Where did the unspoken loyalty between workers and corporations go?

[Gothic Sponge]

My uncle worked for one company his whole life. Most of his co-workers did the same. The company even had what they called "family picnics." Today, most people are chewed up and spit out within a few years at a job. Where did the bond go between the corporation and the worker? I have some theories, but i'd like to hear what you have to say.

[KlatooBNikto]

1. Companies no longer exist to serve the needs of their customers,

employees or even shareholders.Companies now serve essentially as piggy banks for the management to loot and discard to the highest bidder when things get too hot.When the company changes hands,with the blessings and a large unpayable loan to an investment bank,it basically cannot produce a profit because debt service takes a big bite out of its revenues.This usually means cutting the throats of the loyal employees to squeeze ot a few dollars of profit until judgement day arrives.

[Warpy]

2. It went with pension plans, paid health insurance

non forced overtime, living wages, seniority rules that prevented age discrimination, job security, and promotion from within. As all these elements of the social contract between company and worker were abandoned, the worker quite rightly stopped feeling any loyalty to his employer and began simply putting in time to get that paycheck, knowing it could end at any time at the employer's whim.

What killed the loyalty and the work ethic was when management began being drawn from colleges exclusively. Such management had absolutely no respect for labor (if they'd been smart, they'd have gone to college, etc.), no loyalty to the towns they were living in, and no loyalty to the company, itself.

People still work for one company much of their working lives, but more and more, those jobs are being shipped out from under them to a location with cheaper labor and/or lower taxes.

There is no loyalty to one's corporation in large because they've proven themselves underserving of it.

[Bluzmann57]

3. Having been a victim of "downsizing" not once, but twice

I feel somewhat qualified to speak on this subject. I worked at one place for 19 years and they decided to pick up stakes and move to Mexico. I had a certain loyalty to that company, as I bought products this company made and bragged it up a lot. I later landed a job at a large manufacturer and nearly two years later, they too, decided to lay off workers. The CEO of this company was hell bent on breaking the Unions in all of his companies, and when he couldn't, he decided to go elsewhere. So why should a worker have any loyalty at all when he or she thinks they may lose their job at any time because of corporate greed? I even have a certain loyalty to my current employer, which may be crazy, but it is a cautious loyalty. As for the job I held for 19 years, I have not and will not buy any products from that company ever again, and I discourage others to refuse that crap too. Corporations that have no loyalty to the best workers in the world do not need my money or any other American's money either.

[Vincardog]

4. That was what you call a social contract and the corporations broke it

it is topical of the Walmartization of America. AKA Low-Wage Conservatives. Basically the Neanderthal Conservatives took control of the Republican Party. They also used their practice of infiltration to hijacked the DLC. Their pitch is that Corporations are where the money is so bend over backward to help the corporations and they will give you money. They passed laws to make money above the las. Laws like NAFTA and now CAFTA. They proceeded to cut wages and when the money was all squeezed from that they started to look at pension funds. Notice the wave of takeovers a few years back? They steal the pension funds then declare Bankruptcy sending the bill to the American public. When the money ran out in private pensions they took a hard look at Social Security. The plan there is to run the bill up so big that there is no Mooney for any social spending. You know because we had to give the key to the Treasury to Halliburton and the Carlyle group.

[Syncronaut Seven]

5. Hahahahahahahaha..

Ha.
Gone.
Very.
Long.
Time.

Incompatible concept, seeing the mad rush to a plantation economy is now the goal.

Shut up N****r! Best learn your place if you want to see the sun rise again. </sarcasm>

Does that help?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. Corporations have adopted what I call the "revolving door system"...

....which is a reprehensible system used to replace older, more experienced, and highly paid workers with younger, less experienced, and far less well-paid workers.

Additionally, corporations have passed on most, if not all, of the cost of health insurance premiums.

Paying lower salaries increases profits for the corporation.

Having younger employees lessens the likelihood of having to pay for health claims.

Requiring that employees pay for most if not all of the health insurance premiums also increases profits.

IMHO, American corporations have become totally profit-driven with little regard for the worker.

[barb162]

7. I Remember when there was loyalty

and you thought pensions, good insurance, long term employment, etc, were your right. I think greed, rampant capitalism, etc took over.

[ClintonTyree]

8. Greed took it......................

chewed it up and spit it out.

When companies started screwing over employees to shore up "the bottom line", when corporate raiders carved up companies and threw employees out with the trash, when CEOs started making obscene amounts of money to do nothing more than "downsize" their companies..........these are a few of the reasons that the death knell between employees and corporations was and is so thunderous. There is no loyalty anymore, at least from the corporations POV. There are still a few workers who believe in the Company Loyalty myth, but most have smartened up.

Greed, pure and simple. Capitalism at it's most naked and terrifying form.

[TexasSissy]

9. I don't think corps. were ever loyal to workers.

I've seen documentaries speaking of the early years of our industrialized society, where corporations worked children for 12 hours a day, for pennies a day, in horrid working conditions. Where corporations refused to put safety guards on dangerous equipment, since it was easier and cheaper to simply replace the worker when his hand got cut off and he couldn't work any longer. When it took violent strikes where workers got killed before Ford would pay his workers a living wage (he is oft quoted now as saying something lofty like, "If I don't pay my workers a living wage, I won't have a public to sell my cars to." In reality, he was forced to pay his workers a living wage; it was reported in a documentary I saw that his wife was instrumental in that by threatening to leave him if he didn't increase wages and stop the killings of the workers).

No, corporate America does not have a history of loyalty to workers, Some companies, it is true, have had "group hugs" of one sort or another. But I think that was because they saw it as beneficial to the company in the long run. It was also beneficial to keep workers on for a lifetime. That was before the expensive health care premiums and 401(k) and such. Now, it is cheaper to replace older workers with younger ones. And quite often, it is the workers who don't want to stay somewhere for a lifetime (I don't). We have a more mobile society now.

[Bluzmann57]

12. You raise some very valid points

This was how Organized Labor was born. In the early days the Unions struggled mightily but people eventually woke up. Now the companies have a strongly pro-business administration in place and the Labor movement is in deep trouble again. As I stated in another post in this topic, I actually worked for a company where the CEO was dedicated to breaking the Unions within his corporate empire. There was a plant in Des Moines, IA which was on strike for two years before he gave in, another in Mississippi where the strike went on for about a year and a half, and the plant where I worked at eventually shut down and production was shipped to Ecuador, at a non union plant. Maytag Corporation in Galesburg, IL which employed about 1600 people at very good wages and benefits recently shipped out the jobs to Mexico. Ford was correct in making his statement about workers being able to afford his cars, no matter the reason. Now, however, corporations are getting away from that sentiment. The former employees at Maytag probably will find jobs at signifigantly lower wages, and that will affect the economy of not only Galesburg, but the entire U.S. as well. Sorry to rant and veer off subject, but this whole idea of "downsizing" is personal and emotional to me.

[Cleita]

10. Well, when I was a young working woman in Santa Monica,

Packard Bell had a bad reputation for spitting out workers before they had acheived a certain seniority. It went something like this. You were on trial for six months for little more than minimum wage. At the end of six months they promised you permanent employment, a benefits package and a better salary. You guessed it. Every six months everyone but the most essential management personnel got laid off.

The State unemployment office knew about the scam, but since it was perfectly legal nothing could be done about it. I can't imagine this type of personnel management engendered much company loyalty.

[KoKo]

11. All that other posters here have said plus : GLOBILIZATION!

Corporate Mergers and Mega Mergers which were allowed by loosing much of our SEC Oversight during Reagan and accelerated during Poppy and even Clinton.

The strict regulations governing Banking and Accounting firms after The Great Depression and WWII were still in operation until Reagan and the "Supply Siders" got in and decided that companies were being too restricted and hampered by labor and a strict oversight of their financial dealings.

So, for the last 30 years we've had a dismatling of it all. And when the companies grew large and were able to take advantage of overseas markets they could also take advantage of loosening regulations and now we are even taking advantage of cheap labor. The more distance between the salaries of the workers and the CEO's the worse it gets.

Also alot of companies were family owned. Once the Mergers, Take Overs a Buy Outs started it was Board of Directors who ran the companies and they didn't have the connection to the employees many of the family run businesses did.

It has changed. It may take another "Great Depression" before the ramifications of what has been going on are realized. But, as long as the world buys from GE, they and others will be able to exploit labor.


A rant.....This is a good post and hope it will stay up on DU for a long time. Both Republicans and Democrats have been complicit in this. The more we discuss it the more hope we have of hopefully working for change. :shrug: