[Marxism] Re: March, March!

[Greg McDonald <sabocat59@xxxxxxx>]

The Assassinated Press

Aaaaaah! Who The Fuck Needs Collective Bargaining?
The Corporate Media Got Their Marching Orders And Ridiculed French  
Workers For Defending Their Benefits, Indeed The American Press  
Ridiculed The Benefits Themselves, But Look What Happens When You  
Swallow The Corporate Shit Ladled Out By Their Media About The Macho,  
Maverick American Worker.
Death Of A Salesman: Circuit City Cuts 3,400 'Overpaid' Workers.
Of Course, It’s Too Late For The American Worker: Court Rules Flight  
Attendants At Northwest Airlines May Not Strike.
Army Recruiters Lurk Outside Stores Snatching Up Newly Unemployed.

By AL FORMOI
Assassinated Press Staff Writer
March 29, 2007

While French workers bask on the beaches of St. Tropez or Nice,  
Circuit City, the US consumer electronics retailer, cut about 8 per  
cent of its US store staff and may or may not replace them with  
cheaper hires in a move that underlines the tensions facing US  
retailers as they struggle to keep their executive compensation at  
obscene levels.

Land Of Opportunists

“I hope their families got some of that subsidized Hugo Chavez  
heating oil. Looks like they's gonna need it,” laughed Circuit City  
CEO Philip J. Schoonover. “But shit, we sure got the Great American  
Bald Lemming cowed. K-Rist! Our managers told them they was fired and  
the little fuckers just took off their smocks, lined up, put their  
heads down and filed right on out the fuckin’ store.”

Outside Army recruiters were picking off the dazed and soon to be  
destitute newly unemployed like the Hurok picking off salmon at the  
mouth of the Klamath. “Blow me for a five spot. Love me long time  
Ready for buzz saw Iraq, soldier. Ready for ‘Despah-wation Eye-Wacki  
Fweedumb.’,” a burly recruiter imitating Elmer Fudd taunted.

Nothing Personal, But Don’t Let The Door Hit You In Your Ass On The  
Way Out

The company said the dismissals had nothing to do with performance  
but were part of a larger effort to improve the bottom line. The  
firings represent about 9 percent of the company's in-store workforce  
of 40,000.

"Retail is very competitive and our executive team just isn’t up to  
the task, so we gotta cut somewhere," said Jim Babb, a Circuit City  
spokesman. "We deeply regret the negative impact that was had on  
these folks. It’s no fault of theirs that mongoloids run this  
company. But as long as the American worker will take this shit,  
we’ll fuckin’ keep dishing it out."

The company gave the dismissed workers severance pay and told them  
that after 10 weeks they were free to apply for any openings at there  
old starting wage they received right out of high school. Employees  
reached by a reporter said they were notified yesterday morning and  
told to leave immediately.

The employees were also told that their group dental program which is  
paid for by the employees had been looted by company executives and  
that employees should leave all of their bridge, braces and retainers  
in a pile in aisle 7. “Like I said. If the workers want to eat shit,  
we’ll pile it on for them,” Babb told the Assassinated Press.

Ditto the eye plan so a mound of eye glasses, contact lenses and  
cornea transplants stood just inside the rear exit.

The firings, along with several other moves, are expected to put $110  
million in fiscal year 2008 and $140 million a year starting in  
fiscal 2009 into the pockets of the CEO, the board, massage parlors,  
judges, lobbyists, sports betting, Congress, green fees, the  
Executive Branch and major stockholders. Circuit City said sales  
would be volatile for the next several months as the company tries to  
identify employees who know how to open the stores and run the  
registers.

"It's definitely going to have some cost-savings, but I think the  
bigger impact could be seen is that all important weaker service  
which the modern corporation counts on to frustrate consumers trying  
to return inferior GATT and NAFTA manufactured products produced  
using international slave labor and as a consequence aren’t worth  
shit," said Timothy Allen, an analyst with Jefferies & Co. "I have a  
feeling the people they're letting go have probably been there  
longer, have more experience, more product knowledge, stuff that  
should help them to survive on the streets."

Steven Rash, 24, said he was one of 11 workers fired at a Circuit  
City in Asheville, N.C. The store manager broke the news during a  
meeting at 8:15 a.m. and they were escorted out of the store. Rash  
said he has worked for the retailer for seven years yet was one of  
the most junior members of the affected group.

He said he earned the outrageous sum of $11.59 an hour and worked  
from 15 to 20 hours a week. He received four weeks of severance pay.  
Though he has a full-time job at Bank of America, he said he needs to  
find part-time work to help pay his student loans. "It's not just a  
part-time job," he said. "It's about paying the bills."

“According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average hourly  
wage for retail salespeople was $11.14 in May 2005, the latest data  
available, and that little shit rash was earning 45 cents more an  
hour,” said Babb. “It’s obvious why we had to let him go. Fuck. It’ll  
take hundreds of that little fucks salary just to pay for  
Schoonover’s annual ‘get rid of the body of the raped and murdered  
waiter live skit’ at the Bohemian Grove this year.”

In comparison to Rash, Circuit City chief executive Philip J.  
Schoonover received a salary of $716,346, along with a $704,700 bonus  
last year. He also has long-term compensation of $3 million in stock  
awards and $340,000 in underlying options, according to company  
filings, barely enough to pay his green fees and club privileges at  
six world class country clubs.

Capitalist Realism

Circuit City also said it would outsource its information technology  
infrastructure operations to IBMs new branch in India, affecting 130  
workers at Circuit City headquarters in Richmond. “We hope our  
actions won’t effect the high homicide rate in Richmond. Our ex- 
employees are good people. We feel confident that our personnel  
profiling weeded out any loose cannons before we hired them and only  
left us with the docile little freaks we let go today,” Schoonover  
told the board. “There ain’t no Alexander Berkmans anymore. American  
culture is designed to weed out people with character. All the  
Capitalist Realism in advertising and the movies.” About 50 people  
will be offered the opportunity to transfer to jobs at IBM Bombay,  
while the remainder will be let go after the transition is completed.  
Babb said he expected it would take several months.

Wackadoo, Wackadoo

And the company said it is exploring "strategic alternatives" for  
InterTan, an arm of its Canadian division that services tanning  
salons along the Polar Ice cap, including sale of the operation to a  
consortium of Emperor penguins. Last month, the retailer shut down  
distribution centers in Cape Stallworthy, Flat Creek, Yellow Snow,  
Eurka, Nuuk and Kangerlyssvaq and closed 55 international stores; it  
plans to shut down seven more in the United States.

The executives at the nation's second-largest electronics can’t  
compete with rival Best Buy and still get in 18 holes a day. And Wal- 
Mart has made an aggressive push into electronics as it retails  
components from mines left over from the U.S. Invasion of South East  
Asia swept up by DynCorps and wholesaled on international commodities  
markets and church swap meets. Wal Mart has also resumed smuggling  
immigrants across the Mexican border in body bags supplied by the CIA  
to the Guatemalan White Hand and the Salvadoran Treasury Police  
during the Reagan and Bush Senior eras. The three companies fought  
over the near dead bodies of their underpaid employee during the  
holiday season, slashing prices on flat-panel televisions, which hurt  
Circuit City's profit. “If our employees could only realize how lucky  
they are. They don’t know that if they were Guatemalan and worked for  
us, they’d probably be dead already,” Schoonover told the  
Assassinated Press.

Death Of A Salesman

The company, whose execs have been business failures for years, saved  
$130 million in 2003 by eliminating commissions for salespeople,  
instituting hourly rates and terminating 1,800 jobs.

Jose Macias, 27, of San Diego said he barely survived that round of  
cuts. His salary translated to $17.70 per hour, and employees who  
made more than $18 per hour were fired. But this time, he was not as  
lucky. He and four others at his store were let go yesterday,  
including one who had worked at Circuit City for 12 years.

"We had a feeling," Macias said. "There were a lot of rumors going  
around."

Macias said he was told employees who were paid more than 51 cents  
above a set pay range for their departments were fired. The cap on  
his full-time job in the computer department was $15.50 an hour.  
Mascia said he earned $18.72 an hour.

So Where’s Your Fuckin' Union, Tough Guy?

"I'm ticked off that they can just come at you from one day to  
another, no warning, and oh, you're gone," he said. "I dedicated  
seven years to them. Loyalty gets you nothing."

Stocks Up!

Shares closed yesterday at $19.23, up 31 cents, or 2 percent.
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