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Express Scripts, Inc. — Scumbags of the month!

by Ben Hoffman

Profits were up twenty million dollars this year, but guess what? They decided to lay off 365 workers the week before Christmas! They couldn’t at least wait a few weeks? Market Watch

Express Scripts said Thursday it plans to shut down its dispensing pharmacy facility in Bensalem, Pa., on Dec. 16 and lay off 365 employees.

The company said it requested negotiations with the Service Employees International Union Local 1199P regarding severance benefits for the affected workers.

The plant closing coincides with the expiration of the union’s current collective bargaining agreement with Express Scripts. In August, union workers had protested outside Express Scripts’ headquarters in St. Louis in opposition to the company’s threats to close down the Bensalem plant if they didn’t agree to pay and benefit cuts.

Source

Posted on December 15, 2010 at 4:50 PM in Economy, Education, Entertainment, HealthCare, Humor, On This Day, Opinion, Politics, Quotes, Religion, Technology, U.S. News, World News   |  RSS feed |   Reply   |   Trackback URL

17 Responses to “Express Scripts, Inc. — Scumbags of the month!”

    
  1. pino
    December 15, 2010 at 8:39 PM

    In August, union workers had protested outside Express Scripts’ headquarters in St. Louis in opposition to the company’s threats to close down the Bensalem plant if they didn’t agree to pay and benefit cuts.

    Maybe those dumb bastards should have protested out front of the SEIU headquarters in opposition of the Union’s refusal to negotiate on pay and benefit cuts.

    They knew the contract was going to end on this date.

    Just another case of a Union looking after it’s own existence FIRST and sacrificing it’s membership for that goal.

    Reply
    • Ben Hoffman
      December 15, 2010 at 9:05 PM

      I knew you were going to say that. Why do you hate the working class so much?

      Reply
      • pino
        December 15, 2010 at 10:28 PM

        Why do you hate the working class so much?

        I don’t hate the working class so much. I don’t think it’s hate when you admit that one’s value can change. Further, I don’t pretend to ignore the fact that this will cause some [large] amount of discomfort to some [large] number of people.

        For example, when the automobile was invented, whole industries were made obsolete and hundreds and thousands of workers were unemployed [think buggy horse whip maker].

        My turn to ask you a question:

        Why don’t YOU pay an employee more than they’re worth?

      • Ben Hoffman
        December 15, 2010 at 11:24 PM

        [For example, when the automobile was invented, whole industries were made obsolete and hundreds and thousands of workers were unemployed [think buggy horse whip maker].]

        That’s true, but an entirely new industry was created that more than compensated for the jobs lost. And Henry Ford recognized that a well paid employee is loyal and is able to purchase more with his earnings. He called it the “wage motive.” The best workers from all around wanted to work at his factories.

      • pino
        December 16, 2010 at 11:01 AM

        but an entirely new industry was created

        Exactly. And that’s my point. As certain industries make gains, other industries suffer and fade away. Whatever it was that allowed the work in Baltimore to be done faster, easier or more productive is growing and employing more and more people. The folks in “the factory” who have been making “horse whips” are now out of work.

        The term is “Creative Destruction”.

        I have come to the conclusion that I have less and less a beef with Democrats. Many issues focusing on Social problems have the Democrats in the “Right”. In the end, the R vs the D is more Tribal than anything. Like Carolina vs Duke.

        But Liberals, THEY, I have a problem with. Because it’s the Liberal that wants the corporations to invent and produce the automobile but then turn around, steal their money and demonize them for forcing the whip maker into unemployment.

        more than compensated for the jobs lost.

        Such is the case with industry today. Those companies that outsource commoditized labor grow at faster rate that those companies that don’t. And the growth comes in better and better jobs. Managers, marketers, scientist and engineers. We are moving wor that we teach our kids to study to avoid so that they can get those higher end jobs. You’re myopic to look past the isolated experience of the horse whip maker to see the absolute beauty of the internal combustion engineer.

        Look at the breakdown in the profits from the sale of an iPhone.. While assembled in China, the vast majority of that profit is in America, paid to highly educated employees working wonderfully rewarding jobs taking care of oodles of people.

        The best workers from all around wanted to work at his factories.

        We don’t want our best and brightest working in the assembly line in De’troilet. We want them investing the iPhone, the cure to AIDS and space travel.

      • pino
        December 16, 2010 at 11:14 AM

        Look at the breakdown in the profits from the sale of an iPhone.

        And, as if on cue:

        http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2010/12/iphone-added-2billion-to-trade-deficit.html

      • Ben Hoffman
        December 16, 2010 at 5:49 PM

        [As certain industries make gains, other industries suffer and fade away. Whatever it was that allowed the work in Baltimore to be done faster, easier or more productive is growing and employing more and more people. The folks in “the factory” who have been making “horse whips” are now out of work.]

        The issue was benefits and wages. I don’t think technology had much to do with it. That was just an excuse.

        [Look at the breakdown in the profits from the sale of an iPhone.. While assembled in China, the vast majority of that profit is in America, paid to highly educated employees working wonderfully rewarding jobs taking care of oodles of people.]

        While electronics companies employ a lot of engineers and sales people here, the manufacturing is done overseas where they can pay less than a dollar an hour.

        What would happen if they were penalized for doing that? They wouldn’t hire people here to do that work at $7.50 an hour, or whatever the minimum wage is these days. They would automate the work, which would create more engineering jobs for the automation industry and more semi-skilled factory jobs to build the equipment. And more sales jobs for the equipment. It would also lead to more innovation in an effort to save even more money, which leads to more jobs.

        When they’re able to hire people for dollars a day, there’s no incentive to innovate the manufacturing processes since it’s not going to save them any money.

      • pino
        December 16, 2010 at 10:41 PM

        The issue was benefits and wages. I don’t think technology had much to do with it.

        Of course that had EVERYTHING to do with it.

        I’m much more willing to pay someone lot’s of money to rake my leaves until they invent the leaf blower. Now I’m less willing to pay that guy to rake my leaves.

        Same with the horse whip factory workers in Baltimore.

        What would happen if they were penalized for doing that?

        Now you’re talking my language. Incentives. You want to create an incentive to bring work/jobs to America. You wanna do this by punishing them for moving them overseas.

        What you fail to realize is that you, YOU, have already created the incentives to FORCE them to move jobs overseas….minimum wage, FICA, unemployment insurance and now this ObummerCare.

        I agree with you. If you incent them to bring jobs back, they will. It’s just that you and I disagree on the incentive. YOU wanna make sure the T-Shirt costs more than it should. I, on the other hand, wanna make sure the T-Shirt costs what the market will bare.

        Again, why don’t YOU double your employee’s salary tomorrow? Why are YOU willing to keep all the money YOU make and not share it with your workers?

        Or, another way, why don’t you hire twice as many people at half the wage?

      • Ben Hoffman
        December 16, 2010 at 11:12 PM

        [What you fail to realize is that you, YOU, have already created the incentives to FORCE them to move jobs overseas….minimum wage, FICA, unemployment insurance and now this ObummerCare. ]

        That’s the way a free market works, which is why a free market DOESN’T work.

        If companies are allowed to pay dollars a day, that destroys our country and everything it stands for. You wind up with a plutocracy with the wealthy making all the decisions. You wind up with a withering middle class, which is what we have right now. The only people who got ahead during the past ten years are the wealthy.

        A strong middle class made this country great. It won’t be long before there’s not much left of the middle class and this country will no longer be great.

      • pino
        December 17, 2010 at 9:35 AM

        That’s the way a free market works, which is why a free market DOESN’T work.

        Of course they work, you’re seeing it in action. When you create incentives for companies to purchase labor in China, they will generally trend to buy labor in China. So, when you pass legislation that raises the cost of American labor, you create the incentive to buy that same labor somewhere else.

        Same as a gas station. If Pump and Go offers gas for $.25 more a gallon, you’re prolly not gonna buy gas at Pump and Go.

        So the greater question is “Why do you want to destroy America by incenting companies to hire people in other countries?” If yoiu really REALLY loved America, you would allow companies to pay fair market value for that labor….not some other legislated amount.

        The only people who got ahead during the past ten years are the wealthy.

        This isn’t true. People have more discretionary money than they ever have. Further, companies are compensating employee in other ways besides straight salary. They are getting more days off, more sick days, more training, retirement and other compensation.

        The larger question is this:

        Would you rather live in a poorer world where people’s salaries were not so divergent or would you rather live in a richer world, where even the poor were better off but the rich were vastly more wealthy?

        Me? I’d rather live in the world where everyone was better off. Even if that means that the very wealthy are uber rich. But you are a liberal. And that makes your head spin.

        A strong middle class made this country great. It won’t be long before there’s not much left of the middle class and this country will no longer be great.

        I’ll betcha a can of tennis balls you couldn’t even define what the middle class is.

        Ben, answer my question:

        Why don’t YOU pay your employees double what they make? Or, hire twice the number of workers at the current salary? Or, hire 4 times the workers at half the current salary?

  2. Moe
    December 16, 2010 at 6:54 AM

    Don’t know what your problem is Ben – Christmas has always been the very best time to lay off 300+ people. Gives them more time to be wtih their families – not to mention time to pack – before the foreclosure.

    Reply
  3. Ben Hoffman
    December 17, 2010 at 10:34 AM

    [When you create incentives for companies to purchase labor in China, they will generally trend to buy labor in China.]

    How many times do I need to argue this? If we had tariffs to level the playing field, they’d purchase labor here. With the current system, America loses jobs and China workers are paid slave wages. While we do get cheap products, it makes our country worse off. That’s a question you right-wingers never ask: Is our country better or worse off because of this policy? That’s because, nine times out of ten, when it comes to Republican policies, our country is worse off.

    [Would you rather live in a poorer world where people’s salaries were not so divergent or would you rather live in a richer world, where even the poor were better off but the rich were vastly more wealthy?]

    I’d rather live in a world where there is a healthy, thriving middle class and a balanced budget. Funny how that option is not in there. 🙂

    Reply
    • pino
      December 17, 2010 at 11:33 AM

      If we had tariffs to level the playing field, they’d purchase labor here.

      We wouldn’t need tariffs, or taxes that punish companies for hiring foreign workers if Democrats wouldn’t raise the price of labor.

      Want companies to hire people in America? Abolish the minimum wage.

      I’d rather live in a world where there is a healthy, thriving middle class

      You have no idea what the middle class even is. It’s a mythical “power word” that you use when you got nothin’.

      Reply
      • Ben Hoffman
        December 17, 2010 at 11:58 AM

        [We wouldn’t need tariffs, or taxes that punish companies for hiring foreign workers if Democrats wouldn’t raise the price of labor.]

        That’s true, and we’d have more of the working poor here, which is not good for our country. The minimum wage is currently 7.25 an hour, which, when adjusted for inflation, is less than it was from 1952-1982.

        [You have no idea what the middle class even is. It’s a mythical “power word” that you use when you got nothin’.]

        There you go again, getting all emotional like a typical right-winger. Here’s a good definition of the middle class:

        MIT economist Frank Levy believes that those in the middle class have enough money to afford the basic building blocks of a good life, including a house, a car and money to pay necessary bills. He suggests that families in their prime earning years are middle class if they fall between $30,000 and $90,000.

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