Pennsylvania Company "Coincidentally" Lays Off 365 Workers The Week Before Christmas

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Pennsylvania Company Lays Off 365 Workers The Week Before Christmas

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/15/christmas-layoffs-express-scripts_n_797096.html

Laura Bassett
[email protected] | HuffPost Reporting

First Posted: 12-15-10 01:18 PM | Updated: 12-15-10 03:23 PM



After working at Express Scripts Inc., a pharmacy benefits management firm in Bensalem, Penn., for the past 16 years, 62-year-old Marie Weiss clocked in for the last time this morning.

"Merry Christmas to us," said Weiss, one of 365 workers who lost their jobs when Express Scripts, a third-party administrator of prescription-drug programs, decided to shut down one of its facilities. "I didn't expect this present, but it is what it is."

What upset Weiss the most, she said, was that she was one of the company's first hires at its original plant. In her 16 years there, she said, she helped to build Express Scripts into what it is now, and yet the company never offered her or her longtime colleagues the opportunity to transfer to its newly-built facility when they announced the mass layoffs eight months ago.

"They just said 'you're done.'" she told HuffPost. "The company is being greedy. They want more and more and more. We were the original workers, we made this company what it is, and what will happen to us now?"

An Express Scripts spokesman said the timing of the layoffs was coincidental and that the facility in Bensalem was closed because new technology had made the plant obsolete.

[sabbat hunter]

1. before my company switched plans

I got my meds thru express scripts. Now I get them thru Cigna Pharmacy. I liked Express Scripts better, you could fax over the scripts to get them filled (outside of controlled substances). Now everything has to be mailed. Each time you have to fill out the forms all over again, nothing pre-printed.

Insurance companies are looking for ways to save money, there is a big savings right there, automate the process a bit, speed things up.

[HughBeaumont]

2. But . . . but . . . but . . . tax cuts . . . for the rich . . . no "uncertainty" . . . whuh hoppen?

That crackle is the sound of the credibility of Reaganomics burning in the same fire as America's future.

[Javaman]

3. Wow, a corporate entity that works for the pharma industry being greedy?

I don't think anyone could have expected that!

Oh I wish for a Teddy trust busting Roosevelt.

But alas...

[napi21]

4. I understand a co wanting to grow, and that's fine, but what

I don;t understand is asking to transfer to th =e new facility. they wouldn"t HAVE to offer relocation checks...just offer the opportunity to keep a job this businessl

[old mark]

5. Many companies here in PA have done this for decades. They lay off

older workers who make more money and are coming up on pensions/retirement, and who have more health problems in favor of younger people, preferably those just out of school, who "coincidentall" have fewer health problems, can be paid less, and in turn will get permanently laid off before retirement. I have seen this at Air Products, and at several other places over the years, including the PA State employees under Ed Rendell.

This is one reason so many younger graduates of PA schools leave the state to work - pay is low, companies can do what they want with little recourse for workers.


mark

[spin]

6. Common trick by companies who want to save on holiday pay...

The problem is that the remaining employees have a low opinion of management and don't work as hard. Some good employees decide to leave. The company management has effectively screwed future employee productivity.

A companies most valuable asset is its employees. Today many in management lack have the brain power to realize this. In today's world a college education is no guarantee of intelligence.

[jtuck004]

8. Remember, however, they said there was new technology.,

This might, in mgmt analysis, make up for the productivity.

We (taxpayers) have been underwriting McDonald's "no training" fry and hamburger cooking initiative for years.

They want to be able to pull any one off the street, speak english or not, point them to the kitchen and
tell them to just follow the buttons and timers. Better productivity than with people.

They have made real strides in that...

[spin]

9. Eventually they will be able to use androids...

the productivity will be fantastic.

[jtuck004]

11. That's what I think. Then what? We will have a hundred million

people that need work, and to make a living. What is that future going to look like?

And can it still be capitalism?

[spin]

13. "What is that future going to look like?", is a great question ...

I can't really see any of our current economic systems working.

[AsahinaKimi]

7. This happened to me a few years ago.

We were all in shock. Expecting our bonus checks, we all got pink slips instead. At least the community came to our aide, and people donated gifts and things to get us though the holidays. I had a couple bottles of Champaign and a tin full of cookies.. It was better then nothing.

[mrmpa]

10. If they were union members (I'm assuming they aren't)

The union may have been able to negotiate with management and get some of these people transfer to another plant. Another thing is that in Pennsylvania there is a law that any company that closes an operation and thus lays off employees (I think the number is 50 employees) has to give the employees 30 days notice.

[rucky]

12. There's also the federal WARN Act

FWIW

[Octafish]

14. She answered her own question.

"They just said 'you're done.'" she told HuffPost. "The company is being greedy. They want more and more and more. We were the original workers, we made this company what it is, and what will happen to us now?"

Now that the company is doing well, you and your fellow "human resources" are no longer needed. It's the "new normal."

PS: "Thanks a lot, leave the stapler and turn out the light." -- The Management

[Rex]

15. She finally got a taste of the free market

as in 'you are free to leave now and market your skills to someone else'.