Thread: Disposable Workers

Disposable Workers

By Chuck Colson
Friday, April 6, 2007

Last week, electronics retailer Circuit City announced that it was laying off 3400 employees.

What made these particular layoffs noteworthy was not their size but, instead, Circuit City's stated reasons. They had "nothing to do with [employees'] skills or whether they were a good worker or not." Instead, "it was a function of their salary relative to the market."


Circuit city customers Chris Gallagher and his sister Catherine, of Warsaw Va., look over cameras in the Short Pump Circuit City store in a Richmond, Va. file photo from Dec. 19, 2006. Circuit City Stores Inc., the nation's No. 2 consumer electronics retailer, said Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007, it plans to close seven domestic Superstores, a distribution center and 62 company-owned stores overseas to cut costs and improve its financial performance. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

In other words, Circuit City was laying them off so it could replace them with people who make less. Rotten!

To be fair, Circuit City is not alone in this practice. It is part of a "new way of controlling labor costs in the service industry." Employers "determine the prevailing market wages for particular jobs in various geographic regions" and "then find ways to make sure that their workers' salaries stay within that range."

There is no consideration of an employee's productivity or quality of work. Nor is there any claim that the company can't afford to pay what the workers are currently making—only that it doesn't have to.

It is hard to imagine a clearer example of how rapacious unrestrained economic power can be. With all due respect to the late Milton Friedman, corporations' social responsibility goes beyond maximizing shareholders' returns.

But even if you do not think that unapologetically getting rid of workers so that they can hire cheaper workers is degrading and dehumanizing, it goes against your self-interest.

That is because it undermines the moral and cultural consensus that sustains free-market capitalism. Michael Novak has written about what he calls the "three-legged stool" that makes democratic capitalism possible: economic freedom, political freedom, and moral restraint. Take away any of these three and the system collapses.

Christianity's great contribution to this consensus was that it provided capitalism with a moral dimension that capitalism could not provide for itself. Its teachings about the necessity for moral restraint in the marketplace were rooted in the Old Testament concerns for social justice, fair wages, and care for the poor. It incorporated the consistent biblical teaching about human dignity, including the dignity of honest labor.

Thus, when poet William Blake wrote about nineteenth-century England’s "dark satanic mills," his criticism invoked unmistakably biblical language and imagery.

Christianity provided more than a basis for criticism of capitalism—it helped forge an alternative that kept what John Paul II called "the circle of exchange" going. In the aftermath of World War II, democratic capitalism in Europe appeared to have failed, leaving communism as its likely successor—until, that is, Christian statesmen like Konrad Adenauer of Germany created an alternative to amoral capitalism and socialism. It was called Christian democracy, and it saved Western Europe from communism.

Closer to home, there are companies like ServiceMaster and Herman Miller, which are run explicitly on Christian principles and have proven that a concern for your employees' dignity is not incompatible with making a profit.

Christianity has shown that capitalism can be the servant of justice, which is why I am so disturbed at Circuit City's actions. It is yet another reminder of Christianity's diminished cultural influence, which leaves people as disposable commodities and dehumanized. This is a sober reminder of why restoring Christian influence is so urgent.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/Chuc ... le_workers

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We value our customers' feedback.

As we stated in our news release yesterday, we are taking a number of actions to improve our cost and expense structure. We are holding ourselves accountable to our associates, our customers, our communities, and our shareholders to build a strong company that generates sustainable growth for the future.

Our goal is to provide superior service while effectively competing against low-cost retailers. We are working towards this goal by making changes, such as announced yesterday, and with the help of over 40,000 associates who keep our customers at the center of everything we do. We hope you will allow our Circuit City team to serve you in the future.

Sincerely,

A. Todd
Customer Support Coordinator
Contact ID # 11268914

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* Email from circuitcity.com eCommerce Website *
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DATE_SENT: 04/02/2007

TIME_SENT: 06:27:42 PM
MY E-MAIL:

MESSAGE: You should be ashamed to fire 3400 in store workers. Did you not learn from letting go the commissioned sales people a few years ago.
As a matter of fact I go out of my way to find what I am looking for elsewhere becasue of your employment practices. I followed the commissioned salesperson who went to work for Tweeter you let go last time. I value the knowledge he provides. I needed an adaptor for a Zen and Circuit City was the last place I looked becasue the service and product knowledge is horrible and your sales people that you kept walk around talking on their cell phones and ignor/have no clue what they are doing. You need to monitor the Wheaton Plaza Store. Rockville is a little bit better, but get real.

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Paravour!!!

Great letter, sad part they just don't care because people will just keep shopping there.

Well Said paravour!

Who is the cheaper labor they are going to hire? Illegal Aliens? As most of their sales staff is inexperienced and definitely not paid good money for if they did they would get more experienced sales staff.

"Disposable Workers" - That's for sure. Once Bush and the other 2 countries to our north and south, rearrange the borders, set up foreign customs offices throughout America, and have a free-flow of MIGRANTS wondering around like gypsies, we can depend on all businesses operating like Circuit Cities.

Originally Posted by firecracker

"Disposable Workers" - That's for sure. Once Bush and the other 2 countries to our north and south, rearrange the borders, set up foreign customs offices throughout America, and have a free-flow of MIGRANTS wondering around like gypsies, we can depend on all businesses operating like Circuit Cities.

FIRE
didn't you mean CIRCUS CITIES?