Layoffs and furloughs. . . . . .

[charlie_the_tuna]

as we all know, the economy is going down like a lead balloon and i dont see it recovering. i dont know what will happen but i fear for my kids in the future. one day i wont be here to take care of them and who knows what comes next.
well, the MTA has been talking major cuts and although the LIRR (long island railroad) is so over managed, they have decided to start by cutting train service personel. the place is so top heavy with management, each department looks like this. a supervisor, a manager, a superintendant and a vice president. many departments have several of each.
well, they figure that since they run the trains from behind a desk, they will be laying off 60 engineers and 60 conductors next month and that is just the beginning. i believe the number of non-represented employees (management) being layed off (with buyout packages), is somewhere in the 20's or 30's.
while my job is safe, these are men and women who left careers for "security" and who just bought houses and just had kids and people who i have worked with day in and day out for the last few years.
right now the union talks of how they are doing everything in their power to see these layoffs dont take effect, it doesnt look good for these men and women.
no point really, just wanted to get this off my chest. this company pisses money away like you cant imagine but these people are about to lose their livelyhoods and there isnt a goddam thing we can do about it.
really sucks.

[phatdaddy]

i'm old enough to remember the tough times in the early 70's and the hiccup in the mid 80's and this one is totally different. in the other times, inflation was going crazy, tied directly to gas prices and interest was going through the roof(my first house note was at 12.5%, but cd's were getting 10%. now interest is almost non-existent and gas bounces all around ,but we still pay it). the price we pay for durable goods has gone up some, but the price we pay for services has gone through the roof. i mean insurance and taxes. i've also noticed a lot of the lay-offs are in middle management, the top dogs are not going to cut their own throats and they still need the worker bees to make the honey.

[reelapeelin]

Vote out the incumbent every chance you get...FORGET party lines...only way we'll ever show these low-life politicians who's in charge...if there's a career politician in your state, don't care Dem or Rep, vote his @$$ OUT!!...

[willy]

I feel it and see it every day around me, friends, family. If this November we don't vote these people enmasse out of office and stop this progressive march to a socialist society our country may be lost.
We need growth in our economy to stop this recession, we need a massive cut in government spending and we need to start paying off our debt.
We need to repeal this so called health care bill which has just set our government to take 2.7 trillion dolllars ffrom our people, cuts in medacaire and taxes on the very small buisnesses and corps that we need to grow to provide jobs.
We also need to cut back on the excesses in the government salaries and benefits.
The federal government especially is growing huge and the average salary for the fed workers is huge compared to their private sector counterparts.
We have turned topsy turvy and in november this has to change.

[parishht]

Well, I am living it, the division I work for has been sold to a Mexican company and
Thursday they told me that after August 31, I no longer have a job.
They say I am a redundent employee.

Out of 62 people in my office, they are only keeping 15.

They just don't understand the significance of what we do.

One of our contract employees put it this way:

If you give a monkey a diamond, he looks at it, smells it, tastes it, but throws it away, because he just does not understand what it is.

[willy]

Sorry Parish, sorry to hear that. You are going to see a lot more of that too. Companies will accelerate their foreign outsourcing with the new mandates and taxes that are coming.
every single thing that has been done the past few decades is leading to that. we are not buisness friendly or competitive in the world market place.
We produce very little now because a bunch of 1.50 an hour employees in the third world with no benefits etc. can produce it cheaper. We give buisness no incentive to stay here and produce. Many of the big multi-national companies have been moving their operations overseas where the cost and liabilities for doing buisness is greatly reduced.
In reality it is not their fault, a buisness is an entity where the entrprenuer creates something in order to make money and get ahead.
If you take away the ability to do so then they don't hire, they lay off, and eventually they either go somewhere where than can grow or they cease to exist. Next you end up with a nanny state cradle to death government controlled existence of mediocrity, it has been done many times inthe past century to utter failure and misery of their citizens.
That is why this country flourished, an experiment in small government where the people are free and able to dream and build and create.
We need to go back to that place