From Atrios 9and the local newspaper)--

"Money Makes The World Go Round

Circuit City's variation on this is to fire its more highly-paid and more experienced workers and then to let them apply for the same jobs at lower wages:

The electronics retailer, facing larger competitors and falling sales, said Wednesday that it would lay off about 3,400 store workers. The laid-off workers, about 8 percent of the company's total work force, would get a severance package and a chance to reapply for their former jobs, at lower pay, after a 10-week delay, the company said.

Neat, isn't it? Of course Circuit City could have made similar savings by first firing its CEO, Philip J. Schooner, who earned around 2.17 million dollars last year and then letting him reapply at the "market" rate for CEOs.

Now why would a firm openly admit to doing something like this? Could it be a way around possible age discrimination suits? Many better paid workers are not only more experienced but also older."

I know I will never shop at Circuit City again.

That said, you have to give them points for honesty. "We need to raise our margins...blah..blah...blah. So we are hiring kids from MickeyDees as teens know more high tech shit then you..."

And they are losing 3,000 workers at $4.00 change for 2080 hours per year plus benefits plus overtime or roughly $33,000,000. What this tells me is that if they cannot make margin at $12/hour to the employees, then something is wrong. In Colorado (probably California too) you cannot raise a family on that. It highlights that perhaps wages may be too high on the management end. Without doing the research for this comment, I know that executives never made what they are making now, particularly if it is in proportion to what hourly workers are making. That skews margins ridiculously. But even if you trim management salaries a little (or a lot) all the way down the line, where do you make up $33 mill? One other non-populist part of the equation is Americans want more toys and at cheap prices. Screwing other Americans so we can get our fix is a part of the equation. Makes you feel all warm and cuddly inside to know you are (I am) part of a complex problem that is based in greed.

Living wages would be nice, less money to executives would be nicer and do we really need a 60" TV? or a home theater system? or a house that is thousands of square feet for a family of 4.5 people? I see over 3000 square feet for a family of 4 and wonder who they are hiring to clean.

rojo