Everyone is a manager

The United States of Labour's update

I started working as an expeditor in my school’s cafeteria, but shortly after I was promoted to a managerial position. The pay was higher by 50 cents an hour, but the responsibilities were greater: sweep the floor, come earlier to check the food, check the temperature, make sure there are no nuts in the bread section.

I remember dearly the obsession my school had with titles. When the summer reunion was around the corner, the school started hiring for student ambassadors who, unlike the name states, were not wearing suits and engaging in diplomatic missions. Instead they were pouring drinks, cleaning tables and plates.

A recent economics paper shows that firms inflate job titles to avoid paying workers overtime. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 mandates overtime pay to be at least one and half times the regulate rate of pay. To bypass this regulation, you have to pay someone a yearly salary instead of offering them an hourly wage. The salary must be at least $455 per week.

I will teach you how to pay people less: you have a desk assistant that handles people coming in the office. She has been working overtime since there are too many customers and you refuse to higher someone new. According to law you must pay her one and a half times at least, but the cost of labor increases drastically.

You talk to her, boast about her skills and promote her to Director of First Impressions, promising a bright future ahead. Like that, you no longer pay overtime and instead stick to paying a salary that will be less than what you would have had to give her.

You want a union? Fired!

A recent EPI fact-sheet shows that in four out of ten union elections, employers are charged with unfair labor practicers. In almost 25% of the union elections, firings occur.

• Freedom of speech and of association has become a right for which people have to fight instead of it being granted. Employers fear a union so much that they will rather close down a store than allows workers to exercise power.

• Another Starbucks is closing down in Boston, eight months after the unionization drive.

After the imposes rail contract, BNSF Railway plans to outsource a major part of its locomotive maintenance unit to nonunion contracts.

• BNSF is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, thus by Warren Buffett, that over the years has cut costs, stripping the service of important provisions just to increase the profits.

• Let’s recap a little bit. Last year, the country was on the brink of a major freight railway strike that would have produced daily damages of $2 bln.

• Workers wanted paid sick leave and higher wages. The companies were willing to give a bit more money, but no paid sick leave.

• When the unions did not ratify the contracts, the government intervened and forced them to accept a bill. Congress moved like thunder and overnight passed a bill that averted the strike and offered wage increases.

• There was another bill in Congress regarding paid sick leave, but it did not pass.

Well, The GOP wants a government default so that it can kill Social Security. That debt ceiling is purely a political choice that makes no sense in reality

Last week doctoral students at John Hopkins University voted overwhelmingly to unionize.

• 10-1 Yale students voted to unionize, 14-1 at Northwestern voted to unionize and nearly 750 Temple University graduate students went on strike.

Juicy

The situation with the pension plans in the United States is gloomy. Basically public pension funds either go into traditional buckets, let’s call them like that, or get administrated by private equity moguls that can overestimate the values of companies they flip around.

• By doing that, they amass teachers’ money through fees.

Corporations do have an obsession, or better-said, did have an obsession with diversity officers. Between 2019 and 2022, according to Linkedin data, there was a 168.9% growth in hires, but now things have been going downhill.

• During turbulent economic times, money over diversity, seems to be the clear motto.

Some other news

It is not an easy task to rebuild a country after a war ends and sooner or later Ukraine will face this reality. Though, talks between the Ukrainian government, BlackRock or with various other financial bodies have been underway. There are big business interests that push for further liberalization of the market which means lesser workers protections.

• Six months prior an infamous labor law passed that basically excludes workers from small and medium enterprises from protections by establishing a new type of contract.

ExxonMobil reached $56 billion profit, the highest annual profit rate for any EU or US oil company.

• Chevron also reached very high profit rates, but said that it will buy back a massive $75 billion and hike its dividend. In 2022, it spent nearly twice as much on dividend payments and share buybacks to what it spent on hardware and exploration.

• ExxonMobil also bought back $35 billion, and the White House excoriated both.

Shell just like the other giants made so much profit that was well ahead of expectations as its natural gas business thrived. This is the highest profit rate in 115 years.