Eroding the middle class via Utah

[4dsc]

Here is some sad news I came across on another board I visit. It would appear that QWEST is hoping that Utah is a great place to open call centers using cheap labor to replace UNION labor and further eroding the middle class.. Its all about GREED today!

Management of QWEST sent out e-mails to Phoenix employees today (Sept. 13, 2006) notifying them that the CMC and Sales/Care Centers in Phoenix are being closed, effective Dec. 13, 2006.

This was inevitable, given the agreement made between the company and the CWA in late 2004 whereby wages for new hires in the call centers were capped at $10-per-hour. That deal paved the way for the opening of the Logan, Utah call center with 500 (soon to be 600) consultants, all with wages frozen at $10-per-hour.

ronically, according to newspaper reports, the opening of the Logan center attracted 2000 applicants for such a low-paying job. Perhaps in the near future we'll consider $10-per-hour to be a high-paying job, as the erosion of the American Middle Class continues.

This isn't about the company being competitive or efficient--it's pure greed. The elite execs at the top will no doubt get a pay raise (at least 6-figure and probably 7-figure) while tenured front line Qwest employees are booted out in favor of a cheaper labor force.

Current Qwest CEO Dick Notebaert received total compensation in 2005 of $14 million. Yet the company apparently can no longer afford to pay its call center employees a decent wage.

[theflyingcamel]

1. You wear your ignorance of economics like a badge of pride....

Of course the company is going to hire cheaper labor rather than more expensive labor. Spending less money on something that gives you the same results is not greedy, it's just common sense. When you go shopping at the store and are deciding between two identical products, you don't choose the more expensive one just so that the store can have more of your money do you??? No one accuses you of greed for doing so. You are just doing what is in your best interest as a consumer, in the same way that the firm is doing what is in it's best interest as a business. One fact I think that you're overlooking is that any cost cutting measures result in lower prices for consumers, and as a result, money saved. You scream "GREED!!!" when you hear about the CEO being compensated $14 million in 2005, but did you ever stop to consider that the increase in revenue to the company may be worth well more than the $14 million??? In a competitive market, workers and CEOs alike are all paid according to their marginal contribution to the production process. Therefore if their was a CEO that could do a better job for cheaper, guess what??? Notebaert would be out of a job in no time at all. To keep his job as a CEO, he has to continually perform at his best. If he were to get fired and be replaced by someone who got half his pay, I would feel absolutely no remorse for him, in the same regard that I feel no remorse for the union workers who just lost their jobs to cheaper non-union workers. The union workers have no right to a job or a certain salary, just like no one else in a free market does.

[4dsc]

2. Damn corporate apologist!!

Union workers made this country what it is today and basically helped create the middle class. Now you and you're corporate supporters want to crush what's left of the middle class by destroying unions.. I take it you're applying for one of these $10/hour jobs and you can make a living doing it. I bet you can buy yourself a nice home in Utah with a $10/hr job too.. I bet you can support you family of 4 on a $10/hr job..

Yes $14 million is GREED when you consider the $10 hour job.. IF Norberts is so worried about saving money I suggest we pay him in 1980's wages(which is what $10/hr represents). That would be about $250,000 for a CEO and that about save over $135,000,000 over 10 years.. And put all his cronies in the same boat and we would have a boat load of savings over 10 years..

[Alone in utah]

3. When is enough enough?

The last time I checked GREED was one of the 7 deadly sins. I'd like to know what percentage of these new Utah workers are illegal alians brought in specifically to break the backbone of the "free market".