Saturday, March 26, 2016

Socially Responsible?

I worked as a temp in the distribution center of a well-known maker of underwear who claims to be socially responsible. The company is based in North Carolina. At one time their product was manufactured in the U.S.A. , but much of their manufacturing is now being done abroad. When the company was asked why they were having more of the manufacturing done abroad they gave two reasons: many other companies were doing it and it saved money. In the distribution center where I was working there were people who had worked as temps for five years. The temp workers had no benefits and no job security. While I was working there a new computer system was implemented. The company started using the system before it was working properly. As a result of this no product was being shipped. This caused a backlog or orders to be shipped. The company paid millions of dollars for this computer system to be installed. Workers from the software company were housed in hotels while they were installing the system. When the system started functioning it was necessary for workers in the distribution center to work seven days a week. Eventually the work schedule returned to normal. Then the company said that they had to cut expenses. All temp workers were laid off. The people who cost the company millions of dollars by implementing a computer system before it was ready to be used faced no consequences for their bad decision. It was the workers who were paid for that mistake.

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