While I love reading your views and find them hard to disagrees with I feel you do not have it all quite right somehow, though not sure why.
Can you please advise or give an opinion please as I feel I would value it.
Approx 7 yrs ago the American Corporation that I worked for ( PPG ), two weeks after telling us all how well we were going, Decided that they were paying us to much. Short story is after a 9 week strike, workplace flooded with contractors, we lost. i.e contractor became a day to day fact and all new starts on much less pay and conditions. approx cost savings would be over $20,000 each and a lot less entitlements.
Fast forward 7 yrs,
There are 3 different pay scales doing any given job, 1st tier, 2nd tier, and contractors. The " cell " ( team ) that seems to work the hardest is what I call the suck cell. Paradoxically that is also made up of the union reps, go figure. In the arguments I have had with the site rep about, what I see as, his appalling attitude, he states that he has to consider the jobs of those on site.
The efficiency of our site has helped the company shut down 2 other sites, putting many others out of work.
The company last week announced that next year it wants to increase production from 24,000,000 liters of paint to 27,000,000 liters AND wants to reduce the hours of the rotating shift operators.
This seems to me to be absolute proof that the harder one works, the worse these corporations will treat us.
Thoughts please. This is a short version but will do for starters.
This company also boasts that they take much longer than the industry average to pay their suppliers and collect from their customer much faster than average.
My hatred for them is obsessive. I could rant for a very long time. This is evil personified.
@eladar saidI suspect that if they cut the hours of the rotating shift workers ( that are paid high wages ) they can increase the contractors and 2nd tier workers base, they are paid much less.
@jimmac
Sounds like your company is planning on expanding its robotic force. It is the only way to expand production and at the same time cut hours.
I think the problem with these situations is the economic circumstances that face us collectively in 2019.
We are sort of coming to the end of the rope of what was going on before.
There was a time when it was not a big deal for companies to get better and employ less people because there was such a high demand for labor, but now that this demand for labor has gone down in many places, and the labor force has been being replaced by workers abroad or the factories themselves have gone abroad, the problems have worsened.
@jimmac saidThank you for compliment, I’m frankly humbled that the most liberal among us will pay attention to me.
While I love reading your views and find them hard to disagrees with I feel you do not have it all quite right somehow, though not sure why.
Can you please advise or give an opinion please as I feel I would value it.
Approx 7 yrs ago the American Corporation that I worked for ( PPG ), two weeks after telling us all how well we were going, Decided that they were payi ...[text shortened]... ge.
My hatred for them is obsessive. I could rant for a very long time. This is evil personified.
2 things, easiest/obvious first. You start with any and every bit of written agreements. The contracts. They have to abide thereby, but no more. If you have such, it should be binding on PPG, of course. You signed itIN RELIANCE THEREON and you could have maybe shown your every move since that day, private tuition, moving, was based on it. Alas, statute has run on that (if breached)and here you are.
Second,,, But then all that you state regarding the surprise and upheaval is truly a can of worms,. I don’t think I can shed much light,,,,I promise I’m not the big corporate guy I appear to be, my posts are actually only applying common sense to entrepreneurs, Corp officers, deli owners who ‘own’ the business. E.g,I have to fend off those who actually think employees should share in profits (bonuses are the remedy there), so I appear to defend corps, the rich guys. Not the case.
But, we have to accept shifting times, automation, regulations, OSHA, there is so much, every day. Board meetings are for good reason,,,,to be profitable, and the decisions which caused contractors to appear, they were made with profit in their minds. You would do the same thing if you had a deli. Corp officers have to answer to stockholders, you as deli owner to your family. If you can make more by firing your waiters and contracting it out...well, you see what I mean. They put profit and success ahead of coddling employees. Of course there are exceptions, but I can’t name one.
A riff with a site rep prob would be fatal. Is there not one person, a numbers guy, who would hear you (a representative committee) in a formal sit-down, that you all are impt and have even better ideas? The key in any advancement is that employer sees real value in an employee. Bam. You have a new position. It is what it is, your co-workers may grumble and fight the situation, but best to work within the system, or take your talents elsewhere.
Didn’t help much, but anything that you think would be more fair or equitable,,consider, would it it make sense in the board room to implement it if it affects the bottom line? They have to beat out Pratt&Lambert! I wish you well. Sorry got wordy
I don’t think I can shed much light,,,,I promise I’m not the big corporate guy I appear to be, my posts are actually only applying common sense to entrepreneurs, Corp officers, deli owners who ‘own’ the business. E.g,I have to fend off those who actually think employees should share in profits (bonuses are the remedy there), so I appear to defend corps, the rich guys. Not the case.With this statement, I am more in agreement.
25yrs ago my Sister and her husband ran a industrial park tuck shop employing 3 people. As it happened they were swindled and found that they were running at a $1000.00 per week loss. Due to the laws at that time, they could not lay off the existing employees without payouts. So it effectively cost him $1000.00 a week for the privilege of employing 3 people, not to mention the hrs he put in. At this level I am in 99% agreement with you.
The problem that I have with the corporate status is
1/ The protections that they have by law is a big factor in how well they perform.
2/ The directors are only playing with other peoples money.
3/ What these corporations do is exploit everyone.( even to the point of misleading their shareholders )
4/ to explain point 2 of No 3. There is a strange paradox that occurs in their pursuit of profit. To satisfy the shareholders, predominantly, I believe, superfunds, they lay off superfund members. ( that's good for them huh ) This also results in a net loss of money circulating in the local meaning that they can not make as much profit. ( unless they are not concerned about the local economy). A bit convoluted but read it twice and hopefully you will get what I am getting at. This is why:
5/ Multi Nationals are the worst by far. They have little concern for the local economy and openly exploit it. PPG boasts about it. They openly, in my opinion, avoid duties by misnaming products as raw materials when they seemingly obviously are not. ( trying to avoid slander here ) i.e add 0.5% of a benign solvent to a batch of paint and call it finished amongst other things.
I agree that employees should not necessarily share in profits either though I could make a case for it in some circumstances.
BTW I am no liberal, I will not adopt a label that someone else chooses. I call myself, self named, a social capitalist.
I believe in individuals and hate group identities, I "hate" the current equality agendas.
I believe that capitalism is the only way forward but the corporate structure of America has gone to far. It is because of Capitalism, in one form or another, that so many people are being lifted out of poverty, esp China.
Still value your opinion if you would, or of course, anyone else.
BTW I am retired from PPG but keep in touch with old mates.
I would love for you Joe, to feel just a bit of the pain that I feel at the damage that they are doing, it is so obvious to me.
@eladar saidAnd once AI expands with the robotic era, all jobs will be gone...............
@jimmac
Sounds like your company is planning on expanding its robotic force. It is the only way to expand production and at the same time cut hours.
Then what will the powers that be do with us once they no longer need people for labor?
You think it's bad now.
LOL.
@jimmac saidJimMac presents a scenario that is all too prevalent, and it is magnified by the sheer Number of corporations in our society. Just think of how many staff are totally there solely to manage the human side of things (not just 'employeees), I am speaking of the HR department. I don't think I can add to my rambling above, which is certainly far from adequate, but I have dealt with these situations, there is never a 'good' way to make changes where someone is not detrimentally affected.
I have a strange hope in humanity, even though I feel it is bad now.
You may have run across the ideas I will refer you to below, but it may give a side of the corporations that simply has to be taken into account.....they are always trying to improve efficiency, for those stockholders! You are probably a stockholder in one. More often than not, a meeting results in, say, cutting staff, and a year later, their profits are up. Capitalism at work. No one knows of a better economic system, along with its bumps and bruises. You likely have some corporations in your retirement account that you want to do their best, to make profits, so that you can thus benefit from those profits. There may be disgruntled employees in those very corporations that you are pulling for!
Google "Why Its Hard to Be Fair" (Harvard Business Review). This is typical of the many studies which should open up these issues a good bit for you. And yes, some corporations do not have a friendly process for what they do in HR.....but look up how wonderful ChikFilet is to their employees. It can be done.
@averagejoe1 saidI believe that a better side is to "employ" more.( obviously where practicable ). I do truly believe that that way there are more winners.The way it works now is that the proverbial "gap" gets bigger. Again what you say is right --but sadly it is often not right enough. appreciate your opinion---sigh
JimMac presents a scenario that is all too prevalent, and it is magnified by the sheer Number of corporations in our society. Just think of how many staff are totally there solely to manage the human side of things (not just 'employeees), I am speaking of the HR department. I don't think I can add to my rambling above, which is certainly far from adequate, but I have d ...[text shortened]... or what they do in HR.....but look up how wonderful ChikFilet is to their employees. It can be done.