Eric Stevens
On Thu, 20 Mar 2014 18:10:39 -0400, Tony Cooper <tonycooper214@gmail.com>wrote:

Tony Cooper
On Fri, 21 Mar 2014 09:08:09 +1300, Eric Stevens <eric.stevens@sum.co.nz>wrote:

Eric Stevens
On Thu, 20 Mar 2014 08:21:19 -0400, Usenet Account <nospam@invalid.invalid>wrote:

Usenet Account
On 20/03/2014 4:50 AM, Eric Stevens wrote:

Eric Stevens
On Wed, 19 Mar 2014 22:32:54 -0400, Robert Coe <bob@1776.COM>wrote:

Robert Coe
On Thu, 13 Mar 2014 12:31:07 -0400, Usenet Account <nospam@invalid.invalid> wrote: : http://petapixel.com/2014/03/13/calumetphoto-us-declared-bankruptcy-gave-employees-zero-notice/

That's very sad. (I've been pretty busy and hadn't heard about it until now.) Calumet has been very good to CIPNE ("Commercial/Industrial Photographers of New England"), whereof I think I'm still a member. Come to think of it, CIPNE isn't doing too well itself, I'm afraid. Anybody who could spare a few hours a month could probably take over as President, with the heartfelt gratitude of the membership.

But anybody who blames Calumet for screwing its employees should get a grip. That's the way capitalism works, and is intended to work.

Eric Stevens
Rubbish.

Robert Coe
That too is sad, but it's the way it is.

Eric Stevens
But not the way it should be.

Usenet Account
Employees should be considered as secured creditors, and IMHO should have a level of protection.

In an era where we see bank and wall street executives with gold and or palladium parachutes, while the working class gets nothing? There has to be some fairness. Don't give me that it's capitalism.. so sad too bad nonsense.

Eric Stevens
Of course it's not capitalism. It's nonsense to claim that capitalism won't work unless you treat your employees that way.

Tony Cooper
"Capitalism" is too broad a brush to use to describe this. What went down was a strategic move by a company, and we can only guess what determined that strategy. It's probably one of two things:

a. Management refused to recognize the seriousness of the problem until there was nothing else possible except closing the doors, and that was probably forced by creditors. The "strategy", in this case, is "do nothing and hope a miracle happens".

b. Management was trying to find a bail-out solution and didn't want to jeopardize their position by announcing intended closures or lay-offs.

In either case, it was bad strategy.

Realistically, while it may seem unfair, what could have been gained if the employees *did* have notice? Their jobs are gone either way. It's not like they would have been able to put feelers out with other camera stores in the area. They'll be drawing unemployment compensation a little earlier.

Eric Stevens
If the employees had notice, word would have leaked out into the wider community and the business would have ground to a halt in a confused shambles. They would still have been broke but their affairs would have been in just that more of a mess.