Category: employment

I am in the Wrong Line of Work

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Dick Armey just got an $8 million golden handshake from FreedomWorks:

Dick Armey left the deep-pocketed tea party group he helped build over a clash with a top lieutenant who Armey and others in the organization believed was using the group’s resources to pad his pockets, POLITICO has learned.

Armey received an $8 million buyout to step down as chairman of FreedomWorks at the end of last month, but the dispute between him and the group’s president, Matt Kibbe, is still straining the organization.

An $8 f%$#ing million severance?

I need to become a conservative Republican rat f%$#er.

The money might be worth my immortal soul.

I Gotta Cut Down on the Coffee

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I was at work, and I was looking at a hinged plastic (Pelican type) case with some custom padding in it.

We are putting custom padding in the case so that we can ship equipment to the customer.  (No more details)

I was trying to figure out why it was harder to closer than the earlier ones did, so I was loading the equipment , and then trying to load it without the equipment.

Eventually, I determined that there was not something interfering with the equipment, which might crush some delicate electronics, but that the hinge was a bit different, but that’s not a problem, because it does not clamp the equipment any more tightly.

I was using a sheet of paper as a sort of a feeler gauge in order to figure out where the interference was, and a co-worker walked up behind me and said something to the effect of, “Everything OK with the case?”

I yelped loudly, and jumped about 6 inches in the air, which stunned the hell out of both of us, and then we both started laughing, as I said, “Too much coffee.”

I think I might have been hyper-focusing a bit,

Not Enough Bullets

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If I were Al Sharpton, I’d be Screaming at Her

Remember Carly Fiorina?  The former CEO of HP?  The one who first came to prominence by presiding over massive accounting irregularities masquerading as blockbuster sales at Lucent?

Well, when she got fired as CEO, HP employees are reported to have spontaneously burst into song, specifically the song Ding Dong the Witch is Dead.

I’m sure that she cried all the way to the bank, because she got a $40 million dollar golden parachute.

She knows what the problem with the good old USA is, it’s that public employees’ unions have it too good: (at about 3 minutes into the video.

Carly Fiorina, who reportedly stood to receive more than $42 million after being ousted at HP in 2005, says that public workers should receive less benefits because “it is not fair” that unions are “so rich.”

During a Sunday panel segment on NBC, MSNBC host Al Sharpton asserted that Congress must agree to raise taxes on the wealthy before cutting spending.

“This is about fairness,” he explained. “Why do we need to need to deal with the tax on the rich first? Because we must ensure Americans we are dealing with fairness. We keep talking about shared sacrifice, there was not shared wealth and shared prosperity. So, you’re asking people that didn’t enjoy the good times to share in paying for the tab that they never enjoyed.”

Most of the American public might think that a an unbroken record of failure, capped by a $40 million golden parachute might be a bigger problem than the the deferred compensation known as a mortgage.

Seriously, business management seems to be a petri dish for sociopaths.

H/t Chris in Paris at Americablog.

It’s Jobless Thursday!

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And the number of initial claims hit an 19 month high, up 79K to 439K.

The consensus is that it was an artifact of the devastation of Frankenstorm Sandy.

In other, probably more significant news, the Euro Zone is back in recession, and ECB president  Mario Draghi is busy suggesting that it’s better to cut spending than it is to raise taxes, even though tax cuts have less stimulative effects than does government spending.

I swear, there is not a single economic “authority” in the entire Euro Zone who has any morals at all.

They have all somehow bought into the idea that creating pain for most of the members of a society is somehow an independent good.

It’s Jobless Thursday!!!

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Initial jobless claims fell by 9K, and the 4-week moving average fell slightly too, though continuing claims and extended claims rose. (Half good, half “meh”)

Just be glad that we are not in the Euro zone, where the Euro zone unemployment rate hit a record high.

 In other news, consumer confidence hit a 5 year high, and the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index rose to a 5 month high.

Of course, the big news will the the NFP numbers that drop at 8:30am EDT tomorrow.

About Bloody Time

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Wal-Mart workers on strike – Salon.com:

Today, for the first time in Walmart’s fifty-year history, workers at multiple stores are out on strike. Minutes ago, dozens of workers at Southern California stores launched a one-day work stoppage in protest of alleged retaliation against their attempts to organize. In a few hours, they’ll join supporters for a mass rally outside a Pico Rivera, CA store. This is the latest – and most dramatic – of the recent escalations in the decades-long struggle between organized labor and the largest private employer in the world.

“I’m excited, I’m nervous, I’m scared…” Pico Rivera Walmart employee Evelin Cruz told Salon yesterday about her decision to join today’s strike. “But I think the time has come, so they take notice that these associates are tried of all the issues in the stores, all the management retaliating against you.” Rivera, a department manager, said her store is chronically understaffed: “They expect the work to be done, without having the people to do the job.”

Walmart is entirely union-free in North America, and has worked aggressively to stay that way. Today’s strike is an outgrowth of a year of organizing by OUR Walmart, an organization of Walmart workers. OUR Walmart is backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, but hasn’t sought union recognition from Walmart; its members have campaigned for improvements in their local stores and converged at Walmart’s annual shareholder meeting.

They say their efforts have won some modest improvements, but also inspired a wave of illegal retaliation by the retail giant, which they charge is more concerned suppressing activism than complying with the law. I reported in July on three workers’ allegations that Walmart retaliated against them for their activism. Since then, OUR Walmart has filed many more Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging further punishment of activists.

Interviewed yesterday about OUR Walmart, Walmart spokesperson Dan Fogleman emphasized the group’s funding from unions, which he charged “are focused on their own agenda…getting more members to join their unions. That gives them more revenue to help fund the political agendas that they have.” He suggested that today’s rally might have been organized as a stunt to impress visiting leaders from the UNI global union federation, who are currently visiting Los Angeles to launch a global Walmart labor alliance. Fogleman denied the allegations of retaliation: “Unfair Labor Practice charges are similar to lawsuits. Anyone can file them, regardless of whether it’s a valid claim or not. We disagree with those assertions.”

Obviously this is a high risk strategy, but one hopes that it pays dividends.

It’s More than Just Jobless Thursday

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But let’s start with the fact that initial jobless claims jumped to 380,000, though tropical storm Isaac may have contributed to those numbers.

The bigger news is that the Federal Reserve has officially begun the 3rd round of quantitative easing (QE3):

The Federal Reserve opened a new chapter Thursday in its efforts to stimulate the economy, saying that it intends to buy large quantities of mortgage bonds, and potentially other assets, until the job market improves substantially.

 This is the first time that the Fed has tied the duration of an aid program to its economic objectives. And, in announcing the change, the central bank made clear that its primary reason was not a deterioration in its economic outlook, but a determination to respond more forcefully — in effect, an acknowledgment that its incremental approach until now had been flawed.

 The concern about unemployment also reflects a significant shift in the priorities of the nation’s central bank, which has long focused on inflation. Inflation is now running below the Fed’s 2 percent annual target. But with the unemployment rate above 8 percent, the Fed’s policy-making committee suggested Thursday that it might tolerate a period of somewhat higher inflation, promising to maintain stimulus efforts “for a considerable time after the economic recovery strengthens.”

 “The weak job market should concern every American,” the Fed’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said at a news conference. The goal of the new policies, he added, “is to quicken the recovery, to help the economy begin to grow quickly enough to generate new jobs.”

 The need for new stimulus reflects the disappointing condition of the American economy, which continues to struggle between crisis and prosperity three years after the official end of the recession. More than 20 million Americans cannot find full-time jobs. Median household income has declined. The housing market remains depressed.

You know, you guys should have been running around with your hair on fire a few years ago.

Of course, with interest rates at the zero bound, the people who are supposed to do this is the Congress, because fiscal stimulus works better under these situation, but between the gutlessness of the Democrats, and the active sabotage of the economy by the Republicans, it’s not like there is going to be any help from that end.

It’s Jobless Thursday

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And initial jobless claims are worse than expected.

Additionally, it looks like China’s economy is approaching stall speed:

A key private sector indicator on Thursday, which showed Chinese factory activity slumped to a nine-month low in August against expectations of a modest pickup, throws up the question whether the worst is yet to come for the world’s second largest economy.

The second quarter, during which growth slowed to 7.6 percent, was regarded by many economists as the bottom for Chinese economic growth. However, experts say this view may have been overly optimistic.

It should be noted that while 7.6% seems to be a blisteringly hot growth rate, China has been running double digit numbers routinely for some time. (With the obvious caveat that Chinese numbers are crappy, but the delta probably remains significant.

Lieutenant John Pike No Longer Works At UC Davis

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Breaking news,
University of California Police Lieutenant John Pike is no longer employed as a police officer:

Lt. John Pike, the UC Davis police officer who became a focal point of last November’s pepper-spraying incident during a campus protest, is no longer employed by the university, a spokesman confirmed late Tuesday.

UC Davis spokesman Barry Shiller said he could not discuss the details of Pike’s departure, but in response to queries from The Bee, he said Pike was no longer employed there as of Tuesday.

“Consistent with privacy guidelines established in state law and university policy, I can confirm that John Pike’s employment with the university ended on July 31, 2012,” Shiller said. “I’m unable to comment further.”

Pike, 39, declined to comment when reached by The Bee as he was sitting in a meeting on campus where he said he was being terminated.

Pike’s 2010 salary was listed as $110,243.12. He has been on paid leave since the debacle unfolded last year, sparking worldwide outrage, numerous investigations and calls for the resignation of UC Davis leaders.

It certainly took long enough, he spent something like 8 months on paid administrative leave, but don’t blame the unions.

He’s a Lieutenant, and management, and so not covered by a labor agreement.

Instead blame an internal police department disciplinary process that is pretty much written by, and for, the benefit of the cops, not the general public.

H/t the Stellar Parthenon BBS for the PhotoShops.

It’s Jobless Thursday

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And yes, last weeks good numbers were an artifact of a flawed seasonal adjustment:

More Americans than forecast filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance payments last week as the volatility induced by the annual auto-plant retooling period wore off.

Applications for jobless benefits increased by 34,000 to 386,000 in the week ended July 14, Labor Department figures showed today. Economists forecast 365,000 claims, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. The volatility in the numbers was due to a change in the timing of annual automobile plant layoffs, a Labor Department spokesman said as the data were released.

Determining whether the labor market is improving or deteriorating has been more difficult in recent weeks because a reduction in the number of auto-plant layoffs typical at this point of the year has thrown the Labor Department’s seasonal adjustment process out of line. It may take weeks to judge whether the labor market is making substantial progress.

Not good numbers this week.

Americans Used to Work in Meatpacking

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When one looks at the phrase, “Jobs Americans Won’t Do,” which is frequently used to justify both a lax policy on legal immigration, and salutary neglect toward illegal aliens.

One of the jobs that is supposed to be in this category is working in meat packing.

Dean Baker makes the point that his is inaccurate and ahistorical.

There were many Americans who worked in meat packing, and made a decent living from doing so, until engage in a decades long program of pushing down wages in the industry, which involved aggressive pursuit of undocumented workers and a vicious campaign against the unions.

The idea that there are jobs that Americans won’t do is a myth.

When someone says that, they mean that there are jobs that Americans won’t do if you have sh%$ty wages and benefits.