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New American "wage management" technique

by Alexander Fri Apr 6th, 2007 at 09:41:15 AM EST

Labor markets in America continue to become ever more flexible. The electronics retailer Circuit City—second only to Best Buy—has "fired 3,400 of its highest-paid hourly workers and will hire replacements willing to work for less" (Bloomberg). Circuit City felt pressured to cut costs because it has been making losses recently, due to being undercut in flat panel TV sales by Wal-Mart and Target. Workers that were fired made around $19 an hour, with healthcare benefits. Their replacements "will earn less than half that amount, without benefits. The company will graciously allow its allegedly overpaid former workers to reapply for their old jobs at starting wages after they endure 10 weeks of grueling unemployment. Fired Los Angeles worker Richard O'Neal was told he could eventually reapply for his job if he is willing to work for $7.50 per hour, California's minimum wage."

The 3,400 fired Circuit City workers are the guinea pigs of the latest experiment in aggressive wage reduction. Corporate America has become impatient with two-tier wages, which reduce the salaries of the newest generations of employees but still allow veteran workers to maintain higher wages until they retire. If Circuit City increases its profits by firing its highest-paid workers, this will become yet the latest corporate trend in slashing working-class living standards. If not, perhaps Wal-Mart's more subtle method will do. Last summer, Wal-Mart simply stopped granting wage increases for its long-standing employees, sending the clear message that their services are no longer wanted. These days, management prefers a revolving door of "entry-level" workers to a loyal workforce. (Counterpunch)

When will America's elites realize that unless they drop their neoliberal ways, which prevent unions from resisting pressure from management to keep down wages, America will end up like a third world country, with only a lucky few being able maintain an acceptable standard of living?

(Cross-posted at the Booman Tribune)

From the diaries - afew


Display:
But the lucky few will be so-o-o-o rich!
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Apr 4th, 2007 at 03:59:03 PM EST
'But the lucky few will be so-o-o-o rich! '

NOW i get your handle!

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 12:59:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
When will America's elites realize that unless they drop their neoliberal ways, which prevent unions from resisting pressure from management to keep down wages, America will end up like a third world country, with only a lucky few being able maintain an acceptable standard of living?  

They already do.  It is their goal.  So far, they are on schedule.  

The Fates are kind.

by Gaianne on Wed Apr 4th, 2007 at 04:00:58 PM EST
I doubt that it is really their goal ... most don't have a clue what places like Haiti are really like and what it means.

Though, perhaps the right analogy is Singapore, which, in many ways, meets the right-wing ideological dream state with vast difference between wealthy and the majority of the population, and a working nation that they respect.

Blogging regularly at Get Energy Smart. NOW!!!

by a siegel (siegeadATgmailIGNORETHISdotPLEASEcom) on Wed Apr 4th, 2007 at 10:30:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
When I saw what the [walled, guarded,] "gated communities" in Palm Springs were like I cold hardly believe it. Yes, I think people know exactly what they want and, like you say, they think they're personally going to be among the "winners".

"It's the statue, man, The Statue."
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 01:31:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]
but yes, it really is their goal.  

Their obsession and greed are so great that the future does not signify.  

Franklin Delano Roosevelt saved capitalism for them in the 1930s:  Were they thankful?  Not at all.  They excoriated him, then and now.  The New Deal has finally been overthrown:  Now they are trying Nazism.  Will it last a thousand years?  It DID NOT, last time; it CANNOT, this time.  No matter:  Anything less than everything is not worth even thinking about.  

A death trip.  Most likely, they are even destroying themselves.  

It does not matter at all.  

The Fates are kind.

by Gaianne on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 10:38:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]
It is a basic principle of neo-liberalism that the right way to run the economy is to pander to the consumer by fucking the producer. Thus Hayek in "The Constitution of Liberty" wrote that "a plant or industry cannot be conducted in the interest of some permanent distinct body of workers if it is at the same time to serve the interest of the consumers".
But even the obnoxious Hayek did not envisage the ridiculous greed of today's US top exectives.

See my site www.equilibrium-economicum.net, article "Free-Marketeers versus Workers (April 2006).    

ANGUS SIBLEY, website http://www.equilibrium-economicum.net, "Querying economic orthodoxy"

by parisien on Wed Apr 11th, 2007 at 06:28:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]

America will end up like a third world country, with only a lucky few being able maintain an acceptable standard of living?  

I think the goal is not to stop there, but to go all the way back to feudalism. But in a way it's even more devious, as a surprising number of people in the system still believe it to be democratic and fair.

Wll things need to get a lot worse before they get better?

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Wed Apr 4th, 2007 at 04:09:04 PM EST
they just aren't smart enough to see that far down the chessboard.  Not to mention, in feudalism, the lords had to actually do the fighting since they were shit scared for the serfs to have weapons.
by HiD on Wed Apr 4th, 2007 at 05:36:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Truly, I don't think that most of those supporting this activity see their way down this path.

And, in any event, they feel themselves above it all ('can't happen to me') and that this will never to happen to anyone they care about.  

First they came for the Circuit City workers ...

Blogging regularly at Get Energy Smart. NOW!!!

by a siegel (siegeadATgmailIGNORETHISdotPLEASEcom) on Wed Apr 4th, 2007 at 10:32:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
That's certainly true of the Bushies. They are feverishly trying to undo every achievement of modernity other than technology and an economy that is differentiated from the rest of society: the regulating welfare state, government subject to law and an autonomous legal system, autonomous science, religion a personal matter, sex is not subject to religious norms, autonomous art, universal education, Kantian perpetual peace as exemplified by the EU.

I wonder if I've left anything out.

A bomb, H bomb, Minuteman / The names get more attractive / The decisions are made by NATO / The press call it British opinion -- The Three Johns

by Alexander on Wed Apr 4th, 2007 at 06:23:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The elites will be killed long before this place becomes a 3rd world country. Propaganda doesn't work very well on people that have nothing left and little to lose.

I think after the next severe recession the elites will come back to the relatively more stable views of elites like Warren Buffet who understand how far the public can be pushed and that you need a healthy, happy workforce if you want to keep profits up.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 04:09:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Like someone said:

I will be alright as I am invested in oil&gas. At least until the soccer moms riot outside the gates of the mansions of the energy investors.


Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 04:30:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The elites are either to stupid or too insulated to understand the forces they are letting loose in American society.

I'm an Edwards man myself, because I believe that change if not forthcoming as reform results in revolution.  And Edwards is a reformer, and someone who can direct that anger and rage into socially useful projects to change the United States.  

As opposed to the Republican who channel all that anger and dissapointment into resentment of people who are a different color or culture.

And when donor classes attacks the people who have turned hurt to hate, failing to recognize that much of the source of that anger and hate is not moral defect but understandable resentment at being economically dislocated, then the donor classes just serve to reinforce the belief that the culture war is class war.

America needs a strong leader who is willing to attack the fundamental economic ideas that the Republican party has used to undermine the post war social contract.

There's a strain of thought in political science that holds that ideas are antecedent to institutions.  So although we perceive stability in seeing the physical manifestations of state and corporate power in militaries and large companies, those are ephermereal.  

What is real is that they rest upon the asquiscience of the masses.  Piss off the peasants, and suddenely rapid and perhaps frightening change is possible.

The existing ideational paradigm is punctuated, and suddenly something has to fill that vaccum.  For the neoliberals, that puntuation was the oil shocks of the 1970's, which allowed them to attack the American post war social model.  The twin deficits will eventually strike at America, and then the existing paradigm will be punctuated.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 05:45:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Is it just me, or did your mind also scream "feudalism!" the first time you read about Paris Hilton?

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 04:32:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Sorry...
No...
More like:
Uh la la la...

Rutherfordian ------------------------------ RDRutherford
by Ronald Rutherford (rdrradio1 -at- msn -dot- com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 05:38:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]
is that wages, like taxes, are now seen as a cost with no obvious benefit, and the sole goal is to cut it.

Thus, experienced workers are not worth more than beginners. Motivated workers are not worth more than unmotivated ones.

In a time where so many companies say that their main asset is their workforce, it's amazing how much they treat it like a commodity or a burden.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Wed Apr 4th, 2007 at 04:12:12 PM EST
It's like we are entering a second stage of neoliberalism, in which managers and policy makers are no more able to distinguish the neoclassical world view from reality than mainstream economists are.

A bomb, H bomb, Minuteman / The names get more attractive / The decisions are made by NATO / The press call it British opinion -- The Three Johns
by Alexander on Wed Apr 4th, 2007 at 04:44:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]
<head explodes>

Funny how the people in charge are never fired and replaced with other CEO's who only demand a third of the wage. That would also be good for shareholders, now that we have decided that competence and experience is not worth anything.

And on top of this we have the American idiocy of benefits...

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 03:36:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]
No, no, for the people in charge you have to chase excellence and pay whatever it takes for getting the number one man. Outsourcing CEOs would be bad for business.

"It's the statue, man, The Statue."
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 04:00:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]
It's probably going to take the average non-rich person in the US another five to ten years to realise that:

  1. It's a class war
  2. They lost

After that, things might start to get interesting.
by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 05:15:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, the Social Dominators (right-wing libertarians?) don't believe in classes but in individual winners and losers, so if they find themselves among the losers they'll probably just try harder. The Authoritarian Followers believe in classes, but not in class war, and are unable to learn from experience, so they won't realise.

"It's the statue, man, The Statue."
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 05:24:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]
If a Social Dominator decided to start a movement that picked up a lot of followers, you wouldn't necessarily get apathy.

Unfortunately it has happened before - with less than positive results.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 06:30:20 AM EST
[ Parent ]
But that's the problem already, isn't it? The Religious Reich.

"It's the statue, man, The Statue."
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 07:00:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Well yes, but one problem with Altemeyer's work is that I think it ties authoritarians too closely to the Right.

I have a theory that Marxism and Bolshevism - and possibly socialism and even trade unionism - would have been irrelevant if they hadn't also had some authoritarian appeal.

What used to happen was that the authoritarian types were split between right and left narratives, and this helped to keep both in check, because two sets of bullies squared off with each other.

Now there's only a far right narrative, with christo-fascism for the noobs and neolib economics for the more intellectual types.

However - the christo-fascists are starting to simmer with betrayal. And there's a sizeable faction who would be easy pickings for someone with an anti-government anti-Washington narrative with more of a blue collar slant if they also mixed it up with some christo-fascism.

If the US implodes economically, a movement like that could become a significant force. (This might sound unlikely, but the current Christian Reich would have seemed unlikely twenty or thirty years ago.)

It probably wouldn't be anyone from today's left as we know it. But one the US doesn't lack is opportunists and chancers, and if the heat is turned up on the social pressure cooker, all kinds of nasty things could start boiling out of it.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 07:13:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]
There is no shortage of populist leaders in the US right now, both on the right and on the left, that is true.

"It's the statue, man, The Statue."
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 07:15:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]
There's only one of them running for president though, and that's a problem.

Most Americans aren't idiots, but I've come to the conclusion that a strong plurality of the talking heads and people who congregate on Daily Kos are.

They don't seem to understand that there are huge chunks of the US that are undergoing almost unspeakable economic hardship at this point.  

Nothing irritates me more than being back at the University, and having friends who've never been anything but a student delude themselves into thinking that because they have a college degree they will be able to go out and find a job making
$100,000 a year.  

Imagine a whole country of people who are convinced that someday they will all be rich.  Americans are on the whole not class consciousness, but in the lat few years that's changed dramatically as places that used to have well paying union jobs have seen them go away.  And now everybody's trying to live on $7.00 hour, working 52 weeks a year with no health insurance.

Americans on the whole may be for the most part Christians, but our elites are far more into Mammon than Jesus.

And until people realize that they will never be wealth, but that they can live comfortably if they unite to defend their rights, there will be no change.

America needs to introduce the cultural concept  that the Swedes call logom and that my Amish ancestors call being plain to the national dialoge.  

At some point you have enough money to live comfortably, and the further acquisition of wealth is driven by the desire for increased social standing than any actual need.  

Europeans know this, but it's anathema in the United States.  And it's killing this country.  Max Weber must be turning in his grave.  Formal rationality has overcome substantive rationality, and society cannabilized so that some may gain.  But formal rationality and the money logic can't exist without society.  

What use is money and property if society descends into a war of all upon all?

What does a fancy car mean when you have to live in a gated community, and carry a concealed handgun to keep it?

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 03:35:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
America needs to introduce the cultural concept  that the Swedes call logom

Lagom. :)

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 03:42:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Thanks.

This explains why I have such a hard time find information on it.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 03:43:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Is that related to the danish work "lokum"?

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill
by r------ on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 03:49:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I have no idea what lokum means.

Lagom is "tilpas" in Danish.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 04:33:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]
synonym of udhus, that's probably the same in swedish.

my danish is rusty as all hell and never was all that good, but when i was learning it, my friends got me to think the polite way to ask directions to it was to say jeg skal på lokum, (the equivalent of which would be to say: où sont vos chiottes ...)

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

by r------ on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 04:57:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]
For those who haven't been in contact with the word, here is the Wikipedia entry with the relevant passage bolded.

Lagom is a Swedish word with no direct English equivalent.

The Lexin Swedish-English dictionary defines lagom as "enough, sufficient, adequate, just right." Lagom is also widely translated as "in moderation," "in balance," "optimal," "suitable," and "average." But whereas words like "sufficient" and "average" suggest some degree of abstinence, scarcity, or failure, lagom carries the connotation of perfection or appropriateness. The archetypical Swedish proverb "Lagom är bäst," literally "Lagom is best," is translated as "Enough is as good as a feast" in the Lexin dictionary. That same proverb is translated as "There is virtue in moderation" in Prismas Stora Engelska Ordbok (1995).



Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 04:36:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Try this as a close equivalent:
sufficiency
1.    the state or fact of being sufficient; adequacy.
2.    a sufficient number or amount; enough.
3.    adequate provision or supply, esp. of wealth.

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape
by rdf (robert.feinman@gmail.com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 05:27:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The most interesting thing is that it means both "optimal", "sufficient" and "average"...

Books have been writen about this subject, and debates have raged. :)

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 08:21:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
If i read properly, Altemeyer acknowledges that there are indeed left wing authoritarians, but his samples of North American population don't have enough of those to make a representative study. LWA would be the "follow the revolutionary leader type".

On the other hand, studies made in Russia with his methods, after "glasnost" indicated high RWA profiles prevailed in  "communist conservatives".

If i read you right, i think i agree that we are talking about the same psychological profile only shaped by a different narrative, or frame, or myth... I'm just saying i think altemeyer hints at that, but doesn't state it for lack of substantial studies.

by Torres on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 08:33:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Altemeyer acknowledges that there are indeed left wing authoritarians, but his samples of North American population don't have enough of those to make a representative study. LWA would be the "follow the revolutionary leader type".

Which goes a long way, imho, to explain why the left in North America has sucked so bad for the past four decades.

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

by r------ on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 12:06:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I once read a short story set during a future economic depression in the US. Unfortunately I can't remember the author or title. An journalist from Egypt (which has an Islamic fundamentalist government) travels to Florida to write a profile about an American rock star who has turned himself into a populist political leader with an anti-capitalist, xenophobic message. He blames all the country's problems on foreign corporations which are exploiting hard-working Americans and taking wealth out of the country, but neglects to mention that American businesses did the same to the rest of the world back when their country was rich and powerful.

No doubt someone else here will know who wrote the story.

by Gag Halfrunt on Sat Apr 7th, 2007 at 03:42:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Bruce Sterling
by bastiaan on Sun Apr 8th, 2007 at 06:28:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
"It's class warfare, my class is winning, but they shouldn't be." - CNN Interview, May 25 2005, in arguing the need to raise taxes on the rich.

"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning." - New York Times, November 26, 2006.

- Warren Buffet, world's second richest man.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 07:51:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Thus, experienced workers are not worth more than beginners. Motivated workers are not worth more than unmotivated ones.

Not that new an attitude. I've been at too many companies where someone applying for a promotion (and this has happened to me, too) has been turned down supposedly because they were so good at their current job, the managers didn't want to move them and have to retrain someone else.

by lychee on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 10:57:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I saw this too.

The funny part is not only will they get away with this, but you can bet in the Consumer electronics trade journals as well as all the business journals, they will be praised to the heavens for this.

The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

by r------ on Wed Apr 4th, 2007 at 04:27:51 PM EST
Best Buy reported its earnings today, and it made a profit. The headline at CNNMoney is Best Buy to Circuit City: Employees matter
"The conventional wisdom facing us today is that a better business model is to start with the viewpoint of the customer, their problems and desires, and match those to solutions that we can offer," [Best Buy exec] Anderson said during the call.

"We're continuing to do this while our rivals are closing stores. Consumers are moving toward our brand as a result of our ongoing efforts," he said. "Our assets are our 140,000 employees. We want to grow the quality of our employees."


Of course, that there are managers out there who haven't completely swallowed the neoliberal cool aid doesn't mean that a system under which long-term employees can be fired at will isn't crazy.

A bomb, H bomb, Minuteman / The names get more attractive / The decisions are made by NATO / The press call it British opinion -- The Three Johns
by Alexander on Wed Apr 4th, 2007 at 04:55:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Best Buy is headquartered in the city where I live.

Wonder if Anderson said that with a straight face. They have a "restructuring" every two years, going through one right now in fact/


The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet. Winston Churchill

by r------ on Wed Apr 4th, 2007 at 04:59:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
It's fairly simple.  Best Buy stores are nicer and cheaper than Circuit City stores.  Circuit City is the Dominos to Best Buy's Pizza Hut -- reliably discovering new degrees of awful vs. hardly five-star but at least consistent.  The stores are filthy.  The company chooses terrible locations.  (If you want a big-box retailer on the outskirts of town, the company's name had damned well better be either Wal-Mart or Target, or your competitors are going to rip your face off.)  Find me a product from Circuit City, and there's a better-than-decent chance that I can find it at CostCo, and I'll find it cheaper and sold to me by someone who doesn't give me a fucking attitude throughout the process.

This has nothing to do with pay and everything to do with idiocy.  The CostCo employee is (now) making a lot more than the Circuit City employee, and with benefits, as I understand it, yet CostCo still manages to compete well enough against a much larger adversary (Wal-Mart), while Circuit City has its clock cleaned.

Neither one carries Mac stuff, so fuck'em both.  I'm limited to CompUSA in the big-box electronics market.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 12:27:13 AM EST
This has nothing to do with pay and everything to do with idiocy.

The only way I can interpret that comment is to guess that you have in mind what redstar noted above, namely that Best Buy "restructures" too, so that both chains are equally brutal with their workforces.

But I do agree with you that Circuit City stores usually come across as seedy, and that that might have something to do with their present difficulties. Nevertheless, I have found on two occasions Circuit City to have specific products not available at other local stores, so that I ended up buying from them.

And I don't think the use of profanity is justified just because a retailer doesn't carry "Mac stuff". That kind of attitude might have made sense in 1984 (my first computer was a Mac Plus), but it doesn't today. Today, the rational platform to use is Linux, and any big box store will carry plenty of hardware for that.

A bomb, H bomb, Minuteman / The names get more attractive / The decisions are made by NATO / The press call it British opinion -- The Three Johns

by Alexander on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 02:36:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The only way I can interpret that comment is to guess that you have in mind what redstar noted above, namely that Best Buy "restructures" too, so that both chains are equally brutal with their workforces.

Whether Best Buy is also "brutal," -- they're only going to pay what they can get away with paying, since it's a business rather than a charity -- I don't know, but part of the reason for why I mentioned CostCo was to illustrate the point that a store doesn't have to pay low wages and provide no benefits in order to compete.  CostCo is quite profitable.

Circuit City coming across as seedy most certainly has something to do with the company's present difficulties.  If your stores look like trash dumps, and your employees and managers are all rude or clueless or both, it doesn't tend to go far with customers.

As for Linux is concerned, I have no idea as to which platform is the more rational to use.  (What criteria are we using to determine rational choice?)  I'm sure Linux is great, but, as someone who is -- shall we say -- less-than-brilliant with computers, I don't bother with it.  And I don't quite follow the offense taken at what I thought was a fairly benign use of profanity.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Fri Apr 6th, 2007 at 05:19:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Corporate America has become impatient with two-tier wages, which reduce the salaries of the newest generations of employees but still allow veteran workers to maintain higher wages until they retire.

Two-tier wages were one of the reasons the grocery unions went on strike in California a few years ago. That contract is now up, and a new strike is possible. I wonder what the companies will try now.

by lychee on Thu Apr 5th, 2007 at 11:00:47 AM EST


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