The No Surprise News: Workers Are Scared
Posted on | May 14, 2009 |
Coming off of the news that Chrysler announcing will be closing a staggering number of dealerships today (789 across the nation, 40 in Michigan alone), and the fact that GM’s shares hit a Great Depression-esque low, it is hardly a surprise that America’s workers are scared shitless. Not only do they fear their job security, but they fear that any normal move will threaten what little they have left.
For example, it turns out that the American worker is scared of taking a vacation for fear of it proving to be a nail in the coffin come layoff time:
“It’s going to be an interesting summer,” says Goodman, a Miami Herald business columnist. “The people who still have a job are really feeling overwhelmed and overworked. They’re afraid to take vacations, but at the same time, they need them more than ever.”
The bad economy isn’t just depleting bank accounts. It’s cutting into people’s vacation time. Americans typically take time off and kick back during the summer. This year may be different.
People are worried that a temporary vacation could lead to permanent time off, Goodman says.
With that news in hand, it is interesting to see a big company, Pfizer, trying to step up to the plate for the American Worker. This is the same company that laid off its fair share of workers in the past couple of years, abandoned huge work sites such as the one in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and charged the American worker for the price of developping drugs that it sells world wide. Well now it’s coming back with this piece of information–lose your job and find yourself in dire straits? We’ll give you Viagara and Lipitor for free for a year.
I’d like to be thankful for Pfizer’s generousity, but seeing as it’s just another cog in the wheel that has been driving healthcare prices up for years while simultaneously making it increasingly difficult for American businesses to compete, I think I’ll refrain from sending any notes of grattitude.
The thing is that it’s not easy to free yourself from the fear of this economy when you are not the ones in charge of it. And interestingly enough, those people in charge are the same ones that wrecked it in the first place, sought a government handout, received such a handout, and are now trying to pay it back because, well, a few hundred grand a year isn’t enough to “compete” in business.
The end result of this economic crisis can go one of two ways–we can either allow the creators of this mess to have free reign over the creation of a pseudo-solution that keeps us safe for a few years only to burst again, or we can request that a new paradigm be created where the American Worker doesn’t fear taking a well-deserved vacation or isn’t placated by big businesses with a handout of brand name prescription drugs that she’s been overpaying on for years.
And right now, I’m not so certain a paradigm shift is possible. What do you think?
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Tags: American Worker > bailouts > Chrysler > economic crisis > economy > financial companies > GM > Pfizer > recession
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