Cendant Corporation's "Global Sourcing Initiative" Lacks Initiative
Cendant Corporation--a titan in the travel and real estate industries--recently announced that it has laid off 86 employees at its Galileo International division near Denver, Colorado.
But wait--don't despair! For Cendant has assured us that this is actually a good thing, and Cendant is an honorable company. You see, it's all just part of the company's "Global Sourcing Initiative". These jobs were not lost at all. No, sir! They're just being sent to India, where labor is cheap, and workers are desperate. So don't worry about Cendant Corporation. It will be just fine.
The 86 better-paid American workers that Cendant laid off, however, suddenly have no immediate income with which to pay their student loans, car loans, rent or home mortgage, medical bills, and any other debts or obligations they may have. Which means that they are now candidates to join the ever-growing ranks of the American Debtors Prison. Not because of anything they did wrong--they were just trying to work for a living. They are at risk because their employer cast them away like rusted old machinery, and justified the betrayal with nothing more than the ridiculous, windy, rhetorical phrase "Global Sourcing Initiative". (This almost sounds as impressive as the U.S. Government's "Operation Enduring Occupation", or whatever they called when it began so many years ago).
It's a shame that Cendant Corporation didn't show some initiative to protect and care for it's American employees, considering that Cendant is an American company, and it was American employees who built it into the Fortune 500 company it is today. Cendant CEO Henry R. Silverman and the other mega-salaried executives at Cendant managed to avoid horrific lives of slavery because they were fortunate enough to live in the United States of America rather than, say, an Indian subcontinent whose population was exploited by an occupying Empire. Does this simple irony escape these brilliant business persons, or do they recognize the irony, and simply don't possess the morality to care about the consequences of their own actions? Either way, they just got richer by making 86 of their fellow American citizens much, much poorer. Yes, sir.
According to the Denver Post, Cendant spokesperson Jill Brenner explains that the company's Global Sourcing Initiative "means expanding the use of current global vendors" (translation: swap American jobs for cheap third-world labor) and is necessary to remain competitive.
So, it appears that laying off 86 American employees and replacing them with cheap Indian workers was necessary to remain competitive.... "Necessary" means there is absolutely no alternative. No other way to remain competitive at all. Webster's dictionary gives two definitions of necessary: "logically unavoidable" and "absolutely needed". Well, that settles it then. Cendant did the right thing. There was simply no other way to save those 86 American jobs. Cendant did all it could.
On a completely unrelated note, you may view the details of Cendant CEO Henry Silverman's $23 million+ annual compensation package HERE.
Even if you yourself can't see the irony that the executives of Cendant have betrayed the very nation that allowed them as individuals to become wealthy and powerful, no one can deny that those 86 employees have had their lives turned upside-down through no fault of their own. Yet, those former Galileo employees who end up in debtor's prison because of Cendant's actions will automatically be regarded as "deadbeats" the moment they default on their first debt. THAT is logically unavoidable, because the American Debtors Prison does not distinguish between fraudulent criminals who borrow money with no intent to repay, and honest, hard-working people who have their livelihoods callously pulled out from under them by their own employers. No, sir. The American Debtors Prison makes no distinction at all.
All the best,
Paul
But wait--don't despair! For Cendant has assured us that this is actually a good thing, and Cendant is an honorable company. You see, it's all just part of the company's "Global Sourcing Initiative". These jobs were not lost at all. No, sir! They're just being sent to India, where labor is cheap, and workers are desperate. So don't worry about Cendant Corporation. It will be just fine.
The 86 better-paid American workers that Cendant laid off, however, suddenly have no immediate income with which to pay their student loans, car loans, rent or home mortgage, medical bills, and any other debts or obligations they may have. Which means that they are now candidates to join the ever-growing ranks of the American Debtors Prison. Not because of anything they did wrong--they were just trying to work for a living. They are at risk because their employer cast them away like rusted old machinery, and justified the betrayal with nothing more than the ridiculous, windy, rhetorical phrase "Global Sourcing Initiative". (This almost sounds as impressive as the U.S. Government's "Operation Enduring Occupation", or whatever they called when it began so many years ago).
It's a shame that Cendant Corporation didn't show some initiative to protect and care for it's American employees, considering that Cendant is an American company, and it was American employees who built it into the Fortune 500 company it is today. Cendant CEO Henry R. Silverman and the other mega-salaried executives at Cendant managed to avoid horrific lives of slavery because they were fortunate enough to live in the United States of America rather than, say, an Indian subcontinent whose population was exploited by an occupying Empire. Does this simple irony escape these brilliant business persons, or do they recognize the irony, and simply don't possess the morality to care about the consequences of their own actions? Either way, they just got richer by making 86 of their fellow American citizens much, much poorer. Yes, sir.
According to the Denver Post, Cendant spokesperson Jill Brenner explains that the company's Global Sourcing Initiative "means expanding the use of current global vendors" (translation: swap American jobs for cheap third-world labor) and is necessary to remain competitive.
So, it appears that laying off 86 American employees and replacing them with cheap Indian workers was necessary to remain competitive.... "Necessary" means there is absolutely no alternative. No other way to remain competitive at all. Webster's dictionary gives two definitions of necessary: "logically unavoidable" and "absolutely needed". Well, that settles it then. Cendant did the right thing. There was simply no other way to save those 86 American jobs. Cendant did all it could.
On a completely unrelated note, you may view the details of Cendant CEO Henry Silverman's $23 million+ annual compensation package HERE.
Even if you yourself can't see the irony that the executives of Cendant have betrayed the very nation that allowed them as individuals to become wealthy and powerful, no one can deny that those 86 employees have had their lives turned upside-down through no fault of their own. Yet, those former Galileo employees who end up in debtor's prison because of Cendant's actions will automatically be regarded as "deadbeats" the moment they default on their first debt. THAT is logically unavoidable, because the American Debtors Prison does not distinguish between fraudulent criminals who borrow money with no intent to repay, and honest, hard-working people who have their livelihoods callously pulled out from under them by their own employers. No, sir. The American Debtors Prison makes no distinction at all.
All the best,
Paul
posted by Paul at 12:41 AM
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