Petition to Art Corwin: Stop the Sale and Protect Your Legacy!

Petition to Art Corwin: Please Stop the Sale!

Art, you have worked at Moretrench since 1978. You have made countless contributions during your 39 years, and have led us through a number of challenging times. However, all of your efforts and good deeds became tainted on 1/4/18 when you announced the pending sale of Moretrench to the Keller Group – an announcement which devastated a vast majority of your fellow owners.


In a Moretrench publication titled "2008-2012: Five Year Look Back, A Look Ahead", you stated:
"In 2012, I asked Dave Meuller, Drew Floyd, Greg Zeigler, John Stanbury, Paul Schmall, and Tom Tuozzolo to develop a 5-year Strategic Plan that picks up where our last one left off; 1/1/13 to 12/31/17… I purposely did not have myself, Joe McCann, Rich Telesmanich, Mike McHugh, or Al Schuman participate in developing the plan. I thought it was time for the next generation to start thinking about where they want to take our company…I don't see why we can't continue doing that for the next 80 to 100 years."


You said that "it was time for the next generation" to begin planning for "where they want to take our company", but five years later you chose to make the largest decision in the company's history without any of their input or consultation. Meanwhile, "the next generation" has spent tens of thousands of man-hours (and millions of dollars) executing the last five year plan, not to mention developing the next one. 


Some of your other notable quotes include "nobody owns Moretrench, you just borrow it and leave it better for the next generation", "I don't see why we can't continue for the next 80 to 100 years", and "our best years are yet to come". With much of the leadership team you put in place six years ago, those statements can still come true. However, by selling Moretrench to Keller, those beliefs will die along with Moretrench's three-century-old history. No longer a family- or employee-owned company, Moretrench's legacy, ideals, and cultures will soon fade – and its name could be wiped out with one executive announcement from Keller (as was the case when they amalgamated their previously independent Canadian holdings in January 2018). 


Your recent actions and words have called a number of things into question. You claim that this decision is "such the right thing to do for the company", but many departments will be decimated, offices will be closed or consolidated, countless people will lose their jobs, and everyone will lose their employee ownership status and opportunity for future financial success therefrom. At the 1/4/18 town hall meeting, you said "What's at risk every day? Our ESOP. How do we protect retirement savings for over four hundred families? We cash it in." As you pointed out in 2015, our ESOP stock began its "eye popping" run in 1999, never looking back and averaging almost 20% annualized growth. While we acknowledge that construction is a risky business, Keller is not immune to those effects either (as evidenced by their wildly fluctuating stock price). The advantage we have over them and most everyone else is that we get to go to work and bet on ourselves every day – and up until 1/4/18 we really liked our chances.


For years, we all believed that you had been leading us in the right direction. For someone who has so passionately embraced being a Moretrench employee for nearly 40 years, and for someone who has bred that same culture into well over a thousand employees since, how could you single-handedly broker a deal that could bring about the termination of three centuries of history? And regarding your legacy within the industry, do you have any concern that your tenure at Moretrench might be remembered as one which culminated in deception, mistrust… and far worse? 


If you want to protect your reputation as one of the leaders of a company whose best years are still to come, please stop the sale and complete the transition of power that you began in 2012. And with our ESOP restored, Tom Tuozzolo and John Carpenter can lead Moretrench and MES to new heights.


By signing this petition, I hereby:


- question and condemn management's decision to solicit and entertain an offer to sell our company without any consultation with or buy-in from the employee owners or its incoming leadership team;


- question how management could decide the fate of more than 400 other employee owners without any of their consent or consideration;


- believe that management's actions were not done in the best interests of the company;


- assert that "the people of Moretrench" cannot be bought or sold;


- voice my STRONG DISAPPROVAL of the proposed sale of Moretrench;


- ask for your resignation from your current leadership positions, followed by the immediate installation of Tom Tuozzolo in your place; and


- vow that if the sale is stopped and new leadership installed as outlined above, I will remember you as "The Man Who Saved Moretrench"; a man who put his personal interests and feelings aside, a man who was big enough to admit that a mistake had been made, and who ultimately fought for what was truly in the best interest of the majority of Moretrench's employee owners.

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