Instead of layoffs Zeeland's ODL Inc. will pay 35 workers to work for nonprofits during rest of year

[Dollface]

Source: The Grand Rapids Press

ZEELAND -- Hundreds of ODL Inc. employees cheered when they heard there would be no layoffs during the slow production period in November and December. Instead of being laid off, 35 employees will receive their full salaries while they work at area nonprofit agencies for eight weeks.

...
ODL is at least the second area company to pay employees for doing volunteer work during business lulls. In September, Holland Township-based Fleetwood Group placed 24 workers at Christian service agencies for eight weeks instead of doing layoffs.

ODL is placing employees at City on a Hill Ministries, Lakeshore Habitat for Humanity, Love INC, the Center for Women in Transition, His Harvest Stand, United Way, Pathways MI and the Holland Rescue Mission.




Read more: http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2009/11/instead_of_layoffs_zeelands_od.html

---

Just thought this was an excellent model for a country in time of need. Supporting both their own people and their community.

[notadmblnd]

1. when GM did it, it was called the Jobs Bank

and people bitched about it.

[Robb]

9. +1. nt

[Psephos]

12. A couple of differences...

First, most of the JOBS Bank workers were not out doing community service.

The majority of JOBS Bank workers did make-work or no work. They drew from revenue but did not increase revenue. That does not help a company's competitiveness. It also does nothing good for the psychology or attitudes of workers who collect paychecks for playing cribbage all day. It corrupts company and worker alike.

Second, the JOBS Bank was written into the labor contract. GM did not choose to fund it; it was contractually bound to do so. ODL and Fleetwood did this voluntarily.

The JOBS Bank did not ruin GM, but as a symbol of what was broken between the company and its workers, it's iconic.

That tragedy-of-the-commons mentality and consequent failure of union and employer to see that their fates are intertwined is the same one that has brought the city of Auburn Hills to bankruptcy.

[notadmblnd]

18. I hadn't heard that Auburn Hills was on the verge of Bankruptcy

Funny how I've lived here 35 years and missed that. And.... I do know people that did community service while in the jobs bank. I didn't understand your corruption comment either. How do you get any more corrupt by sitting in an office and playing cribbage for your paycheck or you sit home in front of the TV for 95% percent of it?

[Psephos]

19. Read that in the Oakland Press.

It's not going to happen this year, but liabilities from ill-conceived pension plans now exceed revenue streams needed to meet the obligations. When what you owe exceeds what you have (and have any reasonable chance of getting), that's the definition of bankruptcy. How long can it be staved off?

I dunno. Flint provides a good lesson.

Meanwhile, how long do you think Chrysler will hang on? My guess is, not more than a few years. If Chrysler goes away, the situation gets exponentially worse than it already is.

Here's the link:

http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2009/10/31/news/local_news/doc4aec1b6febe0a963899877.txt

As for the corruption of work ethic by pay-for-nothing...I'm from a GM family. Worked in the plants myself when I was younger. I saw with my own eyeballs what happens when you pay good people money for make-work or no-work. It doesn't increase their sense of allegiance to the enterprise; it has the paradoxical effect of making them cynical and me-centric. It makes them think (rightly, in a way) that they're Screwing The Man.

What struck me repeatedly about the people who worked in the plant when I was there was that many or even most saw everything in terms of them against the management. Fuck the plant, take what you can get, do the least you can to get by. Management seemed to have the same view in the opposite direction. Very few realized that the actual contest was not between workers and managers (how 19th Century that seems), but between GM and competitors in other countries.

It's easy to generate tribal enmity; we're wired to carve up the world into in-groups and out-groups. However, when you spend a lot of your energy hating on or trying to screw those with whom you should be unified, then the Visigoths and Huns invade and slit your throat.

The US auto industry is like someone with an autoimmune disease. It attacked itself. Its competitors focused on best product/efficient production/cost competitiveness instead.

[L0oniX]

2. ah ..Holland ...my home town ...glad I moved out of there. Zeeland is a dry town.

[Wheezy]

3. Mine too.

For the record, I don't think Zeeland is dry anymore. I believe a new law passed just a couple years ago.

[Dollface]

7. I think they did too. In any case, its not that far to a wet county.

[L0oniX]

8. We used to go to Saugatuck to get booze on Sunday ...Holland was dry on Sundays.

[L0oniX]

10. Scary knowing that asscarrot Eric Prince is from our home town.

I remember that place "Prince" which used to make car computers. Whoda thunk such an ass would come from Holland. Hmmm on second though ...there were a lot of asscarrots there ...heheh ...must be a Dutch thing. Glad I left that hole back in 83.

[Faygo Kid]

15. My earliest memory is Holland, a bus trip, 1954 or 1955.

I was three or four. Took a bus from Detroit with Mom and her friend and little boy who is still as good a friend as it gets (Keith) and vaguely remember the Tulip Festival. Definitely before kindergarten. Now I am an old and dangerous SOB who gets more leftist as the years go by.

And I keep the small wooden shoes from that trip on top of my fireplace.

[L0oniX]

16. I had to wear them damned things walking in the tulip time parade.

[morillon]

4. Just bought me a solar door light from them.

And we may buy some energy efficient doors from them, too.

[dballance]

5. Wow. How Wonderful

This is a great example of how corporations should work and contribute to the communities in which they exist. You won't see the billionaires on Wall Street doing this.

[Stumbler]

6. Exactly, I share your sentiments

Personally, I'd prefer they work for non-denominational, non-religious charity organizations, but I really can't argue against the spirit of their actions.

Which makes me think: If doctors have the Hippocratic Oath (first, do no harm), then why can't we hold corporations to a similar standard? When you think about it, both doctors and corporations hold the power of life or death, health or sickness, etc. So why should corporations be held exempt when they flush pollutants into our water systems?

If a doctor spat a wad of phlegm into a surgical cavity, (s)he'd be held responsible for the resulting damages, right? To borrow a phrase from CNN, "I'm just sayin'..."

[Psephos]

13. well said n/t

[earcandle]

11. How cool is that?

[Faygo Kid]

14. Good folks in western Michigan. Conservative in a Gerald Ford way, but that's cool.

Gerald Ford was a decent human being, despite the Nixon pardon. I sincerely think he did what he thought was best. Guarantee you this, though: He would be drawn and quartered in today's GOP for trying to work with those on the other side of the aisle.

Go ahead and rip, but your energy is wasted on an historical figure. Whom I like, dammit. That won't change.

[amandabeech]

17. For a Republican, Gerry was A-OK. You're right that he'd be kicked to the curb by the DeVos types.

He was far too reasonable.

I'm not much for the Dutch ultra religious types, but this company is doing the Christian thing and showing a good example. I hope that this story gets picked up by the national media.