-----Original Message----- From: Charles Brown <CharlesB at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us>
>Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the ice cream activists whose flavors
>include Rainforest Crunch and Cherry Garcia and who recently sent an
>11-foot ice cream pie to protest what they consider a lack of social
>spending in the Federal Budget, have been rather chilly toward their own
>workers' attempts at progressivism. When 19 maintenance workers at the
>company's St. Albans, VT, plant decided to join the local electric
>workers union, faster than you can say Wavy Gravy [or Chunky Monkey.
>both flavors] the heretofore blessedly leftist company tried to thwart
>the vote, saying that the presence of a union would threaten company
>cohesion. What's next -- United Fruit Company Banana Split?
I'm not surprised by this at all actually. Look closely at B&J's corporate practice.
1) The 6:1 ratio (now long gone) didn't work to raise the wages of the lowest level workers, but to hold down the compensation of the white collar workers, increasing the general rate of exploitation.
2) The "volunteer" work done by B&J employees went on people's conduct records and as Ben Cohen said, "If I can fire someone for making shitty ice cream, I can fire them for being a shitty person." The definition of shitty person is apparently someone who spends his or her weekend off with the family, friends or just being leisurely instead of performing free labor to keep Ben's favorite parks tidy, and by extension, doing free labor for the B&J public relations department.
3) B&J's scoop shops are frequently found in poorer neighborhoods to "provide jobs" but almost all of them are in Republican-inspired enterprise zones where B&J can get tax breaks a-plenty and where they don't have to pay prevailing wages. GM moving factories to the pooer areas of Mexico so they don't have to pay high wages or taxes or listen to environmental laws isn't progressive, why is it when B&J's do it?
B&J's whole corporate culture isn't that much different than the new management we see all over the place; intimations of increased employee control and benefit used to eliminate OT in exchange for getting "projects" done by deadline, no matter how long the work week is, occasional bonuses instead of job security and massive speed-up rather than union recognition.