Wednesday we had a meeting at work concerning our health insurance premiums going up. Well, I figured it was coming and not surprised about it mostly. I was however surprised at the amount per week to keep my current coverage and the attitude of management. It was $49 per week for family coverage and will now be $85 per week. Now don't jump to any conclusions yet. I do know that there are some that have it a lot worse or have no way to afford any insurance.

Anyway, we were given a buffer speech by one of our leaders. He pointed out how lucky we are to have jobs and insurance when compared to many people who have neither. He proceeded to tell us that the reason all health insurance is increasing. Now this is where I got the deer in the headlights look and was a bit confused. He stated for us to look around the room at the unhealthy people and then look at the people at Wal-Mart. I thought what in the world do the people at Wal-Mart have to do with this? After a minute or so of gears turning in my head I concluded that he means the uninsured minorities that frequent Wal-Mart. Ok, that mean unhealthy people and racism bordering comments weren't really bothering me, but the next point did. I know I'm rambling, but bare with me.

After deciphering the riddle on Wal-Mart we were hit with an apples to oranges comparison speech. Our company which is a trucking based company X was compared repeatedly to a production based company Y otherwise known as a factory. Mr. leader says we have better priced premiums than company Y. Ok I'll buy them apples. Then I got to thinking, our pay scale is well below the national average by around 7 to 8 dollars an hour. I know for a fact that people who work at company Y make a fair bit more than we do at company X. So, I asked Mr. Leader, What is the pay scale at company Y? He says "that doesn't have anything to do with it". I responded with yes it does. He responded with "no it doesn't, your premiums aren't determined by the amount you make". I responded with, but it does determine how much money you can afford to spend on insurance premiums. He said " well, buy it or don't buy it I don't really care".

I actually added fuel to the fire in this meeting because of a previous event the day before. We don't have a pay scale at company X. They hire at the lowest pay to get a guy in the door and give special high raises to a couple of squeaky wheels and crumbs or nothing for the rest. Anyway, a new guy comes in and works a few hours. He then states that this work isn't for him (knows absolutely nothing about working on heavy trucks) and quits. But before he gets gone we get curious and asked him what his hourly pay is. He says "fifteen dollars an hour". You could have heard a mouse fart it was so quiet for a few moments. You see, we are making $10-$13 an hour on average and then here comes a new totally green untrained person making at least $80 more a week than the guys training him!

Morale is a bit low where I work and management is edgy.

Am I way off or on target that there is a problem with this? What do you guys make of this?

Ok I'm done rambling. Any comments are welcome.

 

We just had a meeting last week about our insurance. I'm an auditor. $9/hour base pay. I work evenings, so I get a 10% increase on that. Anyway, health insurance went up from $24/paycheck (every other week) to $32/paycheck. They took away our "free" (nothing's free, right?) life insurance policy. The company also added 200 jobs to the Bismarck site this year, now the company is laying off 10% of the workforce nation-wide. Recently they announced that "well, we hired you for the 2-10pm shift, but now you have to work the 6pm-2am shift." They're losing people because of that. I haven't had to switch, yet, but more than likely I'll walk out the door if they force it on me. Btw, that shift change doesn't include any incentive what-so-ever.

Costs are going up. Pay isn't. The gap between the rich and the poor is getting bigger and bigger. There's going to be a serious backlash sooner or later.

 

All comments welcome hmmm. ? You may not like what you see from me though.


Welcome to the new world economy. I have said it on here too many times already and I will repeat my boring self. It is always about the bottom line. The shareholders of companies at their meetings want to see profit per share. I have never to date seen a company in business just to give people a job, they are in business to make a profit....

If that profit margin is not where the company wants it, the management will do what they have to do to get it. If that means hiring immigrants to do your job, who get free healthcare and ususally do not enroll and pay for "company insurance" plans, they will hire immigrants and replace you. If that means cutting employee benefits , they may be forced too ..

This is not going to change but only get worse as outsourcing gets heavier in this country and the "blue collar " jobs are taken by immigrants. Americans have been blessed with a high standard of living forged out in this country over a hundred years ago. All walks of nationalities came to this nation for a better life and they built it from personal sacrifice, and plain hard work. Now, the tide is turning as corporations have other sources to get their product /service at a lower price than paying USA citizens that are asking for too much. They will then outsource or use cheaper labor. ...

Our forefathers worked their hands to the bone, building and creating our great nation from its natural resources. We have in our past family history, our own families that went hungry while their father/mothers, grandfather, great grandfathers, stood in picket lines to get better wages and benefits for their family, while standing in the cold and risking losing everything for that cause. ...

They stood up against the corporations and demanded fair pay for a good days wages. It took decades to get that. If one stops and thinks on it, that is why most people on this forum have a big ford truck, two colors tv's , a nice home, a boat, rv's etc. Not a sole product of what we have done with our life in making money while we have worked, but BECAUSE of the standard of living our forefathers gave us to build our life /dreams from....

I have watched after NAFTA was passed , the economic erosion for the blue collar people move rapidly. Corporations are having to compete globally now. Our manufacturing base in this country is dwindling fast. Those jobs have always given the average guy with no higher education , a job. Those along with the construction trades, are being swallowed up by immigrants....

O.K,, Off of my soapbox. Just think on this one. Our forefathers sacrificed wages , benefits, and even their personal safety and own families well being to get what should be due to them. Those sacrifices gave us what we have in this country today. We now have sent most of our manufacturing plants to Mexico, yet they are flooding our borders to get in the USA and not wanting those jobs presented to them from these new plants we lost. Why ? Because the Mexico plants do not pay as well as the jobs they can get here, with free benefits like health insurance they get. ...


Hmmm, where would we be today in the USA economically and culturally, if our forefathers had not stood up for this country ( USA) they were building and gave us the opportunities we have ?? They had left a country too, to get a better life and the country they left behind did not have new plants being built in it. They came to a unpioneered nation (USA) and BUILT the plants themsleves , then kept wages low for those working in them, until the workers stood up and demanded fair wages and benefits. That is how we got our higher standard of living we are used too, and it is slipping away fast. Because now, to take a stand against a corporation means you could be outsourced or replaced with cheaper and less demanding labor. All, jmo

 

This kind of goes along with the fuel prices post that is still going on.

Management is responsible to shareholders.

One well accepted way to increase profits is to cut costs.

If the insurance premium went up they pass it along to you and it doesn't hurt the bottom line.

If revenues are down laying people off immediately reduces costs.

I work for a pretty small company 40 Million a year. Insurance goes up and they show us the increase and what percentage they eat and what percentage we have to eat.

They also rat hole money in a good economy so they can weather the bad.

The last economic down turn they didn't lay anyone off. The salesman sufferred the greatest because our salary is heavily commision based but the salaried people didn't get any cuts they just didn't get any raises.

It is also my opinion that Walmart has hurt this country in a way that is irrepairable.

Also about management telling you to take it or leave it.
I know it sounds terrible but he was basically told the same thing by his Bosses. Tell them this is how it is or go find somethng else to do.



Mike

 

After a minute or so of gears turning in my head I concluded that he means the uninsured minorities that frequent Wal-Mart.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are you sure he wasn't referring to those people who work at Wal-Mart that only get so many hours per week so they don't get benefit's ?

They hire so many Part Time Employees they (Wal-Mart) avoids paying benefits to them.


EDIT:

While reading an Oil company profit article I saw this as a hyperlink for news of the day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/bu...rticle_popular

 

Don't worry, after Katrina and every flood/eartquake/tornado/etc, all insurance is going to go up. Health insurance, I expect to go up every year,as the costs go up every year at a higher rate than inflation. But I think this year we are going to start getting hit all over the country on all our insurance bills.

 

I agree with what Mil1ion said.
My niece worked at Wal-mart for over a year while she was going to culinary school. She finally quit when they wouldn't give her a full-time job, because she needed the insurance. She was hired part-time to work 26-29 hours. But get this, she logged another 20 something hours as overtime. So she was working on average 40+ hours a week, as a part-time employee with no benefits. From what she tells me, the majority of their workers are in the same boat.

 

Speaking of Wally World. Better get in shape to work for minimum wage.

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/ar...27073809990024

 

This is why there is an incredible number of un-insured people in the US. If it's 'eat, or carry insurance', guess which one is gonna win out? And why has insurance gone up so much? LAWYERS! My wife works in a medical lab of a hospital. They of course pay for her malpractice insurance. Good thing, because that insurance is more than her salary! All because no matter what happens, you can be sure there is a lawyer right there, to 'protect' the injured by grabbing a huge settlement. My neighbor lives off two workman's comp claims, plus a $500K lawsuit for an injury. Yet I see him doing all kinds of physical labor; he put in a huge stone patio, and put a new engine in his van, (the one he tows the horse trailer with!). Poor guy. Meanwhile, we pay higher insurance rates. Wonder why?

 

I have read the comments here with interest, and I believe that many still believe that the prosperity we have enjoyed is some kind of perpetual right. Following WWII, with Europe's manufacturing infrastructure in shambles and the world desperate for products, we were the world's manufacturer .... the 800 pound gorilla that had to answer to no one. We began an era of unprecedented prosperity, an orgy unencumbered by competition, where increases in wages and benefits were demanded and received at the end of each labor contract, and labor feasted on a seller's market. We were the world's largest manufacturer and the world's largest creditor nation, we could 'grow' our way out of any financial problem ..... that was then, this is now. We are now the world's largest debtor nation ($8 trillion dollars, growing over $160 billion per day), with a growing negative trade balance, operating on credit (deficits) with an overpaid workforce that cannot compete in a world market. I am not crying that the sky is falling, I am just stating what we have to recognize and contend with in dealing with the future. We are going to suffer through some hard times and some painful adjustments, and they are beginning.
Dono

 

For the last ten months, I've taken about $45,000 worth of medication, averaged about a three week interval between doctor visits, had numerous x-rays and CT scans, a gazillion lab tests, and spent four days in the hospital. I have trouble complaining about health insurance costs.

I pay a fixed percentage of my monthly wage towards that cost, and the company pays a LOT more than what I pay.

And I agree that companies like Wal*Mart are destroying the country.

 

No, I am correct that Mr. Leader means the immigrants which are uninsured that far out number the employees of Wal-Mart. Wal Mart's employees are only small a fraction compared to the unisured immigrants.

Maybe I am not making this point clear. You see, in my area the number of immigrants known to be here are in excess of a 400% increase in numbers in less than 5 years. Another estimated total of the known and unkown is close to 600%. Now if these percentages don't get your attention then nothing can. If I can I'll get the actual numbers if you like.

I really don't want to take issue with the immagration percentages and make a racially biased statement. Still this detail needed to be added in order for you to see this from Mr. Leader's point of view. Do you still think Mr. Leader meant the Wal-Mart employees?

 

I actually agree with that to a certain extent- and it troubles me.