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Jeremiah Patterson / Investigative Reporting Workshop
The Momentive Performance Materials plant near Albany, N.Y.
Editors' note: This story has been updated to clarify Apollo CEO Leon Black's stock holdings. The company had declined to comment for this story before publication.
When Apollo Global Management bought Momentive Performance Materials, a chemical factory in upstate New York, in 2006, it administered a lesson in modern-day economics at what had long been one of the biggest and most stable employers in the Albany area.
Private equity companies like Apollo make money through debt. In a leveraged buyout, a firm hones in on a company, often one that is publicly traded, and struggling, and takes it private. The acquisition is financed by borrowing against the company itself. The goal is to take the company public again, ideally in three to five years, and net a profit for the investors and the firm. The debt remains with the company.
The debt load can translate to major belt-tightening at the acquired company. The buyer is looking to increase productivity, reduce inefficiencies and, as jargon would have it, create synergies. That often means a private equity firm will buy up a few companies in a particular industry, mash them together and eliminate the overlap. That often means eliminating jobs.
Whether private equity firms, on average, create or destroy jobs is a matter of debate. Buyouts by private equity firms have a generally positive effect on the financial performance of the acquired companies but are “associated with lower employment growth,” according to a 2008 report by the Government Accountability Office. A more-recent academic paper found that post-buyout, companies see increases in both layoffs and jobs created. On balance, the authors write, there is a 1 percent net loss of jobs when a company is taken over by a private equity firm.
But the loss of jobs is often not the only toll for workers caught in the middle of a leveraged buyout, as Momentive workers learned soon after Apollo purchased their company from General Electric. (GE is a part owner of NBCUniversal.)
Apollo cut the wages for most of the production and maintenance workers at its Waterford plant. The National Labor Relations Board investigated and tentatively concluded that the company had violated the contract. But with other locals rallying behind a new contract offer, hundreds of the production workers were forced to accept drastically reduced pay.
In the months after the contract vote, the stress level at the plant was through the roof, said one worker, who, like his colleagues, spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation from company officials. His doctor treats lots of Momentive workers, he said, “and she says Xanax should be in our drinking water.”
The anxiety “was affecting my stomach,” another worker said. “I can’t eat. I’m drinking more than I’ve ever drank in my whole life.”
Since the wage cuts, workers said, attracting qualified hires has been difficult. The new contract, they said, has brought more responsibility for less pay. They alleged that new hires are asked to perform dangerous tasks with inadequate training. And longtime workers are taking second jobs to make up for lost pay, several men said.
“There’s a guy near me who has a part-time job at Wal-Mart,” one man said, adding that in his unit people work seven afternoons in a row, with one day off, then seven straight days of midnight shifts.
“He often says he’s only got three hours of sleep” before returning to work, he said.
“This is suicidal,” another man said.
Momentive, in a written statement, says it “seeks to attract a world-class workforce through competitive compensation and benefits, while providing a safe work environment.” The company also notes that since 2006, when Apollo took over, the Waterford site has shown improvement on two of OSHA's key measures of worker safety.
Still, the union has raised safety concerns. For years, the Waterford plant was part of a special program at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that honors workplaces with exemplary safety and health records and procedures. Waterford was a VPP Star site, the highest rank within the Voluntary Protection Program. The benefits of the VPP star aren’t just a nice flag to fly in front of the factory. Once in the program, the site is exempt from random checks by OSHA inspectors.
In late 2010, the union withdrew its support for the VPP program in Waterford, which is required for the certification. Such a loss of union support is rare, according to OSHA. In January 2011, the plant lost its VPP status.
That withdrawal from the program was a long time coming. In November 2008, the membership of Local 81359 had sent a letter to Momentive’s management, saying the company’s “actions and tactics have created this hostile work environment and we fear for the health and safety” of the plant workers.
After that warning, OSHA inspectors found eight serious violations at the plant over several months in 2010, each resulting in a $4,500 fine.
One of the violations involved “an uncontrolled release of sulfuric acid,” exposing employees to “inhalation and burn hazards.” Momentive did not furnish employment “free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm,” according to the violation notice. (Four of the violations were later “deleted” by the agency during discussions with the company of fines and penalties.)
“The night of the sulfuric acid release there were some young new guys there, and a guy who had been there for a long time,” said Dominick Patrignani, a union official. “He kept people from getting burned. We would have been reading about it in the obit section, possibly.”
“The knowledge base of the people they’re bringing in is nothing like we’ve ever seen before, because you can’t get highly skilled workers at $14 and $15 an hour.”
On May 25, 2011, two workers on the night shift were severely burned in a flash fire at the plant. In the early morning, the men were preparing to clean some equipment, according to one worker with knowledge of the incident. But when they started to take apart a piece of pipe, gas somehow ignited. The men were severely burned and were airlifted to the Burn Center at nearby Westchester Medical Center. Both survived, but now face a long recovery.
“This whole event could have been prevented,” Patrignani said, adding that he had raised safety concerns about that area of the plant to the operations manager the week before the accident.
In November 2011, an OSHA investigation of the May accident resulted in $81,000 in additional fines for Momentive, for 10 serious violations and one repeat violation. The company is appealing the fines and OSHA has yet to issue a final determination.
----
For Momentive’s Waterford workers, the wage changes are a done deal. A group of workers filed additional complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, but those went nowhere. Some organized a vote to decertify the union — essentially, to fire the union as their representatives — but that failed.
They have received their settlement checks, and most are resigned to the drastically lower pay, new responsibilities and the tension. But resignation doesn’t mean the living is easy.
I met with one Momentive worker, his fiancée and their young daughter at a Dunkin’ Donuts off Route 9. When I mentioned that someone told me I should talk to the wives if I want to get the real picture of the pay cuts and their impact, she nodded. “We almost lost him, you know,” she said. “He had a heart attack from the stress.” He was now seeing a therapist and a psychiatrist, and was taking multiple anti-anxiety drugs, she said.
Over coffee and a box of doughnut holes, the couple laid out what they’ve been through since the pay cuts took $400 a week out of his paycheck.
First they got jammed up on bills and they cut down to one car, a hardship in an area where you can’t hail a cab or catch a bus, and you can’t get a gallon of milk without driving to a store.
The man had to ask a friend for a ride to work. “It was hard to do that,” he said quietly. “I’m not used to asking for help.”
Since then, they’ve scaled back a lot.
“We’re OK with that,” his fiancée was quick to say. She doesn’t get her hair done any more, or her nails, things they took for granted before. They don’t go on vacation, or to the movies. But the furnace is on its last legs, she said, and they don’t know how they would pay for repairs if it conks out.
And it’s not just the little things. When his wages were cut, they fell behind on their mortgage, and the bank wasn’t willing to lower their rate, now at 8.5 percent. They couldn’t refinance with another lender, because their credit was bad. “Of course it was bad,” she said. “We lost a huge chunk of our income.”
When they couldn’t refinance, and couldn’t get a loan modification, they said they got tangled up with a foreclosure rescue scam, which took cash up front and advised them to fall further behind on their loan. Efforts to work with government programs didn’t pan out. Now they’ve declared bankruptcy and the house is in foreclosure.
“It’s all I’ve ever wanted, to work. To provide for my family. I didn’t want El Dorados and Rolexes,” the Momentive worker said, worrying the sleeves of his brown work jacket.
--------
As the workers and their families settle in to their new reality, more changes may lie ahead. Momentive continues to “pursue various cost reduction initiatives” across its sites, including “sourcing through low-cost countries, overtime reduction and other labor efficiency,” according to its 2010 annual report. Whether that means moving more production to China, where the company expects to “generate future growth,” remains to be seen. Momentive said in its written statement that “Waterford continues to be an important facility” in the company's “North American network.”
The company has also been making moves in the United States, merging Momentive with competitor Hexion in late 2010.
Then, in April 2011, Momentive filed the paperwork for an $862 million initial public offering that would have brought the company out of Apollo’s hands and return it to public trading. But the company is, as its 2011 annual report notes, still a “highly leveraged company,” owing $2.9 billion at the end of the year. By June 2012, that figure had grown to nearly $4 billion. In August, Standard & Poor’s downgraded Momentive’s debt from B- to CCC. A month later, Momentive withdrew the IPO filing.
Read part 1: A buyout, a reorganization and the new face of job security
While Momentive may not go public, its owner, Apollo Global Management, did. Following in the footsteps of industry giant Blackstone, Apollo launched an IPO in March 2011. At the time of the IPO, Apollo CEO Leon Black held more than 90 million shares, according to the company's prospectus, worth almost $1.8 billion when the IPO launched. A company spokeswoman, Melissa Mandel Kvitko, said none of Apollo’s management, employees, affiliates, or strategic investors sold shares in this offering.
As for Momentive workers, they still take home a nice paycheck. They know that. They work hard at their union jobs, and they get paid enough to support themselves and their families, maybe save enough to survive into old age. But something besides the pay has changed.
“I don’t like what’s happening. I don’t think it’s right. I don’t think it’s fair. But at the same time, I still have mixed feelings. I’m probably paid better than 90 percent of people,” one man said. It’s the principle, he said: It’s as if he had $10 in his pocket, and Apollo came along and took $2. He still has eight bucks, but that doesn’t make it right. And while he makes more than most people, he said, being able to retire comfortably after decades of work is what’s supposed to happen. It’s not an outrageous luxury, nor should it be.
Now, though, the canceled IPO and the debt load have him wondering about the plant’s future, and the future for young workers at Momentive. “I realize they’re a good employer, and they provide a lot of good jobs,” he said. “I don’t want to see them fail.”
He goes to work every day, he said, and does the best he can. But the contract fight has changed his relationship with a job he once loved. “It’s like being betrayed by a spouse,” he said. “It’s awful hard to go back. It’s never going to be the same for me.”
The Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, is a nonprofit, professional newsroom that pairs experienced professional reporters and editors with graduate students, and co-publishes with mainstream media partners and nonprofit newsrooms.
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Let the idiots chime in on ...How LUCKY they are to have a job, etc..etc..etc...
Here we have a glaring account of the downright treasonous externalities that result from vulture capitalism.
In any way shape or form, costs and expenses must be continually cut in order to expand the bottom line. Labor and safety overhead is in the cross-hairs every time. When there is no meat left on the bone, they can either shift production overseas, or better yet........ close up shop and deploy those golden parachutes.
It's due time we recognize capitalism for the hooded beast we've let it become.
And just what would you replace capitalism with? I am sure it is something that will completely take away our freedoms....
I would reinstate REGULATIONS. Like the Glass-Steagall act for starters. There are many more as well. But more importantly,
what are these "freedoms" you so proudly stand behind?
Like the "freedom" to outsource American jobs because impoverished minors in China will do the job for fractions of the cost?
Or are you referring to the revolving door that resides between big industry and Washington? Sort of like a freedom of employment I suppose.
Maybe you were alluding to the freedoms that allow the ultra wealthy to stash American dollars overseas in tax shelters? As if that money would do any good trickling through our economy.
Oh! I know! You are referring to the freedom of Corporations to invest in our elections! That's definitely it. And the freedom of Super Pacs to not have to disclose whom or what they stand for. MMM mmm...... freedom at its finest.
In reality, the company is lucky to have employees!
I worked for a company in the late 80s that I loved. Good pay, pretty good bennies, great people to work with, we had pride in what we did, strove to continually improve without even being asked (we just WANTED to be the best) had fantastic morale. It was great.
Then, in 1990 or 91, the economy went south. Have to admit, our business didn't suffer so we didn't notice how bad it was. Out of the blue one day, they held department meetings in every department. The supervisors were ordered (ORDERED by top management) to tell us "Yada yada yada....and from now on, this is the way it is, and this is the way it's going to be. Anybody who doesn't like it, don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out, because we have a stack of applications THIS thick!" (Actual word for word quote! except for the yada yada yada, which was policy change details) They held up their fingers showing six inches thick. I looked all around at the faces of my department coworkers, and saw that that moment was the end of our pride, our morale, and our desire to EVER again do anything more for the company than we absolutely had to.
A few years into Clinton's economy, when the job market started to boom and companies were starting to get rich, I quit and went to a compeditor in the same field. So did many of their best employees. Shortly after that, the company went under. See, when times got good for other companies, and jobs were plentiful for us workers, no one who was any good wanted to work for my old company.
I've looked around at what's happening right now during this hard economy, and have a theory. I know that the Republican strategy of blocking everything Obama has been trying to do to revive the economy was to try to defeat him in this past election. But it's over and he won. So why are they still doing it now? I thought, it's only hurting US now, it just doesn't make any sense. I think, perhaps, the Republicans realize that what happened to my company will be happening to a lot of their corporation friends the instant the ecomomy improves....the key, good people they're holding hostage right now will quit enmasse and the companies will be f---ed because the people will remember how they were kicked when they were down. After all, what idiot would want to work for companies that are doing things like this if they didn't absolutely have to?
steel toed boot
Incredibly inspiring post. It's as if we are in some kind of vacuum and we can not escape this tyrannical grip that big business seems to think they have on the working public. Hopefully, they will not have the last laugh.
You post made me think of a more macro-economic thought that has passed through my head as of late. All this talk about how raising taxes will force companies to leave and wealthy households to pick up and leave the states.
I call utter Bull$hi+.
By far there is no way any of these groups would leave the states, as this is where they have made their killing over the years. Our system may be broken but it is not trash. And those that have achieved under this recent gamed economy will have to face the music when the system is finally fixed.
Tea Party Down.... stick it up ur.....how many times have venture capitalist taken a struggling company and made it strong enough to compete against foreign companies. How about Staples they took that company to a whole new level where it now hires 100's of thousands of people. Or would it have been better to let it go broke. Oh I fougot ur mainstream media only told you about the bad deals. Too bad u did not get to see how many companies suceed only the loses; and loses do happen and when it does the venture capitalist loses thier money.
How many times did they bring in the capital needed to move from a small player to a big time player. It's whats made the USA so great. And has worked fine for over 250 years. Thank God some of these people werent here during the 1920s they would have quickly moved us the the Socialist utpoia like Europe.
What usually happens is the Government gets involved and screws everything up just like they did when they decided the market could not decide who should own a house. The Government decided everyone should own a house (some kind of god given right) and starterd screwing with the markert and created a bubble that busted and cause so much more of a problem than if the banks where allowed to take their risk. The Government told the banks to make the crappy loans and if they went bad Fanny and Freddie would help tham out. The Govenrnment even went as far as threaten the banks if they did not make a certian percentage of there loans to the risky people that did not qualify in the first place. So everyone that could breath suddenly became approved to buy a house overnight. And we know how that played out.
As I was saying our system has created more wealth at the top, bottom, and everywhere in between since the beginning of time. Just because we've hade 3 years of problems don't throw out the best system in the world and try what we know does not work..........SOCIALISM...because you always run out of other peoples money...as we are seeing in Europe....
This is what happens when we lose sight of the interconnectedness of the different facets of our system of living and working; the way everything interacts to create a workable, functional system. This is an example of the consequences of making extraction rather than contribution the goal of living. Once embarked upon this path, unless there is a major change in awareness and practice, there is no end result other than the destruction of our businesses, our economy, and our environment.
Tea Party Downgrade yep you are Right about the Vulture Capitalist..... What you fail to recognize is if what the union was doing to the Company was so Good then the Union should have bought it..... If the Union would not have had excessive demands then GE would have kept it.....
@ My Ride; In all your talk about "venture capatlism" saving private companies, you forgot the biggest success of all, when the government bailed out GM....now back stronger than ever.
Oh, I re-read the rest of your rant against the government. Guess you DIDN'T WANT to mention GM. Probably don't want to mention how the government bailed out your "capitalist" banks and Wall Street either. My bad!
Funny how people don't seem to understand economics and aren't able to read very well. Start from the beginning there. The company was in trouble. It was up to it's eyeballs in debt. In other words, the company was essentially bankrupt and about to go out of business. It would have gone out of business had it not been for those greedy venture capitalists! What did those greedy venture capitalists do? They kept the plant open for at least another 6 years, thus giving the union workers employment for 6 years that they otherwise wouldn't have had. Did the union workers end up working for less than they were making? Sure! Is it better to be making less than not making anything at all? Common sense says yes, but union mentality says....? Why is it the unions and their supporters bitch and complain, yet the only thing they will ever do is either work or strike. Why don't they buy the company? Yes, put all that liberal union money into buying the business! Then you can run it and pay as high a wage as you want. Just call President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Al Gore and have them put their money and the money of George Soros and all the libs into buy these businesses? Surely they have the money to do so. Then everyone will be happy. I'm sure those owners would be glad to pay whatever wages the unions demand, after all, it would be their money.
@ witchrunner; here's something I don't understand about economics I guess. Why, if companies cut their employees' wages and benefits (arguably their biggest cost, at least, that's what they CLAIM when they want to cut them), why don't the prices of the goods they make, or services they provide, go down? And if they DO go down, why do we still have inflation? To be truthful, I know they don't lower their prices, and I don't think it has much to do with economics at all. I think it has a lot more to do with how much more profit the companies are trying to quickly put in their pocket. Why do these "benevolent" venture capitalist companies buy out hurting companies, make money off of them, yet do nothing to get rid of the debt before cutting them loose to sink? And what did this 'benevolent" venture capital group do? They made 1.6 billion going public with their own company. And where did that go? Into the CEO's pocket. How much debt could that have erased to help this chemical plant? $1.6 billion worth. I think the practices of venture capitalists such as this company and Romney's Bain Capital, et al, are less about economics and "helping" companies, and more about greed.
steel: You are right that there are some things you don't understand about economics. Why don't the prices go down? Well, there can be several reasons. First of all, and the most likely, is that they've been operating in the red for a while. That's why the debt that the company has has gone up. So, you lower costs by lowering wages, it doesn't necessarily mean that you are making money. You may be just not increasing the debt as fast. The idea of the venture capitalist is to get the company to make money for their investors. So, they risk their own money in hopes of placing the company in a position to make them money. I have no clue about the $1.6 billion figure that you throw out there, but you obviously use the figure as an attempt to shock and impress people. You say they "made" $1.6 billion by going public. Knowing the way people talk today (with the idea of deceiving people) what do you mean by "they made 1.6 billion by going public?" Did they sell their shares for that much? Did they sell their shares for that much more than they put into it? How much did they invest? Even assuming that that they profited by $1.6 billion, so what? Why do you think the people who bought the shares bought them for? To lose money? Really? If their profit was actually $1.6 billion, then you must realize that those people no longer have an interest in the company, so if it then went belly up, it is because of the new owners.
The bottom line? You, like all libs, want to blame the wrong people. You've got to admit that if they've been able to turn the company around to the point that they can make $1.6 billion (however you define that) then they must have been doing something right. But, I suppose you are more impressed with the government's handling of companies, such as investing over a half-trillion dollars in companies like Solyndra and have them file for bankruptcy in less than 2 years. Couldn't have been any misuse of fund there, right?
People have a tendency to believe things will last forever. They also live beyond their means. They fail to realize their only good as their last payment. The next thing you know your sucking down donut holes and complaining about a mortgage you should have taken care of way before the trouble started.
This story isn't new. If you put your faith/belief in what an employer tells you..your stupid. The loyalty illusion faded a long time ago on both sides..did it really ever exist?
@ witchrunner; I know you just wanted to get your rant out about libs, but you need to read the WHOLE story before making claims.
From the story: "While Momentive may not go public, its owner Apollo Global Management did. Following in the footsteps of industry giant Blackstone, Apollo launched an IPO in March 2011. With the IPO, Apollo CEO Leon Black personally pocketed $1.8 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. Apollo Global Management declined to comment for this article.
I am sorry...it was $1,8 Billion, right into Leon Black's pocket! Apollo made the 1.8 billion for THEMSELVES....Momentive got nothing. That would have nearly wiped out the debt Momentive originally had, but under Apollo's 'management', that debt doubled in two years to $4 billion. Yep, they sure were there to help Momentive, weren't they? It was greed!
PS: If you want to know what 'going public' means, read the article, the whole article.
Fact remains that the artificially inflated wages were a result of the union squeezing the company. Guess what folks, the company says adios and sells out and in the process things get where they belong. Down with these idiotic wages for relatively unskilled labor and back to reality. Whoever came up with this BS that these jobs are high skill jobs??? Just like GM and the rest of them - not. Out with the unions and lets get back to basics.
Stop whining!
steel: You still don't get it and your explanation shows that the facts elude you. You seem to think that Black stole money from Momentive. The fact is that what Black made on the IPO for Apollo has nothing to do with the debt that Momentive owes. Black made his $1.8 billion based on his ownership interest in Apollo. For some reason, you seem to think that Black should have taken the money out of his own pocket and just paid Momentive's debts. How come you don't think Immelt and GE should have done the same? The truth of the matter is that what Black made had nothing to do with Momentive. The authors of these types of articles just like to stir their mind-numbed robots into a tizzy. What Black and the other private owners of Apollo made from the IPO was based on the value of Apollo, not Momentive. If, prior to the IPO, Apollo had taken other assets it had and just pushed them around and paid off the debt of Momentive, guess how much Black would have made on the IPO? You got it! $1.8 billion. Why? Because shoveling accounts around does nothing to affect the overall value of a company. Look at it like this: You have $30k in credit card debt and your total assets are worth $500k. That makes your net worth $470k. Now if you pay off your credit card debt by paying cash, what's your net worth? It's still $470k.
I think the problem in discussing economics with libs is that they don't understand economics and so it's easier to just call those who understand it "greedy" so that they can score brownie points with the uneducated.
WAIT A MINUTE, HERE ----- One of the employees suffered a heart attack from the stress of having his weekly pay dropped by $ 400.00 PER WEEK and now his family has to get by with only one vehicle and is having trouble making ends meet ? Just how much was this man being paid before the cut ? How much is he getting now ? Just what is his job anyway ? A bit of clarity, if you please !
The article states these vulture capitalists load a company with debt to aquire it but ignore that many times they do so merely to loot it. Bain capital bought KB toys putting up 18 million and bringing in investors for the rest. First thing they did was borrow 65 million on KB's assets paying it all in a special dividend solely to the Bain partners including Romney. They slashed jobs and wages and filed for bankruptcy after waiting the minimum time a bankruptcy judge couldn't claw back the 65 million dividend. The walked away with a 47 million profit while the 6500+ people who lost their jobs and suppliers owed money lost most of what they were owed.
So the wages are cut but I'm sure the union is still getting their take in dues. This article has omited some critical data, define the skilled jobs and how much were they making before the cuts? Sure we know someone was losing 400 bucks a week but what is he still taking home and what job was he doing?
There are plenty of companies that are surviving without a union and with very happy employees because thay are making a "fair" wage and get their benifits.
I have been in both union and non union shops and the laziness I have experienced by union employees disgusts me. With a union employee it is not about the company they work for, it is about the employee. ou can't accept an envelope delivery from me because you are on break. Pathetic. And that is just a simple example.
You reap what you sow.
I guess we don't need no stinkin unions, we have laws to protect us. (Sarcasm)
waa waa waaa... If you don't like it quit and find another job at McDonalds for $7.00 and hour....
Jesus Christ you are stupid.
That's made obvious, Big Trouble, by their need to come on a public forum and SHOW it!
my ride...... people like you are why the people like me believe in sterilization and abortion.
Is it too late to sign you momma up? Or her momma?
Why should we accept your slave mentality? There was an article on this same company yesterday. I believe the CEO was making $6 million a year or some such figure, but I know it's the workers that are the problem. Just how should people survive on $7 an hour? The electric and water bills alone would eat up most of that, never mind things like a mortgage and, god forbid, food!
South Carolina is not having any problem bring jobs there because the people know a good job when they see them. Gone are the days you can take a highschool education and start at a union shop for $40 an hour. And have a place at the beach, at the lake, and a $500,000 home, and send your kids to Harvard or Princeton. Those jobs have come south and the people that were working at McDonalds making $7.00 and hour are doing them and making $12-18 an hour and are very happy with a house, a car, well fed kids, healthcare, and many other things that were so far out of there reach while working at McDonalds.
When are you whinny people going to realize it's a world economy. We created it and the rest of the world bitched and belly ached but finally figured out how to play the game and are now kicking our but. So our whinny people want to change the rules... stop the competition and bring back those over paid union jobs.... Tooo bad those days are long gone. You must get a useful education that will equip you to compete on a worldwide stage. And Eco Feminism or Africam American studies does not count as a useful degree. Unless you plan on an over paid Government job...that needs to be cut out of the budget.
Yes, My ride. South Carolina-where intelligence, common sense and logic goes to die a slow, painful death.
Another 'red state' who takes in more from the Feds than it sends back in revenue. We in the blue/ purple states subsidize your low-wage so-called 'job creation', and suffers the stupidity of your legislative leaders, but not gladly.
And what a lovely world you think we should all be grateful for.
A place without decent job protections so that corporations can come in a exploit your poorly educated base for just-above-minimum wage jobs, that yes, might pay for a small house and a used pickup, but certainly won't allow one of your kids the chance to attend Princeton or USC, or god-forbid, you are unlucky enough to get sick on 'their dime' and you are canned for costing their HMO too much in premiums. Also, your towns might be quaint-looking, but once you get behind the facade, you see all the indentured poverty and racism they contain.
Notice, Google or Apple aren't moving jobs there. Why? Im not sure such brainiacs wouldn't be welcome there...probably too 'liberal' for your tastes. Or maybe they just don't want to live in a humid, chigger-and-reptile infested place loaded with tooth-gapped denizens who think Jesus is going to smite the gays any day now.
I live part-time in Charlotte and travel into SC often, so this is something I know about your fair state, first hand.
You are an idiot. You must be a Teabag, kissing those vulture capitalist a$$e$ like Romney's.
I've noticed a new theme on this blog from liberals. It goes "Yeah, you're from a red state that gets more fed money than you pay. It's us blue states paying your welfare" or some similar phrase. One question, Why do you keep voting for people who take your money and give it to these "low life red staters"?
The bias in this story is amazing. The supportive "evidence" used to make the points of the evils of the buy-out and restructuring of the company is not very strong. The best evidence of problems is in the safety violations and accidents, but again, despite saying the company held a somewhat exclusive designation by OSHA doesn't mean there were not accidents or no "near-misses" caught before they could become a problem. The safety record BEFORE the restructuring would have been an important comparison yet the writers didn't really do more than point to one measure of performance and safety. They seemed to "cherry pick" what they used to support their view of the situation, that the buy-out was "bad" for the workers.
Well, does anyone know WHY the company was sold in the first place? Was it having problems staying competitive in its market niche? Without the buy-out, what would have happened to the company if there were problems? Plant closures? Large lay-offs?
Then facts presented about the workers and the effects of the changes causing their problems don't add up if you look beneath the surface.
First, if you read carefully about the couple who lost $400 a week in his pay, there is something that doesn't make sense about their credit being so bad simply because of his cut in pay. They couldn't refi AND that they have a loan rate at 8.5%, blaming their poor credit rating on the loss of income damaging their credit scores. Well, that is a relatively old mortgage these days since it was a common mortgage rate back at the time for people who HAD good credit as far back as the 2002-2003. So either these two didn't refi like most people with good credit did when the rates dropped after (you didn't even need that great an income then to do so at the sub-prime peak) OR their credit was bad before the company cut the man's pay. They sound like they may have over-bought (ie. took out a mortgage with little to nothing down based on the max. allowed back when most anyone could get a mortgage depending on how much he or she wanted for a rate- the worse the credit or the more risky the loan based on low down payment, the higher the rate. There is something wrong with their simplistic view of their credit problems.
Sorry, but this is my business, mortgages and something doesn't mesh with their story. Good credit isn't dependent upon income, but the debt ratio to income, payment history, and the number of maxed out credit lines. That means there is more to their story especially if you look at their list of what they cut- hair & nail salon, vacations, going out for entertainment, etc... The car thing is a bit silly since no where does it mention the fiancee has a job. Yes, child care expenses can bite, but usually a couple can work it out so both can work even if it is in taking "shifts" at home. We did that in my family when times were tough.
Next, blaming others for drinking to excess because of stress is just lame just like the worker who says the anxiety is causing him or her to do so. Bad things happen and saying you have no control over yourself because you have stress so you engage in activities that will NOT help solve the problem is just not taking responsibility for one's choices. Negative stress isn't pleasant but you find a constructive way to relieve it and WORK on the problem, not magnify it by damaging your health and spending money on alcohol or recreational drugs so you can ignore your problems while you check out mentally-emotionally.
Sorry, but I am not sympathetic to the plight of these people when I read that they perceive the company "took" money out of their pockets and it isn't "fair". Life isn't always fair...stop being a child is what I would say to that worker. No one is promised a job for life and sometimes, things have to change in order for survival- for companies and individuals too. Of course, there will be some who point to the CEO raking in the cash, but really folks? Historically, hasn't that always been the case with perhaps, a brief respite, when the unions were at their peak?
Seriously, we are experiencing one of the worst economic downturns in this nation's history. If by being absorbed into a larger corporation, it makes the company more efficient, stronger in terms of being able to stay competitive thereby keeping the plant open, then that is just the way of survival. Think about if if this company was not bought out, but many of its competitors were, then it would be the weak one, potentially risking failure.
The lesson the writers mention in the title of this piece may have been taught, but the piece is so slanted to support that statement, it is ridiculous.
Oh, so that's what Romney did before the was called away to run the Salt Lake Olympics. That's how he planned to create 500,000 jobs. I wondered why he didn't want to tell us how he would do it.
If by "jobs" you mean "millions of dollars for his friends", then yes you are correct. And we we're so close.
He forgot to mention his favorite place to create jobs was in China!
Oh and Obama told us how he was going to create 500,000 jobs. Nope he can't even get a budget passed. He has more ability than anyone in Obama bunch. Obamas bunch are nothing but a bunch of moochers living off the back of hard working people. More Government jobs is not the answer. It's the problem. Why is it there are more minorities as a percent working for the Government that the general population....I know because they are nothing but handouts to people that could hold down a real job in a real industry......
my ride, you're pathetic.
First, show me one creditable source where Obama said he was going to create 500,00 jobs.
Second, Federal employment has been flat for the past 3 years.
I'd love to see you stand your stupid ass in front of a member of our armed forces, or a police officer, a fireman or a teacher and tell them they are getting "handouts".
Obviously you see no value to government services, but I'd love to see how you react if they went away.
"Life is tough, it's even tougher when you're stupid." John Wayner
Mike-There are legitimate government services and most were supposed to be provided by the individual states not the federal government. Now we have behemoth that is smothering us. I don't think it takes a bunch of stats or a very intelligent person to recognize that fact.
The "NEW" economy! Sort of sounds like Dickensonian England!
You might want to read some Dickens again. None of his characters intended to illustrate the plight of the worker in his novels had the luxury of worrying about not having a second carriage (today's car), not going on grand tours (vacations) nor dining out at fine establishments (eating out) let alone go to the theater (movies), going to the salon for various beauty treatments (getting hair and nails professionally groomed). In fact, Dickens characters were focused on survival whereas here, you have people who became accustomed to a lifestyle that has only been considered "the norm" for less than two decades.
It is sad, let's blame the new owners. What about GE? It is very interesting that those working there seem to understand that they still have a better than average job but that the big corporations want to make more money (capitalism) go figure. The only way to keep big corporations from wanting to make more money is to compete with them using your own ingenuity. Of course, that means you have to be willing to have the ideas, know how and financial wherewithall to have your own company. Those of us who work for others, need to understand, that our risk is whether we can consistently produce more for them than they can with someone else and that their products will be sold for a profit that meets their needs. Their risk, their rules, our stability. I am not saying that we can't complain but remember, we have a choice of working for an employer or not. Is the pay worth the work and risk, if not, we can move. Don't say that is too hard, I have done it many times in my career for those specific reasons.
I met a guy who worked for GE on the road several months back. He absolutely hated his job. They pushed him like a mule for a very modest salary. From the sounds of his business, he was a very educated and efficient employee, but alas...... under rewarded for his contributions. Another sad worker in a long line of complacency.
Once again, how would you fix the capitalist model or what model would you suggest for this me first world?
Horseman12 -
As much as you hate to acknowledge it, there was a time when workers actually derived some sort of pride out of a days work. They could go home at night, knowing full well they put in an honest days work and received an honest days wage for their contribution. Their supervisors did not drive them like mules and the CEO's did not make 400:1 ratios of pay to their salary. It was a simpler system where everybody was rewarded. They could relish in the fact that at the end of their career they would be able to retire with a little bit of a nest egg (iow - savings), have put their kids through extended schooling, and retained some sort of pension that would keep them afloat as they enjoyed their golden years. Wrap a little white picket fence around that and you have what I envision as a functional form of capitalism. And it was like this for a large portion of our society.
Now cut to 2012, all we hear about is continual outsourcing, pensions and unions under fire, continuous productivity increases per capita job, and outrageous executive compensations with no sort of merit attached. A college education is nothing more than a twenty year expense for many outgoing students. Temporary and part time jobs are the norm, as are individuals who need 2, 3 and/or 4 jobs to support their families.
If you cannot sense a stark contrast between the two scenarios, then there is not much more to our conversation.
And there was a time when people took jobs that were hard and they made very little. But they did them and did not sit at home waiting for the Government to give them a house, food stamps, a phone, free healthcare. and all the other crap the working people pay for. It was hard, but when things did get better and they always do they were the first to move up the ladder because of there employers recognized a hard worker. They took the low paying jobs out of pride and they had kids to feed. Now it's "whos ur daddy" thats not working and breeding like a rabbit because they know the Government will pay more for more puppies.
Now days it's illegals doing the hard low paying work because they know what hard work is.
Tea Party Downgrade, I see your point but the reality of what we have in life has been so changed by laws and regulations and by personal greed that I fear that the good old days are gone for good until we the working stiffs of the world devise a way to be come competitive in entreprenuerial (sorry about the spelling) skills and desires that we compete for those jobs that large corporations and government provides. More regulations will only put more work on the backs of labor and more money in the pockets of politicians and upper management of large corporations. I remember those good old days but it was also a time when we weren't mortgaging our future with debt in government and personal life to the exclusion of additional savings for the future.
We have created credit bureaus that set our credit scores based upon how well we pay debt, not necessarily whether we will take care of paying off our debt. The length of how long you have held a credit card and paid on it is more important that not carrying any debt on your credit. Commitment to employees has created the lack of loyalty to employers by employees. Entitlements like healthcare coverage from employers has created a cost to employers that is equal to a 1/3 or more of your total compensation (a mistake that was allowed to fester), government programs that increase cost to everyone without putting limits or finding a means to help those on those programs a way to get off, these are costs that we incurr that corporations and individuals are paying for to the detriment of society as a whole.
We pay our entertainers so much more than we get paid ourselves, but can't help it, and then want to live like they do without receiving that compensation. We (America) created this society of wanting more than we need or have and now we want someone else to pay for it. We want to work as hard as we perceive government workers do and get paid more to do it. We believe it is my right to have a great paying job, because someone else has one. We do not want to take the risk of the business because the risk of loss is too great, but then we want to complain that what we agreed to do as work for a certain salary isn't enough because everything has gotten so expensive.
Society is going to have to change. I have heard all the complaints about CEO compensation and some is legitimate but most these CEO's have taken huge risks to do what they do and are receiving compensation that was laid out for them prior to the job being done. Personally, I think many are way over valued, but then I am not the Board of Directors or Privately held organizations writing the checks. I did however, accept my position and salary and agreed to do what was requested up to that point that I feel they are asking too much and then it is my option to look for something else. If more companies would go out of business in the manner that Steel Toed Boot described above, there would be more loyalty between employers and employees, but that isn't what we have. Too many are so risk adverse that they keep taking the hits without saying enough is enough.
Regulation or socialism is not going to change greed which is the cause for our problems, both by leadership and workers it will just continue to grow our complacency until we are owned by China and then what is made in America will be made in China.
My ride, I got something you can ride, you horses behind. You just repeat what people perceive but never look at what is causing a problem and what can be done to fix it or eliminate it. The things you show negativity about have deep underlying problems. For the like of you it's easier to just complain than to roll up your shirt sleeves.
The issue here is that we need to dramatically alter the tax code to de-incentivize this kind of business takeovers.
Let's be completely honest about those who defend this as 'capitalism at its best'.
It is not.
Because of a much-lower tax rate on this kind of 'investment income' (effectively 15% or less on private equity deals) through the tax code, these are actually highly-subsidized financial transactions meant to strip away any intrinsic value in a traditionally structured company through debt leveraging or forced merger.
On paper these deals probably look great, especially for those who 'engineer' them to extract massive fees. Then the 'brilliant' MBA's who concoct these messes to fund the payouts, and who likely couldn't tell you the first thing about how to actually run the company anyway, leave the business with massive debt, fire workers, severely reduce compensation and benefits, leaving their communities much poorer in the process.
More often than not, even the companies customers suffer with compromised products, quality and customer service, since many of the workers they interact with are either fired, or are low-paid replacements.
Truly, we need to dramatically raise the tax burden on these kinds of capital transactions to de-incentivize them,probably back to 50% or more, but also simultaneously lower the tax burden on the actual business and its products to incentivize them to not sell-out, since this 'business model' is what is killing good paying jobs in this country.
This is another Wall Street engineered tax and debt model that is destroying this country. I'd rather the entire private equity industry be put out of business or greatly reduced since they've caused much more harm than good.
JPArch, which takeover? The one by GE when they purchased the manufacturing plant from the original owners or the one by Apollo Global that helped GE unload a manufacturint plant that was about to start working in the red on GE's books? You see the problem started before the venture capitalist got involved. Just like most issues we have in America today, they started many years and choices ago and now we have to think about ways to fix those poor choices with unintended consequences. Part of the reason for the impass with our politicians. Good intentions in the past with big government getting bigger has lead to our debt problems with a government that doesn't know how to get smaller. You know the reasons for austerity measures in Greece and Spain and other European countries.
Despite your loopy logic weakly tying these cause-effects of tax-driven vulture capital deals, to gov't debt and Greece and all the other fantasy bugaboos of the far right talking point list, A truly viable anti-trust division of the Justice Dept would've questioned the need for GE to takeover the company in the first place.
Notice these 'mergers' are rarely companies of equal size, but mega corps swallowing their minor-league competitors to garner market share for that particular product or service.
GE 'unloading' it probably came about because the premium they paid the original owners/ founders demanded that they institute a certain amount of cost-containment that resulted in lower-quality products, services or hiring less-qualified, if cheaper employees, thus diminishing returns on profits, if not causing losses.
Notice, it seem to have run just fine before all these wonderful mergers and takeovers.
Sadly, the typical conservative view of this is that since someone is clever-enough to figure out a way to make a buck, not actually making or doing anything of value, but instead screwing workers out of jobs, pensions, or to structure a deal that sets a company up for failure but they still make big bucks doing it, is justification enough to cheer it on. In some twisted logic, this is capitalism at its finest, and if you're not smart enough to either find decent paying employment to move to, or also figure out a way of screwing people out of hard-earned jobs and pensions to make a buck as well, then you 'deserve' to suffer the consequences.
Now, tell me where in this I am wrong in this? Seems like this is more the norm in business now, especially at the corporate and finance levels.
JP.......you've hit the nail squarely on the head. It seems like some type of scorched earth policy against American workers.
My gut feeling about these things are that if the people closing the businesses up and outsourcing them to places like Singapore and Malaysia should just move along with their businesses and 'enjoy' the lifestyle and security of their new partner country. (as well as be in arms reach of the 'very happy workers' they employ there, instead of being in a gated community across a wide ocean))
There is plenty of money for the Venture (vulture) Caps. Buy a company, cut wages, produce the same amount of product, throw big parties for yourself.
The JERK that bought the Silicon Plant from GE made so much from cutting wages he threw a $5 million birthday party for his wife. Meanwhile the workers are losing their homes.
Eat the rich.
I was fortunate to work for 3 first rate companies over the last 40 years...all of which were in the (best) top 10 of fortune 500 companies to work for. Had wonderful company espirt de corps at all 3. but over time each of the companies started outsourcing, moving into fields well outside their core business, started rewarding management at the expense of the "worker", started supporting green this, and affirmative that, and rainbow something else. Ultimately, one of them is gone today, one of them is shadow of its former self, and the 3rd and last one is on the glide path of a brick. A recent external survey of employees resulted in the astounding 63% of the employees would leave tomorrow for similar pay doing anything....went from one of the 10 best places to work to one of the worst in 5 or 6 years. That company would be HP....
I worked for HP in Cupertino back in the late 70's. You're right, a great place to work at then.
You can't pay the high salaries and bonuses of these useless boobs they hire who run companies into the ground AND pay your workers. Someday they'll figure that out.
The mass of people on earth throughout
history have lived under tyrannical conditions that have amounted to
little more than slavery. The 100 or so years of unions, and workers
rights, that were paid for with the blood of our grandfathers will
soon be swept away by the broom of globalism as “The rich get
richer and the poor get poorer.” The United States will become just
another third-world sweat shop, and the American dream will be just
that....a dream that our grandchildren will have a hard time
believing ever happened. With the death of the Middle-Class will come
the breakdown of all true American values, and the end of a civil
society. The rich will have their money, but they will have to build
bigger and bigger walls to contain it, and to keep out the wandering
barbarians. All this will have occurred because of greed. All of
which I do believe is foretold in a dusty old book.
Invest in heavy metals and nutritional products. I am ready. R U ?
I suspect they will do what WalMart does and violate the HB-1 Visa program by importing coolie labor from China and India. WalMart in Las Vegas has a whole posse of coolie labor from China which they imported illegally using the much abused HB-1 Visa program. They import them, give them housing and pay them about 4 bucks an hour. These people are slaves to WalMart, they all dress alike and NONE of them speak English, but hey, they are doing work such as unloading trucks, stock and inventory and WalMart swears they can't find any 'qualified Americans' to do this type of work. Sam raised some pretty evil kids, and I guess he was evil too cause they built their store brand on 'made in America' and 99.9% of the crap they sell comes from India or China, including the foods. So yeah, we have to admit that the CEO's running our country courtesy of Senators who get their paychecks via K Street are not Americans in any sense that you and I are. They are rapists of every living thing and not fit to breath air.
CEO pockets 1.8 billion and hires elton jon to preform in the hamptons..nice touch. elton really screwed him.
the moral of the story? It's better to be a CEO and get screwed by elton jon.
Reminds me of Romney at Bain!
Ross perot was right. That GIANT s sound. Bill Clinton was wrong but never ask a dem. Its was george bushes fault for signing nafta - not protecting trade secrets or allow cheap imports, or highly leveraged buyouts from foreigners or that littl housing crisis when bill clinton's congress repealed glass stegal. He was great man getting is d suc ked by monica in the blue dress.... Send your jobs to meccco or china if you don't like it. Free market ! ya know....Its america. the land of outsourcing, bought and paid for polititions and a walmart race to the bottom.
ahhh......... your missed informed clinton and gore crammed nafta down people's throats...it was a dem. thing all the way
Its ashame but this is a sign of the times. The middleclass pays the band while the rich dance. This is what the rebublicans want, and until America realizes that they only want two classes (rich n poor) the middle class will decline. These are the reasons unions were formed, this plant seems to be operating around the 1900 mindset.
We citizens have a choice,to b slaves to the people who worship greed,or band together and as one knock these rich @!$%#s on their fat asses!
I expect you'll find out that getting the people together and doing anything in a egal manner will be just about impossible. The best government money can buy will have sealed off every avenue formerly available to effect such change. I wouldn't be surprised that in the the next generation or two we see a return to the Regulators and Strike-Breakers of yesteryear.
I know people will throw the old 'well why don't you run for office' cliche out at this point. And while it all sounds good on paper, (or Internet forum chat board) real world implementation is a totally different story. You're not even going to be allowed on anything other than a very local ballot without a substantial amount of money.....more than someone will get working at a job..... and when all your peers are losing their homes and considering bankruptcy, you can rule out any financial contributions from them, so the 'best government money can buy' continues.
Hello to Rick Snyder 's right to work and goodbye to employee rights .. Where's all the government protection against wage cuts and work place violations that these moron's chime in with on other threads ?
We are not “just” workers, we are consumers. As a
corporation you cannot go after your workers that are you purchasers. Sure you
can do it for a while, but then you really are “just” cutting your own throat.
Most union workers are the most spoiled and laziest people in the work force.A few years back I was working on a Refinery job in Texas where there were union electricians and Millwrights.All we heard from them was when was the next break and when was lunch.Or a certain task came upon them,and they said they didn't have to do that because that wasn't union policy.What was funny about it is that we as non-union workers were making alot more money.Plus we were getting perdiem.This really pissed them off.Well to make a long story short.Both union contractors were run off the job for not meeting deadlines.What a joke the Union is.
You are spot on sir. Thans for the post. I too was working in the GOM as a helicopter driver, and saw the very same thing with all the union fuss. Incompetent piloting. Yes, you can teach them the mechanics of the job, but you can't make them think responsibly. All those crashes due to flying into bad weather.(foggy conditions, rain storms,etc.) Do you remember any of that ? I do. It's great to be retired and long gone from that job.
liar !
bossanova10 i don't know about Daves story,but mine is the absolute truth,and have many whitnesses to back me up.Of course I guess your in the union,and can't except the truth.The union use to be a good thing a long time ago,but now it's worthless because of greed in the upper levels.Why be in a union when you can make more money in the private sector,plus travel expenses.Also just as many benny's as the union.With my company.I make 6 figures a year.Get payed excellent perdiem.Company truck/with gas card.401k.profit sharing,medical-dental,and optical.All payed for by my employer.Plus a fat year end bonus.Tell me how many union companies do that.Very,very few if any in the skilled trades industry.
Right on Oilman. By the way, this Momentive Plant in Waterford, NY is the former GE Silicones plant. For decades they were the number 2 silicones company in the world, behind Dow Corning. It was a prosperous company, and GE gave the union great contracts and the employees were among the highest paid in the area; they were paid well above the market rate for their skill. HS diploma or GED would get a worker in the door, earning over $20/hour + great benefits. GE Silicones was steadily losing its competitiveness starting in the 1990's...they could not compete globally with Dow Corning and Wacker and Rhodia. (this was not necessarily the fault of union workers, although the high labor costs were a contributor). GE saw the handwriting on the wall and sold out. No surprise that the new owners had to take bold action to save the place. The other option was to close the plant down...and how would that help the union workers? This is just a classic case of trying to manage a company that is in death spiral. Yes, it is hard on some employees. But they still have a darn good job. Where else in Waterford could they get the pay and benefits they have? They need to focus on what they still have, and adjust their lifestyle accordingly. Many people in the new Obama Economy have had to do it.
#20.4- I call BS on your "new Obama Economy" statement. The current "economy" as you term it was started in the late 1970s by the adherents of Milton Friedman and his "Chicago boys", who claimed that the "free market" will win out and all the deregulation and "downsizing" and "outsourcing" will take care of itself because the US would become a "service economy". There statements at the time were, after all, would you rather be the manufacturer with all that labor cost nastiness or just the "servicer" taking care of them? Well, the answer is blowing in the winds of globalism and an American economy that has zero tarrifs and such low corporate tax rates that corporations used to pay in about 33% of all revenues and are now down to about 9%.
FROM: http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/numbers/revenue.cfm
There are too many union workers out there sitting on big,fat,retirement bundles of cash,jusy bideing their time until they retire.It's these bloated retirement programs which are completely out of line with non union worker thats is the rub.Last year,a librarian in Orange County,retired with yearly salary of $165,000.Typically teachers retire with six figure yearly checks.Prison guards retire with $225,000 yearly incomes,Firemen and police can retire after 20 years of service with 90% of their highest paid year income.There are ways to raise that figure by adding in unused sick pay,overtime and holidays off time.Since the highest paid year in=s typically their last year,it is not uncommon for firement and police to retire with 110%-120% of their regular salary after 20-25 years in the force.For many thats retiring at 50 years old.All of the above cases,the retiree get free medical,dentalc and vision for themselves and their dependents for life.The public emplyoee unions benefits aree running 40 % higher than similar benefitsfound in the private sector.There is the rub.The public is paying for contracts written in the 1960-1970's that can no o=loner be paid.Something has to happen.!
this is what you get for voting for obama he doesn't want anybody to have a good paying job except him
Thank you all for the expert posts. It is time for the end of unions. Now, more than ever in history do we need a whole new government. Yes, even down to the local level.
Jesus, thank You for Your sacrifice on the cross for my sins. Amen.
This is a free country, if you do not like your job find another one. The only job security is to start and own a business. If you are too stupid, too lazy or too chicken to do that you have no control and no standing to complain.
Ya to the person that said GM is doing better than ever since the Gov bailed them out. Yes they are because they cut everyones pay and benefits and make them do twice as much while at the same time giving all the top guys raises from what they cut from the workers. Gm was able to pay workers a great wage for a long time by just paying the top guys less and they still could if they wanted too but they dont. They make stuff up and say its because they paid so much to workers is why they were going broke which is total BS. They just saw how much more profit they made in mexico paying people peanuts and wanted that at every plant.... Greed is all it is
yes, greed all around. overpaid executives AND overpaid union workers. what's your point?
Everyone is forgetting that GM still owes the US Government BILLOINS
Welcome to the right-wing/Republican version of The American "Dream" (more like Nightmare), where the corporate raiders make big bucks for, essentially doing nothing positive (no jobs created, big debt added to the company books), and the rank and file workers get screwed, over and over and over. Forty percent paycuts, and "you should be happy just to have a job" bullsheet. It's disgusting!