Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr. Whist who wrote (283471)	8/3/2002 2:56:36 PM
From: CYBERKEN	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

I'll grant you one small point: It would be far more desirable to move the Marxist/Leninist American left to a foreign country than to lose American corporations there. Look for that process to continue as we go along...

To: Mr. Whist who wrote (283471)	8/3/2002 4:24:23 PM
From: dave rose	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 769670

<<<For starters, Dave, such a practice is UN-AMERICAN! (You know, like Benedict Arnold.)>> Well, thats a new one to me. To minimize taxes is now Un American.

To: Mr. Whist who wrote (283471)	8/5/2002 4:30:12 PM
From: Mana	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

I guess E-coli is not the only parasite ConAgra has to deal with!!!! 9news.com ConAgra workers ask for union investigation Posted by Web Producer Susan Wells August 05, 2002 - 12:19 PM GREELEY (AP) - The union that represents ConAgra Beef packing plant employees in Greeley and Longmont is being investigated after some workers complained its leaders were stifling dissent and not helping mediate disputes with management. They are also upset that union president Ron Bush is paid about four times the salary of a top-scale production worker. The president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union has assigned a vice president to conduct an inquiry into the union's Greeley-based UFCW Local 990, according to a letter sent to critics. The investigation will include an audit of the group's finances. Bush dismissed the members complaints and said they are coming from a small minority of members intent on destroying the union. "This is normal business. Every union gets audited periodically," Bush said. "This organization is run as free and open and democratic as possible." Walter Braden, one of the Bush's leading critics of the union, said he had to fight hard to display written notices at work about the union's activities. He said hundreds of members nearly shouted down Bush at a May meeting where Bush called for an increase in union dues. One of the most contentious issues is the salaries paid to union officers. Ron Bush was paid $104,796 during 2000, according to the local's most recent documents filed with the U.S. Department of Labor Employment Standards Administration. That includes $17,396 in expenses. Vice President Steve Bush, Ron Bush's son, was paid $76,118 and Secretary Catalina Salazar was paid $72,221. Workers are paid a base rate of $10.20 per hour and an additional rate up to $1.85 per hour depending on their job. That means a worker at the top of the pay scale would earn $25,064, assuming they did not work any overtime. Dave Rojas, a 12-year employees, said the pay difference is absurd, especially since people who work in freezers have been fighting for two years to the extra 15 cents an hour they are entitled to under their contract. "Why is it that we don't have representation and funds to go to arbitration and resolve grievances and such? Well, that's why," he said. Bush said his salary is not unusual and that workers are benefiting from 28 years of experience in negotiating labor contracts. He said no workers have complained to him and thinks his opponents are trying to destroy the union. Rojas said a substantial minority of workers want to break the company's association with the union. "They think that by getting rid of the union that all the problems will go away," he said. "But in actuality, its like releasing hell." -Mana