Tag Archives: Employment

March 4, 2013 · 12:40 PM

Corporate Profits Have Risen Almost 20 Times Faster Than Workers’ Incomes Since 2008

The Left Wing Media has talked about this ad infinitum, yet no one in mainstream media has spread this information.

Think Progress

Corporate profits hit record highs in the second half of 2012, but that prosperity hasn’t led to the creation of jobs, since America’s biggest firms are sitting on stocks of cash instead of investing them back into the economy.

At the same time, wages hit record lows, and corporate earnings are rising nearly 20 times faster than disposable incomes, the New York Times reports:

As a percentage of national income, corporate profits stood at 14.2 percent in the third quarter of 2012, the largest share at any time since 1950, while the portion of income that went to employees was 61.7 percent, near its lowest point since 1966. In recent years, the shift has accelerated during the slow recovery that followed the financial crisis and ensuing recession of 2008 and 2009, said Dean Maki, chief United States economist at Barclays.

Corporate earnings have risen at an annualized rate of 20.1 percent since the end of 2008, he said, but disposable income inched ahead by 1.4 percent annually over the same period, after adjusting for inflation.

From 2009 to 2011, 88 percent of national income growth went to corporate profits while just one percent went to workers’ wages, and hourly earnings for workers actually fell over that time. And while they aren’t investing in job growth, corporations are also paying taxes at a rate that hit a 40-year low in 2011.

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January 9, 2013 · 12:05 AM

Taco Bell joins Wendy’s in gutting blue-collar employee hours allegedly to avoid Obamacare

America Blog

Yo no quiero Taco Bell.

Funny thing about Taco Bell’s franchise in Oklahoma claiming it’s gutting blue collar employee hours in order to avoid Obamacare’s requirement that employees working an average of 30 hours a week or more must be provided health insurance. I called around, and the requirement doesn’t kick in until 2014. So why is Taco Ball cutting employee hours now, a year early?

Same question for Wendy’s.

But it gets even odder.  The company that owns the local Taco Bells seems to be saying that they still don’t fully know what Obamacare (aka the Affordable Care Act) requires of them.

Treadwell Enterprises released the following statement Monday to News 9:

“Treadwell Enterprises, like most businesses, is still researching what the Affordable Care Act means to our operations. Regardless of the conclusion of our analysis, we will comply with this law, as we do all laws.”

If the company is still analyzing how Obamacare affects their business, then why is the franchise owned by this company already cutting back employee hours in order to save money on something that not only reportedly hasn’t even been implemented yet, but about which they haven’t even reaching any “conclusions” yet?

The more these big brands like Wendy’s and Taco Bell strike out against their blue collar employees supposedly because of an Obamacare provision that reportedly doesn’t even apply to them yet, the more it sounds like these are Republican companies simply taco belltrying to save money by making a political statement about a Democratic program and Democratic President they don’t like.

And I’m getting tired of hearing these parent companies tell us that they’re not responsible for what their franchises do.  You license them your good name, you’re responsible for what they do under your name. Period.

It’s time to write Taco Bell off along with Wendy’s, unless both companies get their franchises in line.  I go to both Taco Bell and Wendy’s.  But I wont in the future if it means financing Republican activists who are out to hurt their workers.

And this parent company of the Taco Bell in Oklahoma also runs a series of KFC’s and Ruby Tuesdays in the state, so those brands are implicated in this as well, since KFC and Ruby Tuesday seem to think this company is a fine business to partner with.

PS Someone on Facebook just made a fascinating point: There are employees at Taco Bell and Wendy’s who are touching our food and who don’t have adequate health insurance, and thus adequate health care? And they’re touching our food.

 Video:  Guthrie Taco Bell Worker Speaks After Hours Cut To Avoid Health Insurance Mandate.

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October 11, 2012 · 1:14 PM

David Siegel: ‘I Didn’t Try To Intimidate’ Employees With Anti-Obama Email

Uh…yes you did.  You also did the same thing in 2008…

The Huffington Post

For Westgate Resorts CEO David Siegel, telling his employes they’ll lose their jobs if President Obama is reelected isn’t a threat. It’s a fact.

The Florida real estate tycoon, who recently restarted construction on his 90,000 square foot dream home, defended a private memo he sent to his employees telling them he “will have no choice but to reduce the size of [his] company” should Obama win the election come November.

Siegel, who has claimed he is “personally responsible” for getting George W. Bush elected, was criticized for striking fear in the hearts of his workers who may choose to vote for Obama. But he claims the memo wasn’t meant to be a threat.

“I didn’t try to intimidate anybody,” he told WKMG Local 6. Instead it’s simply a matter of preparing his employees for the worst, he later explained to CNBC’S “Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo.”

“I wanted to inform my employees of what their future would hold if they make the wrong decision,” he said on CNBC. “I wasn’t threatening any of the employees. If they vote for Obama they’re not going to lose their jobs.”

Siegel isn’t shy about letting employees go in tough times; in 2009 he laid off some 7,000 workers thanks to “tightening of the banks.”

And he isn’t the first CEO to make his political preferences known and not-so-subtly attempt to push them on his workers. Murray Energy Company employees were forced to lose a day’s pay to attend a mandatory Romney rally in August.

“Our managers communicated to our workforce that the attendance at the Romney event was mandatory, but no one was forced to attend,” a Murray Energy Company spokesman later told local news radio WWVA.

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June 10, 2012 · 12:15 AM

ROMNEY: “MAKE IT VERY CLEAR TO YOUR EMPLOYEES” HOW THEY SHOULD VOTE

This was no faux pas.  In fact, Romney was talking to his base when he suggested that employers should make it very clear how their employees should vote…

Examiner

Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican Party nominee, spoke to the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) yesterday in a Tele-Townhall meeting, telling them to“make it very clear” to their employees who they should vote for in the November General Election. The NFIB has over 100,000 members nationwide.

“I hope you make it very clear to your employees what you believe is in the best interest of your enterprise and therefore their job and their future in the upcoming elections,” Romney said. “And whether you agree with me or you agree with President Obama, or whatever your political view, I hope you pass those along to your employees.”

Romney laughed, saying “nothing illegal” about informing your employees, even if it may be inferred as a threat to losing their jobs.

“Nothing illegal about you talking to your employees about what you believe is best for the business, because I believe that will figure into their election decision, their voting decision.”

The topics in the Tele-Townhall covered the Republican Party message of fewer regulations, tax cuts for businesses and less healthcare, referring to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which Republicans and media call “Obamacare”.

Mitt Romney again shows that he doesn’t care about anyone who actually works for a living as he instructs the NFIB to let all their employees know via a perceived threat, that their jobs may be in jeopardy if they don’t vote for Romney. And Mitt Romney laughed as he spoke to them about it.

Nevada has been hit hard with foreclosures and unemployment, so what is Mitt’s advice to Nevada members of the NFIB?” Make it very clear” that this November, you should vote for Romney because your jobs may be on the line.

This is the same man who said:

Mitt Romney, the “Everyday Joe”, loves America so much; he hides his money in foreign banks, in foreign countries.


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May 13, 2012 · 3:58 PM

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer Signs Legislation Permitting Employers to Interrogate Female Employees About Contraception Use

Jan Brewer (Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com)

The Raw Story By ABL

A month or so ago, I wrote about a bill in Arizona (HB 2625) that would permit employers to opt-out of the so-called birth control mandate and interrogate their female employees about their sexual practices, all in the name of “religious freedom”:

You see, if a female employee seeks a medical prescription for contraception, an employer will be permitted to ask that employee for proof that she doesn’t plan to use the contraception for slutty fuck-making.  Using it for medical reasons is ok —  that’smedicine.

So, if you’re one of those women who uses slutpills for non-slutty reasons, then you’re ok.  You’ll get to keep your job.  Enjoy your ovarian cancer or your acne or whatever, but make sure you put that red cover on your TPS reports or the boss’ll have your head.

But if you’re running around like some sort of whore-nympho, then you better keep that shit on the down-low, because if The Man finds out you might-could get fired:

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 6-2 Monday to endorse a controversial bill that would allow Arizona employers the right to deny health insurance coverage for contraceptivesbased on religious objections.

Arizona House Bill 2625, authored by Majority Whip Debbie Lesko, R-Glendale, would permit employers to ask their employees for proof of medical prescription if they seek contraceptives for non-reproductive purposes, such as hormone control or acne treatment.

“I believe we live in America. We don’t live in the  Soviet Union,” Lesko said. “So, government should not be telling the organizations or mom and pop employers to do something against their moral beliefs.”

Lesko said this bill responds to a contraceptive mandate in the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed into law March 2010.

“My whole legislation is about our First Amendment rights and freedom of religion,” Lesko said. “All my bill does is that an employer can opt out of the mandate if they have any religious objections.”

Glendale resident Liza Love said the bill would impose on women’s rights to keep their medical records private.

Love spoke to the committee about her struggle with polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis, conditions requiring her to use birth control.

“I wouldn’t mind showing my employer my medical records,” Love said. “But there are 10 women behind me that would be ashamed to do so.”
(read the rest)

Continue reading Raw Story article here…

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October 6, 2011 · 12:41 PM

Steve Jobs – Gone Too Soon

Steve Jobs has touched all of our lives in some way…

My friend Gilligan says it best:

Because of Jobs’ genius, I don’t know anyone whose life wasn’t touched by his vision and innovation.

And as an Apple stockholder for a number of years, I know that because Jobs had received his final diagnosis, he planned well for his company’s future. But it’s his family, his wife and children, who will grieve the most at the loss of their husband and father.

Here’s a little Michael Jackson….

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October 2, 2011 · 3:37 AM

West Wing Week: 9/30/11 or “Set Your Sights High”

The White House 

Welcome to the West Wing Week, your guide to everything that’s happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. This week, the President announced reforms to No Child Left Behind, traveled to California to hold a town hall on job growth at LinkedIn, spoke on what the American Jobs Act could mean for America’s schools and gave his third annual Back To School address.

 

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April 1, 2011 · 12:49 AM

The War On Child Labor Laws: Maine Republicans Want Longer Hours, Lower Pay For Kids

There is no rational explanation for what the far right is doing to turn back the clock to a time in our history that no one but the fat cat corporations want to revisit.   Cheap labor via lower wages and child labor is a thing of the past and needs to remain a thing of the past.  So, having said that, what’s next, bringing back slavery?

Think Progress

Maine State Rep. David Burns is the latest of many Republican lawmakers concerned that employers aren’t allowed to do enough to exploit child workers:

LD 1346 suggests several significant changes to Maine’s child labor law, most notably a 180-day period during which workers under age 20 would earn $5.25 an hour.

The state’s current minimum wage is $7.50 an hour.

Rep. David Burns, R-Whiting, is sponsoring the bill, which also would eliminate the maximum number of hours a minor over 16 can work during school days.

Burns’ bill is particularly insidious, because it directly encourages employers to hire children or teenagers instead of adult workers. Because workers under 20 could be paid less than adults under this GOP proposal, minimum wage workers throughout Maine would likely receive a pink slip as their twentieth birthday present so that their boss could replace them with someone younger and cheaper.   Read more…

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November 18, 2010 · 6:53 PM

Mario Piperni: Cutting Off The Unemployed Takes A Special Kind of Evil

Mario Piperni

It takes a special kind of evil to deny the unemployed extended benefits while at the same time calling for permanent tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires – a move which will increase the deficit by $700 billion over the next decade.

Washington is poised to stop providing extended unemployment benefits despite the huge number of laid-off workers, the paucity of job openings, the high rate of underemployment in every sector of the economy and stubbornly slow economic growth. That’s because Republicans in the Senate insist that, unlike the hefty tax cuts they covet for the wealthy, the comparatively slender subsidies for the unemployed must not be financed with borrowed money. This penuriousness is not just hypocritical, it’s bad economics.

The current federal program, which offers up to 73 extra weeks of unemployment benefits to idled workers, is due to expire Nov. 30. If it does, about 2 million unemployed people will have their benefits cut off in December.

…and it takes a special and pathetic kind of stupid to buy into so blatant an example of Republican hypocrisy.

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October 2, 2010 · 3:40 AM

Feds Sue Fox News Over Reporter Catherine Herridge’s Charges Of Discrimination, Retaliation

Seal of the United States Equal Employment Opp...

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Huffington Post

Federal authorities are suing the Fox News Network for allegedly retaliating against a reporter after she complained about unequal pay and job conditions based on her gender and age. 

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says Fox News Channel reporter Catherine Herridge filed an internal complaint about allegedly discriminatory practices in 2007. 

Fox found no evidence of bias, but the EEOC says the network later included language in Herridge’s employment contract intended to stop her from making any more complaints. 

Herridge refused to sign the contract. The network agreed to remove the language after she complained to the EEOC. 

The EEOC seeks unspecified monetary damages and a court order enjoining Fox from retaliating against other employees. 

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