Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Executives Gone Wild: It's Not a Pretty Sight

There is a scene in the old gangster movie "Murder, Inc." in which a prominent member of that entity, a certain Abe "Kid Twist" Reles—ably portrayed by Peter Falk—is asked why he always wants more when he already has so much. "Don't ask questions," he shouts in response. "What've you got hands for, huh? Take!"
Then there was a scene I recall from my childhood during the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954. After Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin said some nasty thing about a young attorney working for Joseph N. Welch, the canny Boston lawyer representing the Army, Mr. Welch asked Mr. McCarthy: "Have you no decency, sir? At long last, have you no sense of decency?" Full story here............http://www.hoffa2006.com/mediacenter/article.php?id=127

Santa's helpers feeling boxed in

FedEx, workers battle over vote to organize first drivers' union

In December, when Santa contracts out some of his package-delivery work, drivers at FedEx fly down the highways, typically starting before sunrise and finishing long after dark.
But this year, some of the reindeer are so unhappy that they have voted to unionize.
About two dozen South Jersey drivers are poised to become the first to form a collective-bargaining unit at the ground-delivery division of FedEx Corp., the package-delivery company based in Memphis that had revenue last year of $29.4 billion.
Their efforts continue even with FedEx in its busiest season, moving as many as 8.5 million packages daily.
The drivers' hours are long, their pay is low, they say, and some who work or have worked at the FedEx Ground depot in Barrington, Camden County, complain that their managers routinely threaten to take away their routes. Full story here........http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/13431145.htm