Horrible bosses!
Horrible bosses!
Philadelphia's filthy rich CEOs got a lot richer (32.6 percent, on average) last year, and they did it by freezing your pay and slashing your benefits:
ONCE UPON A TIME - when the local founding Pew family was still in control - workers at Sunoco's sprawling Marcus Hook refinery joked about working for "Uncle Sunny," the kind of company in which a generous health plan for early retirees was negotiated with a simple handshake.
But today the dwindling number of time-clock punchers at the region's largest oil refiner say that they're so shell-shocked from the loss of 400 jobs at Sunoco's shuttered South Jersey site, a looming pension freeze and news that workers under 50 now won't be getting that retiree health coverage, they cringe at what might be next.
"Your blood pressure is up from the time you check in until the time you leave," said Dave Miller, president of Local 10-901 of the United Steelworkers, which represents some Marcus Hook workers. His union cohort, Mike McLain, nodded in agreement: He was six months shy of his 50th birthday when Sunoco killed off the future-retiree health benefits for its under-50 workers.
But at least one Sunoco employee did all right by "Uncle Sunny" in 2010: its CEO, Lynn Elsenhans.
Elsenhans arrived at Sunoco in 2008 to carry out an aggressive program of cost-cutting. That apparently did not include her own compensation package - which rose last year by a staggering 524 percent, to more than $11.7 million.
They earned it, right? Maybe. But such gross inequality tears at the fabric of society. The rich can do things in our current so-called democracy -- buy candidates and elections, for example -- that you and I can't. And their formula for boosting their individual company's bottom line -- and lining their own pockets in the process -- is crushing the broader economy, creating a middle class with no money and no confidence in the future. But go ahead -- bow at the powerful altar of the (rigged) "free market."
There is no right to a job or benefits. Tell these loser union members to work somewhere else if they aren't happy. At least they have a job. They should be grateful.— Captain Terrific
Comment removed.- Lynn's official town of residence is Houston, not Philadelphia. You don't really think she has any loyalty to Sunoco or it's people do you? My guess is they sell off the company bit by bit, and move the pipeline company to Houston which she will continue to head up. This allows her the prestige of being a corporate CEO (and the social standing which comes with it), and she is in her "home town".— cb54
- So, you doesn't like free market economics, eh Will? What's your alternative? Government-regulated compensation, a "Pay Czar" for everybody? Government-run economy?— pschulze
- Capitalism with the government keeping an eye on things by efficient regulation is the answer. Without regulation by government, you have problems pop up like the Great Depression, or nuclear plants melting down as they did in "free market" Japan, because government took the private sector CEO's word for it that everything was under control after the earthquake. The electricity that powers everything we do is heavily regulated by the US Gov.t., yet we have the lowest energy rates, including auto and home heating fuel of any of the industrialized countries. Government does a pretty good job sometimes, except for when it is corrupted by producers like the Koch Brothers and the Marcellus Shale people here in Pennsylvania who game the system from day one. There is little or no regulation of the gas drilling in Pennsylvania so your free market claims will be put to test in the next few years. How much do you want to bet that the gas rates will NEVER go down for the consumer, even when they've reached full production? Any money the consumer should have saved on rates will simply be kept by the greedy producers and put in their own pockets. Any problems with contamination such as destroyed local water supplies will be paid for by the taxpayers. Privatize profits and stick the taxpayers with the risk of any losses. It worked out well for the bankers and Wall Streeters. As the CEO of ADM said years ago, "the free market exists only in the mouths of delusional politicians."
The ridiculous disparity between Labor, Management and Investors – between those who produce it, those who manage it, and those who invest in the production – has been so extreme that it truly deserves the label that Eleanor Bloxham gave it – INSANE.
I'll add - perverted greed.
The reward for a productive business is income. And that income should be shared reasonably by all who contributed to the productive effort that produced the income. Not hoarded by some contributors at the expense of most of the other contributors.
Today, income is NOT being reasonably shared – it's being horribly HOARDED.
This is producing a perverted CONCENTRATION of wealth in hands that do NOT deserve it.
Today, Producers are called on to 'sacrifice' so the business can survive.
This is a LIE.
Producers are being lied to and EXPLOITED for the benefit of Management and Investors.
Why Labor is tolerating this abuse is mind-boggling.
The entire concept of FAIR business practices and their effect on society went out the window back in the late 1960s-early 1970s.- Dave and Mike should quit, risk their own capital, start their own oil company and pay their own employees whatever they want to.— tr88
- Yeah and if they can't afford to do that then they should just shut up, do what they are told...and respect their betters! — dearolddad
- The US government disrespected the American Producer and shamelessly sold-out America to the International Elite Financiers. Laws and government agencies that promoted offshore business development (like PICA) undermined the American Producer and created the divide & conquer strategy of competition in low-wages.
With NO care or concern for America, or any social conscience whatsoever, these depraved International Elite raped and pillaged the American working class and concentrated more & more wealth into their hands to influence (payoff) politics and rape more societies.
Since then the American Producer has slid into an abyss, exploited by Investors-Financiers who perversely reward these managers of the businesses they've set-up around the world.
FAIRNESS needs to return the US and throughout the world.
The exploitation and abusive atrocities perpetrated worldwide by the offshore garment business is a perfect example of the reckless, careless, and money-salivating perverted greed of the 'investors'.
This is where OUR government needs to step in and establish FAIR labor laws and put a STOP to the exploitation of production and the destruction of societies by the International Elite. - Wah, I don't have a good job that pays well...wah, my friends make more money and have a nicer house and cars....wah, I want what they have....wah, we should take from them and give to me...wah, I'm Will Bunch— jimmymack
- You wish you were Will Bunch — dearolddad
- Listen to the drones and Reagan idol worshipers. In the name of the Father and of the "Free Market" and the "Holy Corporation" Amen. What these fools don't understand is that the U.S. economy is about 70% consumer spending. When the "union thugs" and grateful job-holders have less money to put into the economy and are paying more for health benefits it hurts the entrepreneurs/small businesses they love so much because they can not patronize them, invest in their stock or have money in savings accounts that entrepreneurs can access. When a huge percentage of money is sitting with the top 5% to 10%, it damages the economy and is the product of what Newt termed "right wing social engineering." It did not happen because of "natural competition" like the mouth breathing ditto heads claim.— mick-of-the-moment
- Comment removed.
- Keep the comments clean folks, no making fun of Rachel Maddow or the appearance of female soccer players. That gets Will all hot-and-bothered.— General Turgidson
- What I would like to know is how you get paid for this stuff, you just use a picture or someone elses article type a few words and WAMMO checks in the mail, Nice work if you can get it. Today was actually a good day a whole paragraph containing more than ten words. You really must be tired after that.— ease
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