Not necessarily: Electrolux, the company that probably made the refrigerator in your home (think Frigidaire, White-Westinghouse, Gibson, Kenmore, Kelvinator) just rewarded 2700 workers in central Michigan for their productivity, loyalty and decades of hard work.
With a pink slip.
This kind of thing really makes me seethe.
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Dont you just love unbridled greed? I have a theory that there is a very very special level of hell – right beneath the level reserved for the producers of reality shows- that has been made for corporate Americans like this…..At least I hope there is, because theyre destroying America.
Did you see Fr. Jim Tucker giving the other point of view on his blog?
When it comes to things related to business and economics, I am just so ignorant that I can’t have much of an informed opinion about what is right and wrong.
David Morrison has a nice response to Fr Jim’s comment.
Electrolux was turning a profit in Michigan — they just wanted more.
Thanks for the link. I did skim it, but am feeling a bit too green right now to fully digest it.
Like I said, I’m so ignorant — mainly of how business and the economy work, and also of what “official” Catholic teaching on this sort of thing might be — that I am not fit to have an opinion. My feelings are generally with you Peony and seemingly the Catholic-blog majority on this topic. But my feelings have not often been a reliable indicator of right and wrong.
I’m sort of torn on this one. On the one hand, I’m just as outraged about this as Mr. Morrison is, and on the other hand, I’ve come to expect this from corporations who want to turn huge profits. I think that the whole idea of my expecting this sort of thing to happen has made me sort of wishy washy on this whole issue. It’s like, don’t mess with the bulls ’cause you’ll get the horns. I don’t think it’s prudent for people to put so much trust and loyalty into a company; not anymore. The days when one could work for a company their whole lives and retire with a generous pension are gone. There is no such thing as job security, and that is a very scary thing indeed. I mostly feel for those that are 50 and older in this case. Perhaps that’s the generation that really believed they’d make it to retirement. I think that people in my generation have to be prepared for the worst, and always make sure that they’re marketable/skilled in other areas.
I grew up in a town loaded with textile factories. My Dad was a foreman at a few of these over a period of several years. Most of these jobs were eventually moved to South American countries as the corporations hiring these independent factories wanted cheaper labor and my Dad was left with nothing, and with relatively little skills. He couldn’t find any other job within the textile industry, and due to necessity, took a job at a chemical plant. He died some years later of cirrhosis of the liver, and several of his coworkers were diagnosed with and died of the same as well. But he took the job to survive, ’cause he lacked other skills. I get angry every time I think of it. But then again, I also wish my Dad had had other skills, as I believe that that would have ultimately saved him.