Outside Erie

17 Responses to “Budweiser Sale a Familiar Tale”

1. Matt
   July 15th, 2008 at 10:01 am

   Anheuser-Busch was a public company long before this sale took place, trading under the symbol BUD, so it’s not as if the Busch family “owned” the company at all (although they most likely own a significant portion of it).

   Additionally the board is required to do what’s in the best interest of shareholders. Considering the company was trading for $44 a share in April and was sold for $70 a share, it’s hard to argue the board did anything except a great job for the shareholders. It sounds cold, but if I’d owned stock in BUD, the increase in my share’s value would be far more inportant to me than the loss of an “American” brand.

2. MGR
   July 15th, 2008 at 11:31 am

   Maybe all those die-hard USA types will now realize that Bud is a really low end beer and option to drink from the largest U.S. owned brewer remaining - Yuengling.

3. Danny Lucas
   July 15th, 2008 at 11:52 am

   “Additionally the board is required to do what’s in the best interest of shareholders”
   — Matt

   But does the Board do what is best?
   Why have a Board if the issue is “Which is better? $44? or &70 a share?
   Do we need anyone to make the correct decision in this variable?

   Now do all of this on a macro scale.
   Let me take, say…Matt’s car and disassemble it into 19,000 parts. I sell each part separately and yield $50,000 for parts instead of owning a $20,000 car. This is a no brainer decision when the factors are $20,000 and $50,000.

   But the same action is clearly NOT in the best interest of shareholder Matt should he be evaluating transportation. IT IS GONE!

   But, “I can buy a new and better car, with the excess I made”, you may believe. As an individual, and for a short time, that is true. This is like a giant Ponzi scheme where the first in, yield all the benefits and the rest are left holding an empty purse. Few winners; MANY losers.

   The Boards in the United States of America are opting to split up companies for the sum of their parts. This is sytematically wiping out jobs and lowering our lifestyle and making Middle Class obsolete.

   No one was complaining about $44 a share for BUD.
   Folks were making money; life was good.

   The same was true for Hammermill as it consistently made a profit over decades and more.

   I take issue with the Board responsibility to do what is in the best interest of the shareholders. This is like courts doing what is in the best interest of the children, while systematically cutting father’s out of their lives, except every other weekend…..48 days out of 365, for up to 18 years.

   Both the Boards and the Courts feel they are doing their job.
   They are in reality destroying companies and children, respectively.

   Let’s pretend that Wall Street did not exist for a minute.

   No shareholders. Given that, both BUD and Hammermill would be operating and making money as usual in their communities.

   Homes that were sold due to job loss would be occupied.
   Stores that closed would be selling food and consumer goods
   (yielding further jobs at producing those items anew).

   Schools would have more money in their budgets; education thriving.
   Divorce courts would not be jammed as much as they are (financial dilemma’s are often a breaking point to an otherwise stable family).

   Firemen and cops would be needed and employed by communities to take care of the growing group.

   All of this and more would be possible in Erie, PA and in St. Louis (soon to be obliterated like us) , if only, Wall Street did not exist.
   Why?
   There would be NO shareholders for a Board to do stuff in their best interest. Imagine That!

   Bill Gates. Ross Perot. Sam Walton. Steve Jobs. Otto Behrend.
   Thousands more, started out with zip and made a company.
   They needed money to grow even more, and our system provides it in the form of public ownership ala stock sales. Anyone can buy into a public company and get a return on the bet that this company will grow in profits.

   There have always been folks who rigged this system to THEIR benefit at the exclusion of all others. In the Roaring 20’s, the stock market was so ruthlessly abused, that a few insiders were gajillionaires promptly, and the nation allowed to go into economic collapse.

   In an attempt to staunch the bloodletting, FDR appointed one of the best gamers in the old system, Joe Kennedy, to now police the bad guys — like Joe used to be — and voila! The SEC was in business with a former fox guarding all the new hens.

   Foxes are a hardy breed and their cunning today does the same as in the 1920’s…..just prior to collapse. They shout “Leaner and Meaner” but produce only meaner.

   Today, they use the system of “what is in the best interest of shareholders” and buy some stock. Then, more stock. Until they have 3% to 10% or enough to be a screamer at the Annual accounting meeting, required by law for publicly traded companies.
   They scream loudly.

   They profess that the CURRENT board is inept at protecting and providing profit for “all of us”….meaning THEM.
   (Yahoo is going thru this now with Icahn — destroyer of Erie, PA Hammermill — relentlessly in pursuit of Yahoo board replacement.
   He claims they are doofus central. I think they formed a decent outfit.
   But, Icahn bought about 5%-10% of outstanding stock and screams the Board MUST go and let Microsoft buy Yahoo and make MORE money).

   Hey, how about you leave them alone to make money as they do, and let Microsoft develop their own search engine to compete with Google. Everybody keeps their jobs, albeit Icahn does not get $2 billion in “chop shop fees”.

   This sytem needs a huge watchdog NOW, once again.

   Shareholders are an important segment of the system in place.
   They theoretically receive 100% of the “best interest” gambit.

   Top management is another part of the system, and anyone with a modicum of common sense can see that CEO’s are receiving a better deal than shareholders in the last 3 decades. Their rate of compensation growth far outpaces their wildest dreams.
   [Notice that neither Wall Street, shareholders, the government, even Icahn, NOBODY is screaming “Wait a minute!”]

   If “what is in the best interest of the shareholders was true, too much money for the top managers would be disallowed and distributed as ‘profit’. But we do not do that, because shareholders are only part of the game. Top Management too.

   Also playing along, we have Consumers are a variable, along with shareholders, management, government, social contract, suppliers, globalization, “off shoring”, technology, environment, and labor to name a few.

   There is always a current view to protect the interests of every one of these variables to some degree, with one glaring exception: Labor.

   There is no respect for this sector in any way or shape anymore.
   All are expendable.
   All are subject to horrendous working conditions at minimal pay or less.
   All are no longer even considered a variable in the equation.
   All are punished the harder and more successful they become.

   Take “piece rate” under old Union systems. The company wants “X” number of pieces produced per hour. You get a bonus as incentive to make more per hour than the required production. You bust your butt and productivity rises. More goods are produced with same quality in less time. Win-win, eh?

   No. The timestudy fellow in management waltzes out and observes you with a stopwatch. The number of “required” pieces are readjusted upward. Your reward for efficiency and productivity? No longer money but a requirement that you run the treadmill at higher speed for less pay!

   We are out of whack in regarding labor. The pendulum has swung too far.

   Globally, we should be lifting third world countries (and below) into a higher living standard. In reality, we are lowering our standard of living systematically as we eliminate and castigate labor.

   None of this has to be….anymore than Hammermill needed closed after buyout.

   I hope to look at the details closer here since all other aspects of maintaining Erie, Pa and indeed the country itself are dependent on getting this right. The election, terrorism, you name it, NOTHING else counts as much anymore as salvaging our system and way of life.

   It won’t be easy; entrenched forces will fight (even at their own imperil).
   But it can be done if enough folks understand what is going on.

4. bojosmom
   July 15th, 2008 at 12:38 pm

   Wow! Thanks Mr. Lucas for that excellent post!

5. Julio C. Reyes
   July 15th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

   MGR,

   I actually agree with you that Bud was always a low end quality beer for the masses.

   Matt,

   You are technically correct when you said that the Board of the any publicly trade Corporation is obligated by Law to increase its “perceived” value and profits for the shareholders.

   Of course Danny’ post as usual is brilliant and right in the money so to speak.

   So, I am feeling happy about the posts accuracy today. Unfortunately, I have to add at least two more critical things to the equation/dilemma.

   Global Competition - after the Second World War the US did not have any competition since then countries in Europe got together and created the EU. China and India are increasing their middle class at a faster pace and please do not forget Brazil, Mexico and Argentina in the American continent.

   Our Government – City, County, State and Fed. As usual engaged in things that should not be engaged and totally neglecting the basic rules and regulations needed to help us to successfully compete in a global market not only these days but in the future. Obviously our Tax policies are part of the scam.

   The system has some many problems as it is right now that even the most hard core capitalist are calling for reform and changes to fix it.

   Just to make it clear, I do not invest in the stock market because I agree with Danny’s arguments about esoteric views about what is good or bad in macro economic policy levels for share holders, people (average citizens) and top management at the corporations. I rather take my chances in my own private investments.

6. James A
   July 15th, 2008 at 3:17 pm

   “Top management is another part of the system, and anyone with a modicum of common sense can see that CEO’s are receiving a better deal than shareholders in the last 3 decades. Their rate of compensation growth far outpaces their wildest dreams.
   [Notice that neither Wall Street, shareholders, the government, even Icahn, NOBODY is screaming “Wait a minute!”]”

   The Board can fire the CEO if they feel they’re being cheated. That’s the whole point of the Board/CEO model - there are supposed to be checks and balances built into it. The shareholders elect the Board, the Board hires the CEO. Kind of like the British MPs supporting their Prime Minister. Problems happen when the shareholders don’t use their votes to elect good board members, or the Board doesn’t exercise good-faith oversight over the CEO, or the CEO doesn’t give the Board and Shareholders an accurate and realistic picture of how the business is running. Theoretically, people are only supposed to be badly cheated if there’s a failure of oversight on all three levels. Emphasis on theoretically. So why pay the CEOs so much? I think it boils down to fear. They’re afraid that if they don’t pay him that much, he’s going to jump ship and go work for somebody else. (Prime Ministers usually don’t have that option).

7. Danny Lucas
   July 15th, 2008 at 3:59 pm

   Actually, China will never have a middle class even with global gains they accrue. As worldwide industries go Chinese (read outsourcing by their owners) China takes workers off the farms and moves them into cities. NEWLY created cities with the express purpose of cluster manufacturing.
   That means that all items of production are right nearby. The Japanese “just-in-time” system is taken a step further in China. Instead os suppliers moving goods as needed, the companies are BUILT where needed and scoot materials in clusters.

   Take a fridge. One company is manufacturing the electric moror; another makes sheet steel and bends it; another has injection mold machines to make the plastic compartments inside; another makes fasteners (plastic and metal); another provides cardboard packaging.

   All of these are located in a brand new city and efficiencies are built in as a result. But there is NO TRUTH to the build up of a middle class as a result. Every citizen here knows the effect of unemployment rates being high. it is hard to get a raise at YOUR job when others are begging to replace you.

   China has in excess of 120 million unemployed.
   No Chinese stands a chance of raises increased. Indeed, they are operating with zero environmental law protection, child labor laws ignored since they don’t exist, no OSHA to hassle the company and protect worker safety, a subsidy from the government two ways 1) a currency pegged to always be below the dollar instead of fluctuating independently. That gives an edge in the market BEFORE you produce a thing. 2) artificial subsidy in tariff for selected industries like steel. Cheap labor alone did not silence the steel mills of Pittsburgh, PA.

   I do not agree with the global competitive description of Julio, but it gets away from this topic to correct.

   We have rarely had a middle class in the USA. it is a relatively recent phenomenon. We were farmers and spread all over. Homestead was less a “let’s build a middle class” as it was “let’s make settlements and remove those pesky Native Americans”.

   Civil War set us back and that was a huge ecomomic issue too; cotton, slavery, and State’s rights rolled into rampant death.

   Henry Ford and automobile automation started an increase in pay for a job; he was generous. The work was also repetitive and not conducive to being a human being after awhile, as your mind went numb in repetitive work.

   Stock manipulations and government corruption ala Warren Harding, as well as “The War On Drugs” back then….alcohol, Prohibition and ending Prohibition (among other things) all made economic success for the few, not the many in E Pluribus Unum.

   It was post World War II that labor began to be seen as a worthwhile investment. That generosity was actual a selfish motive; keep industry moving…pay ‘em and produce. For the first time in our history, a Middle Class truthfully bloomed.

   Education was enhanced for the masses ala GI Bill post WW II.
   Health benefits were added by manufacturers. It paid off to have healthy workers.
   Labor got carried away and began the cost of living pensions that would , years later, undermine our competitive plusses in this country.

   After Reagan fired nearly 12,000 air traffic folks (they bluffed and lost thinking their specialty and skills would win the day); Reagan used supervisors and military staff to run the airlines and ditched ALL of the traffic controllers — an unheard of breach in it’s time. And the dominoes fell for labor for the first time since WW II. It has been that way since.

   Pensions by company are history.
   Now, you fund a 401K and make your own pension or do without. Firms matched at first, but even that is pretty much history. No one understands their 401K any more than they understand their phone bill. It is stock market investing primarily.

   THIS PRODUCES PENSION INVESTMENT GUYS and they are the ones demanding higher and higher returns from companies EVERY 90 days. Guess what? Your company used to do that for the worker. Now, you do it and the collective pile of money is causing an unbalance demand on stock performance. (Immelt is one of the first in leadership position I have seen to buck that trend and think long term profit over short term (quarterly) profit. Wall Street kicked him in the shins for that in the first quarter this year …WHILE he was making good money…..
   just not high enough!

   Most 401K deals let you pick a smorgasboard of investments (versus the original….buy in the company you work for!). This was ludicrous as many workers could see that their bosses were bozos, and buying into your firm was a straight ticket to poverty.

   As the population aged, more pension money was needed and fewer firms provided it. Worse, the promises of the past were met with default by big pensions; auto, steel, paper, plastic….pretty much everyone ‘cept government pensions.

   Now, you also got to pay for health care as we went to “doctors are too stupid to decide what their patients need so bean counters in HMO’s will do the job to save money”.
   We have a burden today of 25% of insurance premium going to administration, NOT health care. it is upside down and killing us literally.

   Few advanced countries have less than 4 WEEKS vacation a year for employees. The USA is dead last in this. God help the person who needs a day off because their child is sick today and day care says the kid cannot come in. People lose their job when they don’t show up.

   Bosses scream at you as if you have no brain.
   Fear is the motivator.
   Sexism is rampant not because we are a demonic bunch of people.
   Sexism is rampant for the simple reason that a helluva lot of women work, compared to days of yore when they were homemakers.
   But it diminishes the worker again.
   No respect. No reward. No loyalty. No one works for the same company for 30 years and retires anymore, tho this was common 4 to 5 fecades ago.

   There! We have fouled up family, workers, retirement, environment, education, respect for one another, health care, courts and legal system, political system (we are STILL working on reconstruction after the Civil War; it was not long ago that Colored/White bathroom was an issue and Watts and Detroit were burned down in rebellion for a simple piece of dignity. Translation? We fouled up our politics too and civics life is low, low, low.

   So here we are and how do we get out of this mess?
   Let us now turn to Hope for the Future.
   Believe it or not, we can work together and pull out of this mess.

8. Danny Lucas
   July 15th, 2008 at 4:26 pm

   Hope is deferred here. James A first!

   “The Board can fire the CEO if they feel they’re being cheated.”
   —-James A

   The stockholders ARE being cheated.
   CEO salaries of 10 to 30 times over the total average salary in a company are fine. CEO salaries at 200 to 300 times the average is obscene. Forget straight salary. Boats, planes, memberships, stocks, all play a part in CEO enhanced life.

   The motivation is GREED not fear of losing a proper CEO if we fail to coddle them with extravaganza.

   Remember, Robert Nardelli messed up with Home Depot and got $210 million to leave. There are countless cases of CEO rewards for performance that includes massive losses in a firm.

   Pay is clearly NOT tied to performance.

   Greed. Greed. Greed.

   The CEO’s and Board are in the same frame of mind and, tho not in an illegal collusion, certainly they participate in an immoral collusion.

   Further, the stylish CEO / Board checks-and-balances is theory anymore. Some local companies have a board within a board structure and the REAL power is within the mini structure.

   And God help the CEO who does not follow the Jack Welch school of business. Downsize, offshore, obliterate, and keep that stock yield in double digits or —- what did he say? “I’ll get a gun abd shoot ya???”
   (not a direct quote, but probably close).

   The best way to get results demanded by Wall Street and Boards is to gut the company assets. We do not have a whole big pile of assets to do that to anymore.

   Read a portfolio and if you can figure out the truth of what any given company is doing at any given time, you must be God. You must read between the lines to see what is really going on. it is like reading the back of your Mastercard statement and trying to figure out what the hell is being said. Your eyes glaze over if you happen to be educated. The rest of folks just pitch the paper and the game goes on.

   For all intents and purposes, there is no checks and balances.
   There is only “you scratch my back and i’ll scratch yours”.

   “Say, let’s off-shore another of our companies and take those savings for a stock performance bonus for all of us.”

   “Okay”

   If you see checks and balances in those two sentences, you must be Arlen Specter voting “Not proven under Scottish Law” while you are supposed to be a US Senator under American Law.

9. Julio C. Reyes
   July 15th, 2008 at 5:07 pm

   Danny,

   I am focusing only in the last fifty years, I could comment about them because it is my life time and history is happening in front of my eyes. Basically you are correct, in regards to your historical recollection of events. Technically since the Industrial revolution starting in the late 1800s people used and abused slave labor especially children to build empires, there is no argument there, Europe did it, US did it and then the Chinese and India are probably doing it right now.

   However, because the massive goods production either we like it or not wealth is generated and somehow is spread (filtered down at least one level). Maybe the money is just spread a little bit but trust me it is spread. By the way I am always fascinated by comments putting down other countries when the guys (Chinese, Indians, Mexican, Argentinean and Brazilians) are sending their kids to private universities all over around the world and traveling and spending money. Where all the money is coming from? Are al just Mao-Tse-Tung, Emiliano Zapata, Indira Gandhi descendants, I do not think so.

   I do not want to get into a philosophical argument with you but the fact of the matter is through history the US and other empires had done exactly what China is doing today.

   Environmental protection and pollution, from a pure local perspective we have in the making a Tire Burning Plant with complete disregard for all the points you mention. I know you believe it is a good idea and I don’t. Staying in to this topic only for discussion, do you really think that an outside company Calleta (if I remember correctly) gives a damn about the families and the workers about you said in your post?

   “But it diminishes the worker again.
   No respect. No reward. No loyalty. No one works for the same company for 30 years and retires anymore, tho this was common 4 to 5 fecades ago.”

   I could guarantee you that if in order to make a buck they will have to shut down the pollution control systems they will do it in the spot, no questions asked. If they dare to operate a Nuclear Plant, it will be impossible for them to shut down the security systems first they will never be able to run fast enough and second the whole world will know about it.

   If you read your own post “Stock manipulations” in my book is just another term to describe the evils you describe about China but in the US. The big difference is that in China everybody is going with the program and here we pretend to be different. We are just doing exactly the same and because we use different terminology people buy into the dogma and propaganda. Have you ever heard about how Farm subsidies in the US impact the whole world?

   As you could see I basically agree with everything you said. You are just using different terms and different locations, different goodies, different commodities. I guess the fundamental difference is that they are producing and we are not.

   I also want to qualify what I called middle class, which coincidentally is what attracted me to this country.

   Middle class for me is reflected by the shape of a vertical rhomboid rather than a pyramid where this geometrical shape is the reflection of all the social, political, legal and economic conditions of a country.

   If you sincerely believe as you said:

   “Let us now turn to Hope for the Future.
   Believe it or not, we can work together and pull out of this mess.”

   I am happy to give it a try. In fact I invested around Erie because I believe in the concept. However, for me being realist and a common sense kind of guy. The first step towards recovery is to accept reality. The way I see reality for us right now; we are losing ground because we are not prepared to compete.

   My message, let’s go to the drawing board and try to see what kind of things we must change and fix for the short and long terms and change them ASAP.

10. bad_beer
    July 15th, 2008 at 6:47 pm

    A familiar tale? International company takes over publicly traded company? Uh how is that familiar for Erie?

    Anyhow, we can only hope they might actually put out a beer now that doesn’t taste like someone put water in my beer when I wasn’t looking.

11. Danny Lucas
    July 15th, 2008 at 9:30 pm

    “…from a pure local perspective we have in the making a Tire Burning Plant with complete disregard for all the points you mention. I know you believe it is a good idea and I don’t
    ——Julio, concluding Danny Lucas thinks Tire Plant is a good idea.

    Since I have NEVER said that, an opinion is attributed to me that I have not said or advocated. Indeed, recently, I applauded the works of Keeper and grassroot effort to enlighten the locals.

    Julio needs to express HIS opinions alone; and, let me be responsible for mine. Even a restatement is unecessary. My words generally express what I think.

    I stopped reading the post when I saw that glaring error.
    Given the magnitude, I feel the balance of the post is likely in error too.
    And Julio, let’s save Tire Plant for a post on that topic.

    I really think this issue A-B and buyouts is critical to Erie.
    Our empty lots all over town, and loss of jobs is the precise same event that occured in St. Louis here.

    A closer examination now ,…..trumps a trip to Monterrey by the Times-News later.
    And, I do intend on a comment about turning it around for us as individuals, a community, and a country. I think it can be done, but only AFTER the real issues are understood.

12. Julio C. Reyes
    July 15th, 2008 at 10:00 pm

    Danny,

    My mistake, I obviously misunderstood your post in another subject yesterday. After you brought to my attention the error I went back to read your post and confirmed as I already said. I misunderstood your original post.

    I said many times, I made mistakes as any other human being on earth including you this was not my first and it is much likely not it will not be my last one either I do not plan to die soon. Please do not make a tantrum. I believe the rest of my post is accurate and it is worth it your review as it precisely relates about how companies and workers must coexist for the benefit of all.

    I only used that example in response to your post mentioning the values placed at workers by some companies.

    As I said before, we share a lot of the same opinion in this subject.

    I also want to take this opportunity to remind everybody that my opinions in this topic are discussing macroeconomics. And while I try to be careful with the things I say please do not expect perfection.

13. Julio C. Reyes
    July 16th, 2008 at 9:56 am

    Danny,

    You said “stock manipulation” in one fo your posts above. I believe this is somehow related.

    I was reading my newspaper this morning and I found this article playing with stocks and “paper money”. Now if a simple concept like properly buying and selling stock is not regulated imagine all the other stuff like playing with funds investments, bonds, 401k, and derivatives and cooking the books. It sound to me that we have zillions and zillions and zillions of stock but with absolutely no real value or without assets to back them.

    If my assumption is real no wonder Inbev is buying A-B they might be paying with real money like Euros, Yens or gold but who knows.

    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/

    “But the longer-term effect could be to raise questions about just how free the U.S. market is from government interference. That kind of stuff is supposed to happen in Third World countries, not in America.”

    So, this fool things than having the Federal Reserve printing “paper” money without any backing, arbitrarily lowering interest rates, bailing out Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae and others is not the same as government interference?

    I find hilarious how naïve some people are and how they been convinced that this kind of manipulation only happens outside of the US. In a twist of irony when this people ever learn the US is the US is not America. America is the whole continent from Canada to Argentina and everything in between. How scary it is that our pseudo leaders do not even know about geography around the world for crying out loud.

14. Peter Panepento
    July 16th, 2008 at 9:57 am

    I’m talking about the loss of a locally-owned company. It doesn’t matter if it’s lost to an overseas giant or a domestic giant.

    Read today’s NY Times story and you’ll see an obvious parallel to the feelings in Erie after IP decided to close the Hammermill plant:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/us/16beer.html

15. Julio C. Reyes
    July 16th, 2008 at 10:52 am

    Peter,

    People in St. Louis have all the right to be worried. Effect in St. Louis for other business will be terrible. People without jobs are people without money to spend around.

    The end result would have been the same regardless who is the buyer. As other people probably already mentioned before me InBev will consolidate some of their operations somewhere around the world. It will close some of the administrative functions in St. Louis. A lot of people will end up without a job after the consolidation and streamlining of functions.

    Who knows maybe in the future the A-B headquarters will become an amusement park. Also, keep in mind that if after InBev does all the things I said breaking apart A-B and getting rid of employees no longer necessary. If in a few years they could sell the A-B to other parties for $100.00/share they will do it no questions asked. Of course this will happen after InBev already renegotiated how to cut the retirement benefits for some of the people that dedicated their lives to A-B. Did you heard about GM lately?

    And the sad part is at the end is just for excessive obscene unnecessary profits.

    Money talks, people do not count. What a sad state of affairs. Welcome to the US and the World at the dawn of the 21st Century.

    As for the Busch descendants and royalty I guess at the end they will walk away with some good money. Of course the other option would have been trying to make A-B privately owned again. But for 50Billion + I do not think that even Bill Gates or Warren Buffet have that kind of cash these days.

16. Danny Lucas
    July 16th, 2008 at 12:06 pm

    Shoplifting is bad news. We all pay for it in the end.
    The company NEVER loses.

    At WalMart, security watches through a bank of cameras and is cued in on a likely suspect. Once they walk out the store, the items not paid are called theft. If the security guard tackles the culprit, you would think a company would be grateful. Not Wal Mart.

    Documented cases of low wage security folks shows the victorious guard gets hit back thrice.
    The first time when the criminal fights for freedom and injures the guard.
    The second time, when the guard finds he has to go to the hospital without insurance. You are on your own buddy.
    The third inflicting pain comes when rehab is required for the guard. This means time off from work. Don’t show; you are fired.
    That is grounds for dismissal.
    They did.

    This is one of thousands upon thousands of stories of corporate neglect and intentional infliction of slave treatment on their workers.
    It happens to the community too as the burglar in town is…Wal Mart.

    I want you to look closer for yourself.
    Here is all you need:
    http://wakeupwalmart.com/facts/

    In talking about solutions to the state of affairs in our country, each of us has to ask: “Am I part of the solution?” or “Am I part of the problem?”.
    Only YOU can answer that.

    But in viewing that link, ask yourself how a corporation can be in so much trouble on so many fronts that a significant part of our entire population vows to personally NEVER enter that store again under any circumstance at ANY price. And they know it.

    If you could allow all workers at Wal Mart (600,000 turnover a year makes a huge training expense annually. It is cheaper than paying a fair salary and keeping good workers.). The workers must perform their duties. They can not, in the given time.

    This is not a problem for the workers.
    They simply punch out on the clock and then, work UNPAID until the job is done. “Off-the-clock” work is standard procedure for the workers.

    How much would it cost to pay a fair salary and provide insurance to everyone? Would 2 cents on every item going out the door do the trick?
    Truth? No.
    It would only take 1 cents added to every item sold at all WalMarts.
    You would pay 2 for $5.02 for two bags of potato chips instead of 2 for $5. Wal Mart would prefer you keep that 2 cents, than THEY take care of their workers. Look those folks in the eye the next time you shop.

    Carry a roll of pennies when you go there.
    Ask the cashier to set up a box on the counter and add one penny for every item you buy. Tell her it is going into the kitty to show Wal Mart managers that it is not only the right and moral thing to do for workers, it is cheap and simple.

    A corporate mind set on abusing people cannot be diverted and changed in a night. But, YOU can make a difference today, by reading the link (add it to your favorites and view it alarmingly daily).

    I encourage you to shop at stores that take pride in, and care of, their workers. Does it cost a few cents more? Often!
    Will it help the workers maintain a livable wage? Yup.
    Would YOU want to be treated the same way as someone shopping at your store of employment to help you? Yup.
    Would service go up as pride in work returns? Yup.
    Will corporate do it without your prodding? Nope.

    Our individual decisions add up to our collective future.
    Buy fewer items of crap; and when you do buy, spend a hair more to assure the survival of mom and pop places.

    Say, did you ever shop WalMart on Friday afternoon or night?
    Notice that there is not a clerk in sight to wait on you, direct you, or even take payment as cashier since the 28 lines are closed to 3 lines open?

    Welcome to Wal Mart.
    Corporate demands NO OVERTIME and each store must comply with hourly workers, having hours paid in correspondence to the gross sales of the store. It is monitored by Thursday.
    By Friday, they know if the store is going to go over the allocated miserly budget (well below retail competitors). What do they do to meet corporate targets?

    They send staff home. No one is in line to help take your cash and send it to Wal mart central. You get no service at all and wait in lines because Erie companies PAY workers on Friday,….the very day Wal Mart knows it is time to send that single mom with 16 hours this week already……home.

    The need is there; you are shopping afterall.
    The desire is there; workers need more hours.
    The greed takes precedence. They go home; YOU wait!
    Corporate earnings per store goal will be met no matter what.
    Stay away from Wal mart if you can. If you can not, stay away every Friday as a start.

    Wal Mart could survive this tactic of intervention for a decade and not notice. Help them notice sooner.

    Hope?
    Well, your individual choice to view the link makes you part of the solution by becoming aware.

    Hope?
    Well, your decision to add a penny for every item (without being asked) will prove that a lousy penny could be added by corporate, STILL keep them well below prices elsewhere, and allow the dignity of their workers to become a way of life,…as opposed to the nightmare they live.

    Say, about those security folks; have you ever heard of “lock-in”?
    That is what Sam’s does to their night shift employees. One manager has a key. He is not there. He went home.

    The theft of goods at night (restocking the shelves time) comes largely from underpaid staff. To stop that, they are locked in the store til morning bosses come. Bet you did not know that people have died in this system. Managers do not like to come in at night.
    Should workers be locked inside a building?

    But the law, the law, you say.
    But politicians need money to get elected, I say.
    Cut the argument; it either happens or it does not.
    Why not read the links and find the truth.
    Then, you can decide if YOU want to be a part of a system that requires people to live in slave conditions at work so YOU can spend a couple bucks less.

    And, when you do spend a couple bucks less, remember,…someday, someone will ignore YOUR plight.
    Working together means we ALL watch out for one another.
    We ALL win. Or, we ALL lose.
    Your call.

    More HOPE coming soon.

17. shar
    July 16th, 2008 at 3:14 pm

    I agree Wal=Mart is cruel to their workers. I use to work for them myself. I quit because of the abuse of being belittled by a manager. When he was not feeling well or was in a bad mood he took it out on the workers in the store. I did not stick around for his abuse, I left Wal-Mart behind. Shame is they could treat their workers with respect pay proper wages and a lot less nasty things would come to an end.