UAW Rejects Ford Proposal

At the end of October the United Auto Workers rejected a Ford proposal that would, among other things, ban the union from striking for higher pay or benefits until 2015. This strategy may be used in upcoming negotiations among other unions and their employers. If so, I would hope the unions request the favor be returned before they consider accepting this option: Management salaries be frozen and NO bonuses – cash or stock – be issued until the agreed upon year when such strikes can resume.

 

Microsoft cutting American jobs

Microsoft announced it will be eliminating 5,000 employees over the next 18 months with an immediate dismissal of 1,400. CNet News informs us that Senator Grassley is at least one elected official concerned about American employees:

Microsoft has been urged by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), a leading critic of the H-1B program, to protect the jobs of U.S. workers over foreign workers. In a letter last week to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Grassley demanded that U.S. workers get priority in keeping their jobs.

Legally, as the article explains, Microsoft has to treat H-1B employees as equal to all other employees. Grassley’s emphasis is that Microsoft may have a  “moral obligation” to keep as many American citizens employed as they can rather than preserving the visa holders.

Think twice about Offshoring

Fortune published 10 suggestions for companies to follow to weather this drastic economic downturn. These were gleaned from Marketplace. I include one of the ten that incites encouragement for this Main Street citizen:

Think twice about offshoring.

Manufacturing costs aren’t the only factor in an offshoring decision. Taxes, tariffs, speed, and transition costs can make a big difference. But at a time when costs count more than ever, don’t assume that offshoring is still your best option.

BRING THE JOBS BACK HOME!

Republic Employees get a break

As noted in my previous blog Republic Windows and Doors (Chicago) employees were let go without severance pay. Now we learn B of A is no longer playing Scrooge.

Bank of America says it will extend credit to a Chicago window and door manufacturer whose workers have occupied the factory for five days.

The bank says it’s willing to give the Republic Windows and Doors factory “a limited amount of additional loans” so it can resolves claims of employees who have staged a sit-in since Friday (12/5/08).

This is the same Bank of America that, after receiving $25 million in taxpayer bailout cash, cut off the company’s line of credit. The factory closed Friday and told workers they would not receive severance and accrued vacation pay.

Good for those employees sticking together to fight this.

Union workers show they care, Bankers do not

Associated Press:

CHICAGO – Workers laid off from their jobs at a factory have occupied the building and are demanding assurances they’ll get severance and vacation pay that they say they are owed.

About 200 employees of Republic Windows and Doors began their sit-in Friday, the last scheduled day of the plant’s operation.

Lawmakers in Illinois have singled out Bank of America for criticism, blasting the Charlotte, N.C.-based company for cutting off the plant’s credit after the bank itself received $25 billion from the government’s financial bailout package. [my emphasis]

Leah Fried, an organizer with the United Electrical Workers, said the Chicago-based vinyl window manufacturer failed to give 60 days’ notice, required by law, before shutting down.

During the peaceful takeover, workers have been shoveling snow and cleaning the building, Fried said.

The gall to get taxpayer money and respond to employees in such a fashion.

You go, union brothers and sisters!!

Ugly and getting uglier – job losses increase

From Wash Tech News:

America lost 240,000 jobs in October, the 10th consecutive month of job losses in the country. Today, 1.2 million Americans are unemployed in industries across the board. WashTech News spoke to a wide variety of unemployed people coast to coast. They are victims of outsourcing, corporate layoffs, downsizing, and effects of the seizing economic wheels of the country.

Underemployment – a clearer picture, and it ain’t pretty

From the Economic Policy Institute:

The nation’s growing jobless rate has gotten growing attention, but the full extent of employment woes has gone unrecognized. In this week’s Snapshot, economic analyst Nooshin Mahalia examined underemployment–a fuller measure of labor market slack. Underemployment includes workers who involuntarily work part time as well as those who want a job but have stopped looking. Mahalia’s analysis reveals that underemployment is at 11%, the highest it’s been in 14 years. With 9.5 million unemployed workers, 6.1 million involuntarily part-time workers, and 1.6 million workers who are no longer looking for work, this measurement shows that the jobs crisis is worse than many realize.

We are working better and paying more for body repairs

Having just noted that we are working better today and getting paid less, I now see this AP article in the Idaho Statesman:

The number of Idaho residents who don’t have health insurance has remained about the same since 2004, even while employers say they’ve scaled back on benefits for both full-time and part-time workers.

Same number covered, it says, but covered less. We are getting lower wages than we were a decade ago (see previous post) and our health benefits are ALSO decreasing.

The good ‘ol middle class squeeze.

We are working better but losing ground…

Recent info from Economic Policy Institute:

The economy expanded over the 2000s, and working families were highly productive, as output per hour rose 18% from 2000 to 2007. But despite their contributions to the economy’s growth, middle-income, working-age households—those headed by someone less than 65—lost ground over these years. Their median income, after adjusting for inflation, fell $2,000 between 2000 and 2007, from about $58,500 to $56,500 (2007 dollars).

Keep up the good work, my fellow Mainstreeters. Surely our corporate leaders will soon realize how valuable we really are and help us catch up to 1995’s wages. Surely.

County jail “insources” prison labor to “save” money

Quotes are from The Idaho Statesman.

Inmates in eastern Idaho are working to repair the roof of the Bannock County jail as part of a strategy that saved more than $100,000 in labor and building costs.

“It’s a win-win situation because the inmates get an opportunity to do something besides count bricks,” [Sheriff Lorin Nielsen] told the Idaho State Journal.

Am I the only one that compares prison labor to outsourcing? Yes, this is a way to save money for this county, and it appears to “make sense” to use these men on such jobs. But is this not preventing tax-paying citizens a possibility to earn money for themselves to support their families in the community?

The $100,000 “saved” by the county is money that will not be spent in the local businesses. If all businesses in this community that could outsource their work did so, don’t you see that the community would eventually collapse?