Originally Posted by
Idaho45guy
Surprised that there are problems out of the Southport plant.
I worked for Ruger as a CNC operator in the Prescott, AZ plant in 2013. I was living in the Prescott area and worked as an auto claims adjuster when my wife filed for divorce. I quit my high-stress insurance job with plans to move to Idaho.
I ended up needing to stay in the area for a few months longer and was hired through SOS Staffing to work at Ruger. Because my math test results were high enough, I gota higher paying CNC operator position at $10.50 an hour.
I worked a 3-axis Fanuc machine working on trigger bars, slides, rear sights, etc.
I swore I would never buy a Ruger firearm produced at that factory based on how the employees were treated and the lax QC I observed.
Working there was like working at a prison. You had to stand in line before your shift and after your shift to enter or leave the factory and they had security guards checking your lunchbox by hand after you went through a metal detector. Understandable for a firearms factory that employed underpaid temp workers. While working, guards roamed the factory watching the workers. Shifts were ten or twelve hours, five and six days a week.
The CNC team I was assigned was comprised of about 10 guys. Most were Hispanic and in their early 20's. My supervisor was an older white guy that had seniority because he'd been there the longest at three years. Turnover rate was exceptionally high. Burnout was rampant. By the time I was ready to move back to Idaho, I had been there three months or so and there were only two other guys still on my team that were originally there when I started.
I was working there when there was a freak hail storm that collapsed the roof. Before the collapse, water had begun pouring in 30' from our row of CNC machines and the shop supervisor ordered us to stay at our machines despite the obvious electrical hazard. Fifteen minutes later the roof collapsed and me and a couple of other guys got a wave of water hitting our machines.
At an employee meeting the next day, the plant manager threatened to fire anybody that talked to the media about the collapse. That guy was a complete *** in how he ran things and how he treated employees.
In relation to QC, I was milling the rear sight dots and noticed that the two dots weren't centered on the notch. They were offset, and it was random, so it wasn't my program setting. I finally figured out that the jig that held the sights in was worn and no longer within tolerance. QC dept. came and investigated, confirmed my suspicion, and decided to keep on running them that way...
A few months after moving to Idaho, my brother and I were at a gun shop and I asked to see one of the pistols that the sights were being milled for. I can't remember if it was a P-Series or the SR series... Anyway, the clerk handed me the pistol and sure enough, they were offset. I showed my brother and the clerk and they couldn't believe Ruger knowingly sent out pistols like that.
So, I was hoping that their CT plant firearms would have higher quality standards. When I bought my BH Bisley last Summer, it had some careless machining marks and grip panels not quite perfect, but not too bad.
I heard they were opening their North Carolina plant using the same cheap temp labor system that they used for their AZ plant. I can't imagine quality out of that plant is very good.