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Passive Inaction and Doomed Workers
by gary Saturday, Mar 5 2016, 9:20am
international / prose / post

I marvel sometimes at the passive acceptance of people that are dumped from their corporate jobs. Corporate executives seem to think it is they that build successful companies. Nothing could be further from the truth, CEOs and execs are a dime a dozen and those that secure a position imagine it is they alone that are responsible for company profits and successes when in fact it is each and every individual worker regardless of position that has built the company and ensures its success; yet when execs make wrong decisions it is the workforce that pays by being made ‘redundant,’ or to put in blunt terms, sacked, terminated -- good luck with feeding your family and paying your mortgage.

And when the axe falls, no solidarity from the workforce which is easily able to serve it up to the execs and have them terminated by united demand and the cessation of activity.

How is it that today unlike the recent past, people accept being treated as expendable or taken for granted? It is not enough that people are working longer and harder for less wages and rewards, now they are terminated under the euphemistic guise of ‘rationalisation’ or ‘restructuring,’ give me a break! Strikes for working conditions and a fair wage have all but disappeared with the spines of the workforce. A united worker front alone would prevent the horrid treatment of average workers and would vanquish execs or at the very least force them to recognise reality and respect each and every worker, but no the workforce today is taken for granted and treated like shit, workers have become an expendable commodity.

The new corporate ‘ethic’ has made companies nothing more than evil parasitic structures that rape both consumers and workers. Profit is in fact theft as someone is either not being paid a fair wage or consumers are being ripped off by overpricing, usually both, under the guise of maximising profits and cutting costs or some other jargonistic term for unfairness.

Do not be beguiled by corporate jargon, unfair treatment is exactly what it is, unfair; the tens of millions execs pay themselves are not performance based salaries and bonus rewards as every worker is responsible for the company’s success, yet it is workers that pay the price for a company’s losses by being thrown on the refuse heap and unemployment queues -- while execs continue in their tenure with outrageous contracts which enable them to be paid even if they are responsible for huge losses. An Australian CEO walked, after losing millions in profits and took a total of $55 million for severance pay, while redundant staff are paid a pittance which only covers a family’s survival for a few months, if that! It seems to be a hard life for everyone except corporate execs, who are always paid handsomely whether they succeed or not. Something is seriously wrong.

The paralysis that has replaced worker solidarity has been created by reducing wages and increasing living costs, the result of course is a very desperate workforce which follows the ‘I’m alright jack' tough luck for others work 'ethic' until of course it is their turn to be dumped.

Unions are not the answer today they are as corrupt as hell, we have a situation in Australia where a worker is justifiably taking action against a corporation for illegal wage reductions and it is the union lawyers and corporate lawyers that are working together against this individual who has a provable case of illegal wage reduction, which the union was party to as it was a principal in negotiating an 'enterprise bargaining agreement,' which happened to contravene industrial law.

The answer is for every localised workforce to form their own united cooperative front against callous and exploitative management and if necessary for each united localised front to support each other on a national or state level when callous exploitative corporations take far too much for granted, a few good strikes do wonders for intoxicated, deluded execs.

Surely it is time the scales were balanced and equity and respect were restored.