RadioFreeLiberal.com

WESTFIELD, Mass. — The envelope factory where Lisa Weber works is hot and noisy. A fan she brought from home helps her keep cool as she maneuvers around whirring equipment to make her quota: 750 envelopes an hour, up from 500 a few years ago.

There's no resting: Between the video cameras and the constant threat of layoffs, Weber knows she must always be on her toes.

The drudgery of work at National Envelope Co. used to be relieved by small perks — an annual picnic, free hams and turkeys over the holidays — but those have long since been eliminated.

PHOTOS: National Envelope Company

“It's harder for me to want to get up and go to work than it used to be,” said Weber, 47, who started at the factory at 19. “It's not something I would wish on anybody. I'm worn out. I get home and I can barely stand up.”

There are a lot of things to hate about corporate America. Stuff like this.

In a tragic immigration case that ended with five dead restaurant workers, the federal government today announced criminal charges against a man they believe bears responsibility in the deaths: the Chinese restaurant owner who hired them and housed them in the Novi home where they died.

Roger Tam, 55, owner of Kim's Garden on Novi Road, is charged with harboring five illegal immigrants -- including three teenagers -- who wound up dead following a fire that started on a mattress in the basement where they were sleeping. Tam owned the home on Mystic Forest Drive, where he also lived part-time, and let the immigrants sleep there at night as a condition of employment at his restaurant, the complaint said........cut


......"My house is on fire," the caller stated.

"OK, and do you see flames?" the dispatcher asked.

"Ah, in the basement," the caller responded.

"OK, are you able to get everyone out of the house?" the dispatcher asked.

"Yes," the caller responded.

That wasn't the case. As it turned out, the fire resulted in the deaths of five Mexican immigrants who were sleeping in the basement, where smoke detectors had been disabled. Tam said he didn't know their names when police found them, the complaint said.

It also alleged that Tam paid one immigrant $2,000 a month to work 12-hour shifts six days a week and gave him Chinese food while on the job plus a room in his basement.

"My immediate sense is that this extremely tragic loss of life could have been avoided," said Marlon Miller, who heads the Detroit office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)........

In Exchange For Cutting Benefits, This Bankrupt Coal Company Agreed To Pay Executives Millions

A bankrupt coal company last month unveiled a plan to pay top executives up to $11.9 million in bonuses over six months as an apparent reward for slashing benefits for workers and dodging environmental clean-up obligations during bankruptcy proceedings. The company, Alpha Natural Resources, is one of the four largest coal companies in the U.S. and filed for bankruptcy last year.

Seven executives and eight other employees who remain unnamed in court documents are eligible for the bonus if they hit certain metrics for cutting costs while protecting the company’s cash reserves. Top executives were already promised $2 million retention bonuses for staying with the company through August 2016. These bonuses are described by Alpha as incentives to ensure high-level performance, something that is apparently not covered by annual salaries. In 2014, as the company was evidently on the verge of financial collapse, Alpha paid CEO Kevin Crutchfield nearly $8 million, and former President Paul Vinning more than $4.5 billion.

The plan to dole out millions of dollars to the same executives that bankrupted the company is the latest in a series of controversial steps taken by the industry giant. Late last year, Alpha also proposed to eliminate health insurance, disability, and other benefits for mine workers. According to court documents, this move would affect more than 4,500 disabled former employees, non-union retirees, and their families.

The cuts, aimed at curtailing expenses and restructuring debt as the company looks to emerge from bankruptcy, would save Alpha about $3 million annually. They also put the company’s balance sheets ahead of its workers.

<snip>

“It’s rather extraordinary,” Robert Bruno, director of the University of Illinois-Chicago’s School of Employer-Labor Relations told the New Republic. “It’s just a more elaborate attempt to detach the employer from any kind of legacy obligations for their employees, a further abdication, or departure, from the post-war era’s contract in which employers bore some responsibility…Now that model of providing some level of social insurance has been torn asunder, and the burdens have been handed to the individual worker.”

Last month Arch Coal, the second largest coal producer in the U.S., also filed for bankruptcy. Similar to Alpha and Peabody, Arch also offloaded its retiree obligations to Magnum Coal, which was later acquired by Patriot.

Mine workers, while affected most egregiously, are not the only ones harmed by Alpha’s bankruptcy. In a deal struck with the state of Wyoming, the company committed to only $61 million of the $411 million in reclamation liabilities from its mining operations. This leaves $350 million in unsecured reclamation costs, and that could fall to taxpayers.

“Given that some of these debts are going to end up on the chopping block under the bankruptcy proceeding, we [could have] lost a whole $411 million, that’s really the worst possible outcome,” Sherrill Shaffer, a professor of banking and financial services at the University of Wyoming told Wyoming Public Media.

<snip>

United Technologies announced its carrier division is closing down its Carrier air conditioning plant in Indianapolis and moving it to Mexico.
On Wednesday, Carrier, the air conditioner manufacturing wing of United Technologies, told workers at its Indianapolis plant that it would be outsourcing their jobs to Monterrey, Mexico.

"Throughout the transition, we must remain committed to manufacturing the same high-quality products," an executive can be heard insisting in a video of the announcement.

"Yeah, fuck you!" a member of the crowd responds.

"Please quiet down," the official says. "This was an extremely difficult decision."
Huff Post

CLINTON, Mich. — The Michigan Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a pallet company in a dispute over a workplace incident that severed a man's hand in Lenawee County.

Colby Smith accused Michigan Pallet and others of failing to ensure that a safety mechanism was working properly on a powerful saw. The state appeals court said the lawsuit could go to trial, but the Supreme Court overturned that decision Wednesday.

In a brief order, the court unanimously said there's no evidence that Michigan Pallet and Smith's bosses had a "specific intent" to injure him or that they knew an injury was certain to occur in 2009......

IONIA, Mich. — State regulators have proposed a $7,000 fine for a west Michigan company in the death of an employee who got caught in a robotic machine.

Bill Holbrook says his wife’s head injuries were so severe that the funeral home recommended a closed casket.....cut

.....State inspectors say a lockout device could have halted the machine when Holbrook entered the robotic cell. General Manager John Atkinson declined to comment when ....

KALAMAZOO — Two pancake restaurants in southwest Michigan have agreed to pay $245,000 to more than 100 employees to settle an investigation over wages, tips and overtime.

A court filing shows at least one worker at Sophia's House of Pancakes will receive $9,500. The restaurant operates in Kalamazoo and Benton Harbor.

The settlement was approved Monday by Grand Rapids federal Judge Robert Holmes Bell. The U.S. Labor Department filed a lawsuit in 2014. Investigators found servers were required to pay $2 an hour from their tips to their employer, according to the Kalamazoo Gazette.......

No trial for man who lost hand in workplace accident


more at link

What a bunch of bullshit.

It is not necessary for Michigan Pallet to have intended for someone to be injured for such a lawsuit to go forward. It is enough if they were negligent in their duties as custodians of the safety of their employees. And negligence spans many levels. I figure in this case, it's probably among the worst possible negligence violations - gross negligence, which is a pretty serious felony violation.

Dude, it appears that Michigan has some seriously corrupt mother fuckers on the bench, but I'm sure you already know at least that much.

What a bunch of bullshit.

It is not necessary for Michigan Pallet to have intended for someone to be injured for such a lawsuit to go forward. It is enough if they were negligent in their duties as custodians of the safety of their employees. And negligence spans many levels. I figure in this case, it's probably among the worst possible negligence violations - gross negligence, which is a pretty serious felony violation.

Dude, it appears that Michigan has some seriously corrupt mother fuckers on the bench, but I'm sure you already know at least that much.

It is necessary.

WORKER'S DISABILITY COMPENSATION ACT OF 1969 (EXCERPT)
Act 317 of 1969


418.131 Exclusive remedy; exception; “employee” and “employer” defined.
Sec. 131.

(1) The right to the recovery of benefits as provided in this act shall be the employee's exclusive remedy against the employer for a personal injury or occupational disease. The only exception to this exclusive remedy is an intentional tort. An intentional tort shall exist only when an employee is injured as a result of a deliberate act of the employer and the employer specifically intended an injury. An employer shall be deemed to have intended to injure if the employer had actual knowledge that an injury was certain to occur and willfully disregarded that knowledge. The issue of whether an act was an intentional tort shall be a question of law for the court. This subsection shall not enlarge or reduce rights under law.

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(i52rv2 ... dial0d5lqw))/mileg.aspx?page=getobject&objectname=mcl-418-131&queryid=7494479&highlight=131

Thanks.

Wow, that is amazing!

So, all that stuff about the game being rigged really is true.

I mean, common sense suggests that it should be possible to hold a company liable for criminal negligence, the same as it's done for individuals, no?

This was a civil case not a criminal case.

Oh, okay.

Then I suppose that leaves me still wondering if it would be possible for an appropriate government entity to bring criminal charges against this company for a violation such as negligence.

1. outsourcing

2. insourcing

3. technology

Where do you want to apply social engineering and why?

I prefer the term "governmental policy".

1. stop incentivizing and rewarding outsourcing
http://www.aflcio.org/About/Exec-Counci ... rcing-Jobs

2. if corporations want to do recruiting outside of typical hiring populations, they should consider minority communities inside the U.S., like Indian reservations. There could and should be government programs to incentivize that.

3. because job displacement from automation (and globalization) does have some degree of inevitability, focus on worker retraining. Also, offer new domestic employment through infrastructure and "green" jobs.

4. you omitted some more areas where government can assist labor -- most notably, support labor unions with pro-union policies (instead of the opposite)
make sure overtime violations and other practices stop contributing to wage theft
make sure workplace safety is vigorously enforced
etc.

A Howell-area business owner was behind bars and his restaurant closed Friday after he allegedly used a baseball bat to destroy a truck belonging to an employee he fired two days earlier.

Livingston County Sheriff Bob Bezotte said a 21-year-old friend of the employee, who was sitting in the 2008 Honda Odyssey as it was destroyed, was struck with the bat in the head and neck area. The friend suffered a skull fracture, the sheriff said. ..........