Staggering job losses continue in this country...
14,500 laid off from Hewlett Packard, and today Kodak announced it was laying off another 10,00 employees (they previously announced they were laying off 25,000 employees).
I wouldn't exactly call this a ringing endorsement of a renewed economy. In order to compete, companies have to cut costs. The easiest way to cut costs is to reduce the workforce or ask for concessions.
If you read the papers you will have noticed some of the concessions pilots and flight attendants (who are represented by labor unions) are being asked to make: 20-30% reductions in pay and benefits, increases in health care costs. I think that's going to be a trend now in all industries...the economic emasculation of the American middle class, who, in order to stay employed, must take pay cuts while paying more out of their own pockets for their health care.
Miulang
I was only briefly a card carrying union member, but I can certainly empathize with the plight of union members. If it wasn't for the battles they waged in the 30s and 40s and 50s, many of us salaried people wouldn't have what we have today.
14,500 laid off from Hewlett Packard, and today Kodak announced it was laying off another 10,00 employees (they previously announced they were laying off 25,000 employees).
I wouldn't exactly call this a ringing endorsement of a renewed economy. In order to compete, companies have to cut costs. The easiest way to cut costs is to reduce the workforce or ask for concessions.
If you read the papers you will have noticed some of the concessions pilots and flight attendants (who are represented by labor unions) are being asked to make: 20-30% reductions in pay and benefits, increases in health care costs. I think that's going to be a trend now in all industries...the economic emasculation of the American middle class, who, in order to stay employed, must take pay cuts while paying more out of their own pockets for their health care.
Miulang
I was only briefly a card carrying union member, but I can certainly empathize with the plight of union members. If it wasn't for the battles they waged in the 30s and 40s and 50s, many of us salaried people wouldn't have what we have today.
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