As the slow-motion man-made disaster in Venezuela rolls on, it’s important to remember that there are brothers and sisters in our industry who could be suffering because of it. If you’ve followed DWM for the past year or so, you probably read our coverage of the takeover of Guardian Industries’ float glass plant in Maturin, […]

In early September 2016, a month after Venezuela’s military seized Guardian Industries’ float glass plant there, the company issued a statement saying the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro had used a routine maintenance shutdown of the furnace as the pretext for taking it over. Venezuela claimed it occupied the plant because Guardian had “abandoned” […]

A little over a year ago, the government of Venezuela ordered the military to seize the Guardian Industries glass plant in that country. Since then, a DWM analysis of social media and Internet posts shows that the facility has reportedly restarted operations, while the workers have faced blatant political coercion from Venvidrio, the state-owned company […]

The former Guardian Industries glass factory in Venezuela, which was seized by the country’s socialist government in July 2016, will now be operated by Venvidrio, a state-run company that was created from the takeover of another U.S.-based glass company, Owens-Illinois. Last week, Venezuela’s Labor Ministry gave Venvidrio the responsibility for restarting operations at the plant […]

It’s been another busy year in the door and window industry, with lawsuits, plant takeovers and hilarious celebrity encounters generating headlines. With that in mind, here are the stories that saw the most web traffic on DWM in 2016. 1. Simonton Hit With Class-Action Lawsuit A story from late October focused on a class-action lawsuit […]

The Guardian Industries float glass plant that the government of Venezuela seized in late July is “a shell of itself,” according to a worker at the facility whom DWM has contacted. Because of a lack of raw materials and the state’s intervention, no glass is being produced, the worker says, adding that all the employees […]

The socialist government of Venezuela used a routine maintenance shutdown of Guardian Industries’ float glass furnace at its facility in Maturin as a pretext to seize the plant in late July, according to a statement the company released over the weekend. Guardian says it warned the South American country that it could be creating a dangerous situation […]

Venezuela’s socialist government has revealed how it will manage the Guardian glass plant its military seized a month ago — and it resembles the way it’s now running the Kimberly-Clark diaper-making facility it took over in early July. A web post from Actualidad Laboral, a labor-law website run by the Littler Global international law firm, gives a glimpse into Venezuela’s bureaucratic process […]

In late July, the government of Venezuela seized Guardian Industries’ float glass plant there — and experts say the company will face challenges to receive direct compensation for the action. International investments like Guardian’s 26-year-old operation in Venezuela are often covered under agreements known as bilateral investment treaties, or BITs, according to Sidley, an international law firm […]

Venezuelan officials on Wednesday officially “reopened” the Guardian Industries float glass plant that they seized by military force in late July.  In a Facebook post on Thursday morning, the government  said it would be a “temporary occupation, which will have a duration of one year,” with the goal of producing 350 tons of glass per day for export. According to a […]