Just cleaning up some things from May before my June swoon:
"A cleaning company with a lofty goal: transforming a low-wage industry" by Katie Johnston Globe Staff, May 27, 2019
At her former cleaning job, Kimberly Reyes was paid a set amount, in cash, even if the house was a disaster. Sometimes there wasn’t enough work, so she got a second job working nights and weekends at a restaurant. Because she was a contractor, she had to save up to pay taxes on her income but didn’t always set aside enough, but in December, Reyes, who lives in Maryland, started working for Well-Paid Maids in Washington D.C., which is launching operations in Boston Monday. Now she is a full-time employee making $17 an hour, with three weeks of paid vacation time and access to health insurance. For Reyes, who is studying to become a medical administrative assistant, the job is a revelation.
“I’ve never had a job that has benefits,” said Reyes, 26, the mother of a 15-month-old girl. Now that her hours are steady and her wages are higher, “I don’t have to stress about bills as much.”
Cleaning houses is not usually considered a desirable job. Most cleaners are contractors, with few job protections and no benefits. Well-Paid Maids is looking to change that with a business that founder Aaron Seyedian describes as “a living-wage home-cleaning” service.
It's called the gig economy. Get u$ed to it.
His ultimate goal goes beyond just being a good employer, though. Seyedian envisions his company as a case study for the living-wage movement, one that demonstrates that traditionally low-paying industries can treat workers well and still be profitable. Once lawmakers see his real-life example, he hopes his modest cleaning operation can spark greater worker protections across the economy.
“Don’t believe the chamber, don’t believe the business round table,” said Seyedian, 30, imagining the pushback from companies. “There’s another way and it’s viable and here’s the proof.”
Well, I'm with him on that one.
Seyedian’s business plan involves opening in liberal, wealthy cities where he anticipates residents will be willing to pay a little more to support a company that takes care of its employees.
Sort of the liberal version of trickle down as the gentrification takes place all around us and the wealth gap yawns.
So far, Seyedian has just 11 employees in three markets — Washington, Baltimore, and Boston — and has mapped out expansion possibilities in cities with high median incomes and large numbers of left-leaning representatives in municipal government. Other prime targets: New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
Look, I give him credit for trying even if the agenda-pu$hing me$$anger is somewhat spooling it. I'm not being critical per se; I $imply recogni$e the Globe for what it is and who is written of and for.
Seyedian, who has a master’s degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and worked as a consultant before launching Well-Paid Maids in Washington, D.C., in 2017, has long been interested in workers’ rights, and after taking a buyout from a consulting firm, he decided to start a cleaning company, based largely on the fact that it has low startup costs and is in an industry marked by “horrible practices.” In other words, it’s an industry where he could make a difference.
So far, it’s working. The private company is on track to break $500,000 in revenue this year, with a profit margin of 15 to 20 percent.
Seyedian based starting wages on MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, which shows what people need to make based on the cost of living in their community. He gives his employees, who all work full time, health, dental, and vision insurance and 22 paid days off a year, and he pays their commuting costs. Several of his employees are immigrants, who are required to speak at least basic English and have documentation, and half of the cleaners are men.
Seyedian even puts his workers’ photos and bios on the website. “I thought I would copy corporate America,” he said.
Cleaning someone’s house is an intimate business, he added, and giving customers information about who is in their homes can ease concerns, as well as break down barriers between the person getting the service and the person providing it.
Janine Loud, one of two people recently hired for the Boston branch of Well-Paid Maids, had her own cleaning business for six years and briefly worked for a service where she was once paid $50 for a job that took seven hours. During her job search, Loud, 35, was drawn to Well-Paid Maids, impressed by how well Seyedian took care of his workers and by the positive reviews online. He pays by the hour, regardless of how long a job takes, including overtime pay.
Loud was thrilled when her bio went up on the website: In her spare time, she loves to go on new adventures with her friends and her dog (sic).
“That’s never happened to me before,” said Loud, who grew up in Winthrop and still lives there. “I feel like a celebrity.”
As the labor market tightens and income inequality becomes a bigger topic of conversation, employers, especially younger ones, are increasingly focused on taking care of their workers, said Zeynep Ton, an adjunct management professor at MIT and cofounder of the Good Jobs Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to helping companies create good jobs, but people won’t pay more simply because Well-Paid Maids pays their employees more, she said. What they will pay more for is good service, and workers who are well taken care of perform better, she said.
Okay, we get that every four years as a campaign issue and then it goes away, nothing changes, and the wealth gap yawns even wider!
Hey, it's not like I want to raise taxes anywhere, not with all the waste, fraud, and abuse, so I'm not begrudging the rich their dough. I'm just tired of being used and exploited every for years for my vote.
Now, will she please explain how the labor market can be so tight when "labor force participation rate fell to 62.8 percent in April from 63 percent the prior month, meaning a smaller percentage of the population is working?"
From the hor$es mouth, people, and the participation rate is at an over-50 year low (pre Great Society stuff!).
Based on Yelp reviews where the company is established, customers of Well-Paid Maids are happy with both the service and the emphasis on social justice. The company has more than 40 reviews and a five-star rating.....
I wi$h 'em all luck!
--more--"
They will even get you to the airport on time.
"Unions are on frontlines of fight against inequality" by Katie Johnston Globe Staff, April 29, 2019
My printed headline (sorry for the lapse; otherwise, I would have linked the front page) said "Unions rebuild clout as income gap grows," with the subheading being "Membership's down, but labor is finding fuel from frustrated workers left behind."
Talk about mixed messages and slinging BS!!
How can they be rebuilding clout as membership dwindles and the income gap grows?
Stop & Shop’s stores were ghost towns during the recent strike. With workers standing outside in picket lines, customers stayed away, leading to one of the most effective strikes in recent memory.
I was one of them who didn't cross; however, without linking the Globe's daily coverage of the strike, I will tell you how I saw the contract agreement. Yes, the old guard workers basically had their benefits grandfathered in, and I'm all for that. Promises were made, promises should be kept. On the other hand, new hires and the younger crop kind of got screwed and it is only a three year contract. Not how you really build a labor movement.
On the management side, they now have three years to accelerate the ever-increasing AI stuff. You can't help but see it in the store already with the self-checkouts and scanners. Just squeezing people out because, let's face it, it is worth billions of dollars to a multitude of industries, especially e-commerce retailers like Amazon (Bezos is notoriously anti-union, too), that are looking for cheaper, faster ways to get merchandise packed and out the door without human intervention.
You see that, folks?
We are IN THE WAY!
Man, this whole society is being geared to ruling elite cla$$ and to hell with the rest of us (except for our con$umeri$m, of course), but at least the Torah will arrive in one piece.
The grocery clerks and bakers and meat cutters holding signs were protesting proposed cuts to their benefits, but their plight also resonated with the public because they represented something bigger: working Americans across the country whose wages are barely budging while the cost of living skyrockets in such places as Boston and corporations rake in record profits.
Must be some sort of $tatu$ quo $nafu, huh?
In the recent wave of strikes nationwide, unions have effectively linked their cause to the broader fight against income inequality that ramped up nearly eight years ago with Occupy Wall Street. And for the most part, they have succeeded in fending off cuts and even adding new protections.
Oh, yeah, remember them?
Do you remember me?
I tear up every time I think about it.
These battles are being waged as anger grows over the widening gap between rich and poor and public support for the labor movement is at a 15-year high, even as union membership continues its long, steady decline, but with nearly 15 million union members nationwide, and young people, professionals, and people of color bringing new energy to the movement, unions are showing they can still be a formidable force.
Oh, this is becoming rich man's -- or woman's -- crap, sorry.
The resurgence in labor activism picked up steam in the fall of 2011, when the Occupy movement brought to light the fact that a disproportionate amount of the country’s wealth belonged to the wealthiest 1 percent, but without resources or a clear-cut vision, the movement fizzled out within a few months.
What is interesting in retrospect is Occupy turned out to be a controlled opposition effort by the Obama campaign to drive the issue against Romney in 2012. The same professional agitator, 'er, organizer also turned up in Charlottesville. Throw the Obama spying and infiltration operation against the Trump campaign using Democratic-funded lies that were sent up through the law enforcement and intelligence agency apparatus and you have an administration of high crimes and misdemeanors worse than any Watergate -- and I didn't even mention Snowden, the VA neglect, Fast and Furious, and his bringing us interventions in Libya, Yemen, Syria, and Ukraine.
The following year, the Service Employees International Union launched the Fight for $15, and the ensuing protests by fast-food and other low-wage workers led to $15 minimum wages around the country, including eventually in Massachusetts.
Today, as it becomes clearer the economic recovery following the Great Recession is mainly benefiting the wealthy, unions are getting bolder about going out on strike, from teachers around the country to Marriott hotel workers in eight cities, including Boston, to the 31,000 Stop & Shop workers in New England.
Tell us something we didn't already know.
With their deep pockets, organizing abilities, and political clout, unions — unlike the ragtag protesters of Occupy Wall Street — are uniquely positioned to draw attention to the widening chasm between the haves and the have-nots, and they are being buoyed by high-level support.
Awright, that does it! I'm tired of the elitist insult.
A wave of Democratic presidential candidates visited picket lines during the Stop & Shop strike. Even the founding families of major businesses are speaking up, with state Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, whose family started Stop & Shop, rallying with workers and the granddaughter of Walt Disney cofounder Roy Disney denouncing the “insane” executive pay package of chief executive Robert Iger, who made $65.6 million-plus last year, about 1,400 times the median salary of a Disney employee.
More open those kinds of paychecks later, and aren't you glad someone is looking out for you?
The lack of wage growth in a historically tight labor market is fueling the frustration people are feeling, said Heidi Shierholz, chief economist at the Department of Labor in the Obama administration and now at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.....
I'm tired of all the arm waving and flailing even four years, sorry.
--more--"
Yeah, “Democracy is about everyone getting a voice. You need a voice at the ballot box, sure, but you need a voice at work” -- except the Constitution doesn't apply at work.
Did you $ee the payroll?
"CEOs get $800,000 pay raise, leaving workers further behind" by Stan Choe Associated press, May 24, 2019
NEW YORK — Did you get a 7 percent raise last year? Congratulations, yours was in line with what CEOs at the biggest companies got, but for chief executives, that 7 percent was roughly $800,000.
Pay for CEOs at S&P 500 companies rose to a median of $12 million last year, including salary, stock and other compensation, according to data analyzed by Equilar for the Associated Press. The eight-figure packages continue to rise as companies tie more of their CEOs’ pay to their stock prices, which are still near record levels, and as profits hit an all-time high last year due to lower tax bills and a still-growing economy.
The median means half made more.
Pay for typical workers at these companies isn’t rising nearly as quickly. The median increase was 3 percent last year, less than half the growth for the top bosses. Median means half were larger, and half were smaller.
The survey showed that it would take 158 years for the typical worker at most big companies to make what their CEO did in 2018, seven years longer than if both were still at 2017 pay levels, and when top executives are already making so much more than their employees, the bigger percentage raises compound the widening financial gap.
Anger about widening income inequality is rising around the world, from Capitol Hill to protests in streets, but it’s only slowly seeping into the conference rooms where boards of directors set the pay for CEOs. Boards are often more concerned with what a competitor may pay to poach their CEO than how much more that person makes versus the rest of the workforce.
Is it, because it sure doesn't look like it!
‘‘It’s a natural thing for a CEO and a board to say, ‘How are others who are doing similar work paid?,’ and there’s a natural sense that if the board believes and supports their CEO, they don’t expect their CEO to be paid less than the others in the industry,’’ said Eric Hosken, a partner at Compensation Advisory Partners, a consulting firm that works with boards.
Investors — the ultimate corporate bosses who have the power to vote directors off the board — also continue to vote overwhelmingly in favor of executive pay packages at the biggest companies, though the margins have been decreasing.
‘‘There’s a belief that if we underpay our CEO, they can go work in private equity. They can go work for a competitor. They will find places to go,’’ Hosken said.
I'm tired of that old saw of an excu$e being used to justify it all.
The AP’s CEO compensation study included pay data for 340 executives at S&P 500 companies who have served at least two full consecutive fiscal years at their companies, which filed proxy statements between Jan. 1 and April 30.
Some companies with highly paid CEOs did not fit these criteria and were excluded, such as Safra Catz and Mark Hurd, co-CEOs of Oracle. Each had compensation valued at $108.3 million last fiscal year, but Oracle usually files its proxy statement in September due to its fiscal year ending in May. Tesla’s Elon Musk had compensation valued at $2.28 billion, but his company is not in the S&P 500.
Musk will come up later.
--more--"
Take a look at this one:
"This CEO had 30 million reasons to stay when a rival came knocking" by Larry Edelman Globe Staff, May 17, 2019
Hey, this ever happen to you? A rival company comes calling, and your employer wants to keep you so badly that you get a bonus potentially worth 30 times your salary?
Yeah, me neither, but it did happen to Stephen MacMillan, chairman and CEO of Hologic, a Marlborough-based medical tech company.
The episode dates to the end of 2017, but I hadn’t heard about MacMillan’s good fortune until Thursday, when The Wall Street Journal ranked him fifth on its new list of highest-paid CEOs for 2018. His total compensation was $42 million, up from $11.2 million in 2017.
At the top of the Journal’s list, which included only CEOs of companies in the S&P 500, was David Zaslav of Discovery Communications, with a total package of $129.4 million. He was followed by Stephen Angel of Linde PLC ($66.1 million), Robert Iger of Disney ($65.6 million), and Richard Handler of Jefferies Financial ($44.7 million). All had their pay expanded by big onetime items.
Not making the Journal rankings, because his company isn’t in the S&P 500, was Stephane Bancel of Moderna, a Cambridge biotech. His haul was worth $58.6 million, mostly reflecting options awarded for his role in the completion of the company’s initial public offering.
It’s always nice to be appreciated....
--more--"
The Globe isn't serious about income inequality, other than to use it as a wedge issue and political weapon.
Those who are not appreciated:
"Ford cuts thousands of white-collar jobs" by Tom Krisher Associated Press, May 20, 2019
DETROIT — Ford revealed details of its long-awaited restructuring plan Monday as it prepared for a future of electric and autonomous vehicles by parting ways with 7,000 white-collar workers worldwide, about 10 percent of its global salaried workforce.
The major revamp, which had been underway since last year, will save about $600 million per year by eliminating bureaucracy and increasing the number of workers reporting to each manager.
In the United States, about 2,300 jobs will be cut through buyouts and layoffs. About 1,500 have left voluntarily or with buyouts, while another 300 have already been laid off. About 500 workers will be let go starting this week, largely in and around the company’s headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., just outside Detroit.
The layoffs are coming across a broad swath of the company including engineering, product development, marketing, information technology, logistics, finance, and other areas. But the company also said it is hiring in some critical areas including those developing software and dealing with self-driving and electric vehicles.
In a memo to employees, Monday, chief executive Jim Hackett said the fourth wave of the restructuring will start on Tuesday, with the majority of US cuts being finished by May 24.
‘‘To succeed in our competitive industry, and position Ford to win in a fast-charging future, we must reduce bureaucracy, empower managers, speed decision making and focus on the most valuable work, and cost cuts,’’ Hackett wrote.
It’s the second set of layoffs for Detroit-area automakers, even though the companies are making healthy profits. Sales in the United States, where the automakers get most of their revenue, have fallen slightly but still are strong.
They are going into orbit!
In November, General Motors said it would shed up to 14,000 workers as it cut expenses to prepare for a shift to electric and autonomous vehicles. The layoffs included closure of five factories in the United States and Canada and cuts of another 8,000 white-collar workers worldwide. About 6,000 blue-collar positions were cut, but most of laid-off factory workers in the United States will be placed at other plants mainly that build trucks and SUVs.
Both companies have said the cuts are needed because they face huge capital expenditures to update their current vehicles and develop them for the future.
At GM, the cuts brought withering criticism from President Trump and Congress, especially the closing of a small-car factory in Lordstown, Ohio. Trump campaigned on bringing factory jobs back to the industrial Midwest. GM has since announced a possible deal to sell the Lordstown plant to a startup electric vehicle maker, but it hasn’t been finalized.
Ford’s white-collar employees had been fearful since last July when the company said the restructuring would cost $7 billion in cash and hit pretax earnings by $11 billion over the next three to five years. Many have been upset that it took so long for the company to make decisions.
Factory workers have not been affected by the restructuring thus far, as the company has retooled car plants so they can build more popular trucks and SUVs.
Remember the 2007 gas price crisis when those vehicles were supposed to go out of vogue?
Environment was going to be helped, too!
The layoffs, while large, weren’t as bad as many had expected. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas predicted 25,000 white-collar job cuts late last year, a number that Ford would not deny.
Tell that to the people having their jobs taken from them!
Hackett said in the memo that Ford is departing from past practices and letting laid-off employees stay a few days to wrap up their jobs and say good-bye to colleagues. In the past, laid-off workers would have had to pack up and leave immediately.
They didn't want any workplace violence incidents.
‘‘Ford is a family company and saying goodbye to colleagues is difficult and emotional,’’ Hackett wrote.
Uh-huh.
Hackett told workers that under the restructuring, managers now will have seven people reporting to them on average, up from five before changes were initiated began. That reduces management bureaucracy by one-third from before the ‘‘Smart Redesign’’ began.
Still seems top heavy to me.
Before the restructuring, Ford had 14 organizational layers, but that will drop to nine or less by the end of the year, Hackett’s memo said.
--more--"
Maybe you guys can find work at Tesla:
"Musk Loses $4.9 Billion in Tesla's Worst-Ever Start to a Year" by Tom Metcalf, May 31, 2019
Tesla Inc. shares have never had a worse start to a year than in 2019, and Elon Musk is paying the biggest price.
The stock has tumbled 43% this year through Thursday, lopping $4.9 billion from the value of Musk’s stake, as Wall Street has grown increasingly skeptical about consumer demand for the company’s electric vehicles. Musk, 47, is now ranked No. 46 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a net worth of $19.7 billion, down from 29th at the start of the year.
The rout has erased a total of $7.8 billion from the stakes of Tesla’s four biggest individual shareholders -- Musk, Tencent Holdings Ltd., Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Larry Ellison -- including $2.7 billion in May alone. Tesla, Tencent and PIF didn’t respond to requests for comment. Ellison declined to comment.
Ellison, the Oracle Corp. co-founder who has been a vocal defender of Musk, bought 3 million shares last year and joined Tesla’s board in December.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. also may be exposed. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund owns about 5% of Tesla but hedged most of its holding in January through an arrangement with the bank, according to the Financial Times. Tesla’s share price has tumbled 46% since the Jan. 17 transaction, meaning the value of PIF’s holding has shrunk by more than $1.3 billion in that span. Jessica Francisco, a spokeswoman for New York-based JPMorgan, declined to comment.
Look at the $cum that have their fingers in the pie.
--more--"
