At #4: Sick leave? Bah humbug! Why would our employees need that? America’s railroads are earning record profits right now. And yet, they were prepared to let their workers strike – gravely damaging the entire economy – rather than offer their workers a single day of sick leave! Wow, Mr. Scrooge is impressed! How can an employer think that his employees will never get sick? Only if he views them not as people, but just as another commodity. Or worse – after all, even the railroad cars get taken off-line for maintenance sometimes... There is, however, a method in the railroad companies’ scroogie madness. As the articles cited below explain, the companies are earning record profits — and a key reason is that they reduced their staffing by 3O% over the last 6 years. This has been bad for employees of course, who are forced to work outrageous hours, but also for the railroads’ customers, because staffing is so tight that the trains just can’t run on time. But why should the railroads care – they have created such monopolies that most of their clients have nowhere else to turn. For putting profits over employee health, this Scrooge Award goes to: The railroad companies, Warren Buffett (his holding company owns Burlington Northern): the Sage of Omaha has pledged to give away half of his fortune to charity — so couldn’t he spare a little sick leave for his own workers?, Most Republican members of Congress: they refused to vote for a bill that would have mandated 7 days of sick leave for railway workers. What a way to thank your voters!
Want to learn more? Read here: NewYorkMag/Intelligencer, Nov 30, 2022; More Perfect Union, September 13, 2022; The Guardian, Sept. 14, 2022 At #3: Jacking up grocery store prices, worsening service, and starving your employees! The price of groceries at the supermarket is up 13% in the past year but food at restaurants is up only 6%. How can that be? Because restaurants are a highly competitive business and supermarkets are not. In fact, only 4 big companies control 70% of the nation’s grocery market! Now, two of those companies – Kroger and Albertsons – want to merge. Why? They are earning record profits already after all. Because, by merging, they would control the lion’s share of the traditional grocery market outside of Walmart and Costco. In fact, in neighboring Warrenton it would mean that only three companies (Walmart, Ahold Delhaize (Food Lion &Giant), and the new company) would control every single grocery store there. And since past mergers in the grocery world have led to massive store closings, it’s a fair bet that one of the two affected stores there (Safeway and Harris Teeter) would not survive. In short, one thing we can be sure of – this merger would mean less choice and higher prices. And who will get to share in those higher profits? Not the workers! In fact, a recent report by the Economic Roundtable had this to say about Kroger, “The living and working conditions of Kroger workers have declined markedly over the past 20 years. Kroger’s current low-wage, part-time workforce strategy relies on poorly-paid, part-time workers with constantly changing schedules.” Meanwhile, the venture capital owners of Albertson’s are busy working to extract $2 billion from the company before the merger – a huge amount that will weaken its operations and put more jobs at risk, but richly reward its (already rich) owners. Of course, the merger still has to be approved by the Federal Trade Commission. Will it stand up for workers and consumers? Remains to be seen. In the meantime… This Scrooge award goes to: the corporate owners of Kroger and Albertsons, because already-record profits aren’t enough for you. Scrooge is proud of you! Want to learn more? Read here: Popular.info, Dec. 5, 2022, FoodandWaterWatch, Nov. 7, 2021, CNN, Nov. 29, 2022, Economic Roundtable, January 11, 2022. Watch for our January 2nd edition for the two scroogiest Scrooge companies of 2022!
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