Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
Just finished covering a trial involving Vernon Hill 2d, the founder of Commerce Bank, who sued Commerce, and later TD Bank, which bought Commerce, in an effort to get his severance pay after he was ousted from the bank in June 2007 over regulatory issues.
I was glad I wasn't one of the jurors in U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler's courtroom in Camden. The arguments for both sides were pretty compelling.
What was also compelling was the glimpse into the world of big business, where talking about millions of dollars is just part of casual conversation. In this case, for example, the severance pay, with interest was $17.2 million and the attorneys representing Hill would be owed another $2 million on top of that for their efforts.
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
Next week, Capreece Lackey, 43, goes up before Pennsylvania's Board of Pardons, seeking a pardon for her crime, prostitution, and a lesser, related charge of obstructing traffic. It happened 15 years ago, when she was addicted to drugs. "I had no soul," she said, when I interviewed her last year. "I didn't care what I did."
All Lackey wanted, but couldn't get because of her criminal conviction, was a job cleaning offices.
She should have been a shoo-in, based on her home, which I visited in Northeast Philadelphia when I interviewed her last year. She was raising her deceased sister's two daughters, both teenagers, and the place was immaculate. Rare is the occasion in which "teenagers" and "immaculate" occupy the same sentence.
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
Bottom Dollar wants to hire 60 part-time workers for its new Woodbury, NJ store. Interested in applying? There's a job fair this morning, Tuesday.
It takes place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Gloucester County College's College Center Building, 1400 Tanyard Rd., Sewell.
For more information, http://www.bottomdollarfood.com/About/Corporate/Careers
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
For anyone with a long memory (and it doesn't have to be that long), last week's partnership announcement from the Transport Workers Union and the International Association of Machinists was full of juicy irony. Does anyone remember the brawl between these two unions at the Philadelphia Airport Marriott on Feb. 8, 2006?
First, last week's news: The IAM and the TWU have created a partnership to represent nearly 30,000 ground mechanical and fleet service employees at the soon-to-be merged American Airlines and US Airways. The unions teamed up to combat a threat from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The Teamsters has filed a petition to represent US Airways mechanics, now represented by the Machinists union. The Teamsters also announced plans to try to get the mechanics now represented by the TWU at American to switch to become Teamsters.
"An unprincipled raid," the TWU and IAM harrumphed.
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
On the one hand, there are laws that allow workers to take family leave in an emergency, but how do co-workers feel about having to pick up the slack? And if they express resentment, how does it affect a decision to take the leave?
Santa Clara University professor Justin Boren working with Shannon Johnson at James Madison University found that workers who overhear resentment messages feel reluctant to take time off. The situation is worsened if the messages are embedded within company culture, he said.
“The stress of trying to balance work life and family life is really exacerbated when colleagues say that you are letting the team down if you take your legal or company-granted benefits,” said Boren, in a statement, referencing a national survey of 474 workers.
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
As promised, I checked in with the New Jersey Business and Industry Association for its take on the earned "sick and safe" pay legislation introduced Monday by New Jersey Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt, a Democrat from Camden County. In two words? Thumbs down.
"When companies can afford to provide these benefits, they typically do," said Stefanie Riehl, a spokeswoman for the organization.
"But a forced mandate on those companies that are struggling could inadvertently cause job loss or reduction in hours or other benefits," she said.
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
New Jersey Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt, a Democrat from Camden County, introduced a bill Monday that would permit workers to earn sick and safe time.
The bill was introduced less than a week after New York City's council passed a law that would make paid sick time available to an estimated 1 million workers who don't have it now. Mayor Bloomberg is expected to veto the bill, but there are enough votes to override his veto, according to the Associated Press.
On April 11, Philadelphia City Councilman William K. Greenlee could not muster enough votes to override Mayor Nutter's veto of a paid sick leave bill passed by City Council in March.
When people lose their jobs, it's not surprising that they also lose hope, and it's also not surprising that churches step into to provide a lifeline of hope and encouragement to the unemployed.
I've written a lot about a group called Joseph's People, a network of church-based support groups for the unemployed started at St. Joseph's Catholic church in Downingtown. I just received word about another church-based group, also from Chester County. To save time, I'm just going to copy and paste the group's announcement here.
Here it goes:
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
The National Federation of Independent Businesses and the National Association of Manufacturers are crowing over Tuesday's appellate court decision (PDF) striking down a National Labor Relations Board rule that companies display a poster telling workers about their rights to form a union. The poster also says they have the right not to form a union.
“Today’s decision is a monumental victory for small-business owners across this country who have been subject to the illegal actions of a labor board that has consistently failed to act as a neutral arbiter, as the law contemplates,” Karen Harned, executive director of NFIB's Small Business Legal Center, said in an emailed statement. “The court acknowledged that ‘the choice to speak includes within it the choice of what not to say,’ and that the NLRB overstepped its authority by compelling small-business owners to post a pro-union notice. The court’s ruling protects small-business owners from frivolous union lawsuits and reaffirms that the authority of the NLRB is narrow and limited as defined by Congress in the National Labor Relations Act.”
Among the named plaintiffs in the foundational case was John Brinson, chief executive of Racquetball Centers Inc., known in the Allentown area as Lehigh Valley Racquet & 24-7 Fitness Clubs. In his declaration, Brinson said his company, which employs 260, has never violated the National Labor Relations Act.
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
"The labor movement could use a little jolt," Johnny "Doc" Dougherty told my colleague Tom Fitzgerald Monday, noting that rat symbols and rallies fire up the troops. "There's no place to go but up. ... Do you think I care about what some Birkenstock-wearing suburban liberal says about it?"
I have a question for Johnny "Doc" Dougherty, head of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98 in Philadelphia.
What is actually wrong with being a Birkenstock-wearing suburban liberal?
