<font color=blue>why does maangement agree to it? </font color=blue>
usually because of a strike ... which means money going out but none coming in. Management never wins the PR war because the media is pro-union (witness how they dote on the teachers union) and anti-business. Well, sometimes they win ... I recall Caterpillar didn't give in to the blackmail.
Besides ... management isn't losing .... who's the ultimate loser? You and I. The media usually forgets to point out who pays tariffs, taxes, salaries, and - ultimately - everyting. You and I, the consumers. Every penny. Every salary, all the graft, every nickel of the business tax. All on top of the sales tax.
Why do I get upset over the overpaid janitor? Because that overpaid janitor ... not the "greedy exec" ... means that if I want to buy a Suburban to transport my boy scout troop around ... I need to spend over $40k. Yeah, I always here how the greedy CEO's cost so much .... but who makes the defective tires? Who throws the marbles in the door panel to annoy the car buyers. Who caused the term "Wednesday car" to be coined? The guy who gets paid to direct the company or the guy on the line?
I am not defending the CEO's compensation. I did state that I thought they were overpaid ... but tried to show that many thousand employees "weighed more" in compensatiuon costs than one CEO. Using the yardstick of value ... yes, there may well be some execs out there worth their inflated salary. Let's take one I despise quite a bit ... Bill Gates. I have a very low opinion of him based on what I think of the products his company puts out ... but does he deserve the compensation he gets from Microsoft? I'd say he deserves every nickel. The company could probably afford to lose almost every employee without as much effect as losing him.
Let's take another I don't think to much of ... Ms. "And That's A Good Thing". Is she worth whatever Martha Steward Co. is paying her? Heck ... she IS the company. Without her fronting for the company ... it ain't worth spit (not that I think it is worth spit .... I'm not a celeb-fawner).
The yardstick, to me, is whether the employee - up at the top of down at the bottom) returns more value to the company that the comensation they receive. If not, the company is going down the tube .... witness all the dot-bombs. Did the average software "engineer" provide in excess of $100k a year to the company? Obviously not ... they're all gone.
Is there a janitor extant (we'll keep attacking these poor folk) who provides $100k of value per year. Hmm ... maybe the ones who taste GWB's food .... or sweep up the anthrax in the post office ... just joking, of course. My perception is ... no .... sweeping a floor or dumping a wastepaper basket can never provide that kind of value .. at least not until you and I are willing to pay $99,999.99 for a cheeseburger ... and I know I'm not that hungry!
So, Mr. Devil's Advocate ... my view is that blackmail is unacceptable ... whether it's union "workers" threatening a strike or North Korea threatening a war. And I can fault the union workers more than the CEO's .... CEO's don't blackmail to keep their jobs at the expense of consumers ... they shuck and jive the Boards of Directors ... who get elected by the stockholders. And get turfed by the Board of necessary ... and the Board members can get turfed (or even sued) by the stockholders. Do we sue the union workers who make the defective parts - tires and the like? No, we penalize the stockholders by suing the corporation.
Me, cynical? nah ....
One last comment ... <font color=blue>is it wrong for a janitor to ask to be overpaid[/blue} .... I've never asked for a raise in my life .... I work my butt off ... provide all the value I possibly can, upgrade my skills on my time at my cost ... and, for some strange reason, my paycheque gets bigger almost every year.
