With the economy continuing its downward spiral and today's depressing jobless figures - here's a piece I wrote for the current issue of Dollars and Sense, hopefully balancing the bad with the good. Your comments would be most welcome.
Best, Nomi
Dollars & Sense March-April 2003 Whose Jobs? Our Jobs!
Here is the untold story of workers’ response to the telecommunications meltdown. Unions, ex-employees, and retirees are mobilizing for jobs and reform.
BY NOMI PRINS
At some point, you become numb to the stories of greedy execs who scammed billions of dollars from their shareholders and workers. The $95 million Bel Aire mansions. The $15,000 umbrella stands. The tax-deductible private jets. Even more maddening, many executives walked away from their fraud-infested firms with multi-million dollar exit perks.
There were no such golden parachutes for the over half a million laid-off telecom workers. They lost out three times. First, the value of their stock-filled retirement plans plummeted. Then, their jobs were cut. Finally, many did not receive the severance pay and benefits to which they were legally entitled.
But one important part of the telecom tale has yet to be told: the story of unions’ role in securing jobs and severance pay in the face of the sector-wide meltdown. Unionized workers have survived the crisis with fewer scrapes than their nonunion peers. Unionized companies have had fewer scandals, and have been less prone to cut costs by simply axing their workforce. Even employees laid-off from nonunion telecom companies have turned to the AFL-CIO for help, and for good reason.
For full article:
<A HREF="http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2003/0303prins.html">http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2003/0303prins.html</A>
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