) divisions, a total of 3 or 4 facilities there. My wife's step-Dad was a lawyer for Defense Electronics doing contracts with the Navy, her uncle was an EE at the same D E Division (and he's still alive at 93). The next door neighbor was an EE at the Motor Division on Taylor Ave. and everything in their house was Westinghouse.
My impression matches John's: laundry, ranges, fridges, fans, &c peaked in the mid-'50s but by early '60s quality was going downhill fast, sadly. By 1974 our neighbor at my own first house worked at the AF division doing satellite and defense fabrication. He always called it Wasteinghouse due to the numerous times they'd make something, blueprints would be changed, the structure thrown away and re-started from scratch, sometimes many times. No wonder they went broke. | ||
| Post# 1015737 , Reply# 21 11/25/2018 at 15:13 (1,976 days old) by firedome (Binghamton NY & Lake Champlain VT) | ||
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Pertinent to the preceeding...
my wife's parents had a top-freezer WH fridge, around 14 cu ft, bought on the employee discount plan around 1966. By the time we met in 1970 it was not keeping temp in the freezer compartment, and even after several repairs it was not right, and had to be replaced by 1971, at 5 yrs old, this time on my recommendation by a Frigidaire that was still going strong in 1994 when the house was sold...not a good performance by WH!
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Post# 1015761 , Reply# 22 11/25/2018 at 18:59 (1,976 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA) |
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Separately, going on in Mansfield in 1962 was a bit of a scandal which I'd never heard of before.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO jamiel's LINK | ||
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Post# 1015775 , Reply# 24 11/25/2018 at 20:35 (1,976 days old) by Washerlover (The Big Island, Hawai’i) |
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Never Really Saw Westinghouse in NorCal... | ||
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Post# 1015821 , Reply# 26 11/26/2018 at 00:12 (1,975 days old) by tolivac (greenville nc) |
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I briefly knew someone that worked in one of the Westinghouse Baltimore sites.Are these still in use-He could not say what he worked on-one of those types of places. | ||
| Post# 1016012 , Reply# 28 11/27/2018 at 19:16 (1,974 days old) by arbilab (Ft Worth TX (Ridglea)) | ||
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| Post# 1016090 , Reply# 29 11/28/2018 at 13:05 (1,973 days old) by firedome (Binghamton NY & Lake Champlain VT) | ||
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Westinghouse Baltimore today...
Rex - the Electronic Systems Division at the airport (now BWI, it'll always be Friendship Airport to me!) was absorbed by Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems group in the '90s when Westinghouse dissolved. Essentially it's still there in that form. Both the wife's step-Father and Uncle worked there for 30+ years.
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Post# 1016154 , Reply# 30 11/28/2018 at 21:31 (1,973 days old) by rinso (Meridian Idaho) |
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If the "B" and the two "E's" burned out on a lighted sign, it would say "You can sue, if it's Westinghouse."
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Post# 1016379 , Reply# 31 12/1/2018 at 00:46 (1,970 days old) by tolivac (greenville nc) |
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Firedome:glad the site is still being used under a new name! | ||
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