Recent Comments

1. about 2 hours ago on Buni

   Beating a dead corpse to death?

2. about 4 hours ago on Buni

   I was expecting you’d comment on “needlessly redundant”! :D

3. about 6 hours ago on Buni

   Yeah, but “deadcorpse” comedy is needlessly redundant.

4. about 6 hours ago on Pearls Before Swine

   That wouldn’t be honey; it would be saccharine! :D

5. about 6 hours ago on Off the Mark

   Ugh, that Gaia ’gain?

6. about 8 hours ago on Robert Ariail

   I didn’t misread your original post. I’m wondering why you think VW would pay factory workers well. Any corporation will try to get away with as low of compensation as possible; that’s capitalism.

   (For what it’s worth, I looked at VW assembly line job openings. Pay starts at $13-14/hr.)

   “Company Description: VW Supplier making bumpers. Positions Available: Assembly and Forklift jobs available. Must have high school diploma or GED. A willingness to learn and a desire to do a good job is required. Will train the essential functions of the job. These assembly jobs and forklift jobs are in a clean and climate controlled environment. Both day and night shifts available with a four day work week. Positions pay $13-14 per hour and are temporary to full time.”

   The issue about healthcare premiums going up is that the company didn’t inform the employees. They made it sound like they were being generous with an 11% wage increase while obscuring that the health insurance benefits they were offering were increasing in price.

7. about 11 hours ago on Buni

   Is this deadpan comedy? :D

8. about 12 hours ago on Robert Ariail

   What makes you think it’s unlikely that VW is paying them poorly? Part of capitalism is finding ways to produce your product at a lower cost, in order to maximize profit. Most companies will pay their workers only what’s legally required to be the minimum. That’s one of the reasons the plant was built in the South; lower state minimum wages.

   It’s also not just about monetary wages.

   Victor Vaughn, an employee at the plant for nearly two years and a member of the organizing committee:“Job safety and health care costs are two of the primary issues that workers at the plant hope to address, Vaughn added. At the time VW proposed an 11% wage increase late last year, workers were unaware the company planned to hike health insurance premiums 15%, Vaughn said.”

   Most importantly, though, is that it passed with 73% in favor. If this is what nearly 3/4 of the employees want, let them have it. Whatever the consequences may be. It was their choice.

9. 1 day ago on Mike Luckovich

   They’re fine with minorities as well, because having unwanted children helps keep them in poverty.

10. 1 day ago on Gray Matters

    Yes! I had one in elementary school which listed silly questions, and had the students do silly things like clap, squawk like a parrot, etc.